Photo by Weber Ivy, taken in our neighborhood Dear friends and fellow saints, This morning I am writing under dappled sunlight and falling leaves in my backyard; haven’t we had the most glorious fall?! Every year I marvel that God chose to make this season of dying and dormancy so beautiful. These dried leaves will nourish and protect the soil all winter, and next spring, we’ll get another kind of beauty — tender green shoots, budding flowers, flitting pollinators, new life b

Every year on the second Sunday of Advent, our bishop visits Incarnation. One of the most powerful moments of this annual visit is confirmation, when the bishop places his hands on a person's head and prays for the filling of the Holy Spirit. But what is confirmation? Perhaps my favorite description of confirmation is "the ordination of the layperson." In confirmation, the bishop lays hands on a person and prays for the strengthening of the Holy Spirit for a life of service t

Katie Foran snapped this photo of our vestry in prayer several months ago On Sunday, October 25, we held our twice-annual parish meeting. Below is a summary of what was discussed: Vestry Election We elected Webb McArthur, Tami Ritsema, and Grant Sung to join our vestry in January 2027 (bios here). They will join Katie Foran, Emma Wen, and Andy Lau. Outgoing and oh-so-beloved vestry member Buz Schultz shared a brief and moving testimony of his time serving on the vestry. Pleas

Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs, Fra Angelico, c. 1423 There’s a priest in our diocese who begins his weekly letters to his congregation, “To my favorite people.” I love that, and it came to mind as I started today’s letter. So . . . To my favorite people, This Sunday is All Saints Day. We will sing songs and hear scriptures that remind us of both the earthy, everyday sainthood to which Jesus calls us, and of the cosmic, mystical communion of saints to which we

Image courtesy of William Foley, Unsplash Dear friends, On Sunday, I drove my daughter back to college and enjoyed a long car conversation with this wise and thoughtful companion. We talked about public executions and failed lethal injections, wars and rumors of wars, algorithms and artificial intelligence, formative works of art, the meaning of life, and the precarity of the future for a young person on the threshold of adulthood. You know, small talk. :) In response to that

Dear Incarnation, Incarnation will elect its 2027 vestry members at our October Parish Meeting. We have 3 open seats (rather than the usual 2) to replace outgoing vestry members Will Montague, Buz Schultz, and Elena Benning; Elena is stepping down one year early due to her involvement in Holy Comforter. For this reason, one of the elected new members will only serve for one year to complete Elena's term. Because there are 3 candidates for 3 seats, this year's vestry election

Fall retreat camping Dear friends, I loved being on retreat with so many of you, and I missed being with those who couldn’t make it. I hope that wherever you found yourself last weekend, you experienced God’s goodness. At the retreat, we focused on the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 (we’ll also focus on this story in our small groups this week). In that story, Jesus is trying to get away to a quiet place to pray alone and grieve the death of his friend John. But the crowds f

Incarnation's Ukuladies & Friends (feat. Bruce) perform at the talent show Dear friends, Last Saturday was the annual L’Arche talent show, an event that always reminds me of a simple truth of being human: we need each other, and we aren’t made to go it alone. That’s also a truth at the heart of how we view membership at Incarnation. In fact, our membership process and philosophy were amended early in our church’s life when Bruce, a L’Arche core member with intellectual disabi