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1st Sunday in Lent, Year A - Feb 22, 2026 Rev Sarah Colvin You can find this week's readings here . I have a self-help book from the 90s called the Pain of Being Human. It could be retitled as the Sin of Being Human because it addresses little sins or transgressions that we all face- injured pride, lack of belonging, excluding others, self-pity, etc. If we subtitled biblical texts, we could go back and subtitle this passage of Genesis as the Sin of Being Human. However, rather than each little transgression like my self-help book, it instead gets to the root, the descriptive state and fact of sin. We have in Genesis the story of how sin comes into the world. These stories of the patriarchs are often referred to as myths, which does not make them un-true. What I mean by that is there can be truth in something and it is not necessarily factual. There is an anthropomorphism of God wandering around the garden, and more importantly a talking snake. Not to say miracles can’t happen, but more to the point, the core truth of the story is about how human will, curiosity and self-justification gets humans in trouble with God. It is from this story that Augustine gets the concept of “the fall” and “original sin.” Augustine gives his theological explanation of how God did not make something sinful but created a state that it was possible to sin. The Gospel represents another mythic passage. Here I want to be very careful that you understand what I mean by myth. The first definition in Merriam Webster for myth is a usually traditional story of ostensibly (or plainly viewed) historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. So, I am NOT saying the Gospel is false, au contraire (which is another definition of myth), but I am saying the story is a traditional story that helps to show us who Jesus is. For most, if not all of us, this passage is not new. We have read it before. And in proverbial 20:20 hindsight we already knowing who Jesus is, we are not surprised at all that Jesus did not succumb to temptation by the devil, the tester, the tempter. It is one of those passages that helps us know who Jesus is. and yet, it is much like the reading from Genesis in that there were no witnesses.. this is a mythic story. Again, no less true, but we believe this story because of our faith and that it fits with who we know Jesus to be. Generally, an individual is never going to face the kind of temptation illustrated in the Gospel, but in many ways an organization can and it is with heavy irony that often it is the very church that faces the challenge of these temptations. All of the temptations presented to Jesus by the Devil are temptations of power. They are all affronts to God. The first temptation that the church falls to is to attempt the miraculous. It is when we try to give easy answers, sometimes in the name of growth, it is the preaching of the Easter without the Good Friday. It is the already without the not yet. We want to be in charge and welcoming with feel good messages, rather than life is hard messages. Life is both--- life is both. The second temptation that the church falls to is one of glamour. The temptation Christ faced was an attempt to test God’s love, to save Him as if God were a superhero. (Throw yourself down and God will save you.) We too want to be superheroes or heroines. I have learned over the course of time this axiom: “You have to watch out for those priests who actually WANT to become bishop.” It’s similar to how television or blogger pastors get wealthier and wealthier. These are examples of individuals pursuing the power of stardom. The church itself can do this; we really have to look at what is the purpose of the church? Is it to make disciples or to achieve something? Members? money? budget? Will God let us fail? Are our purposes even aligned with God’s purposes? We have to ask the questions. The third way the church falls is in a quest for political power. We must be ever mindful when we are too cozy with politics. Which is not to say that the church does not have a role being political. I saw a great meme- “If the church is not political then it does not serve the marginalized; if the church is partisan, it serves the empire.” Which is to say, the church cannot look for power in politics but must make its voice heard. It is in Corinthians that Paul likens the church to the body of Christ, each of us having gifts, like different body parts but together we make one body. Sometimes the church looks in a fun-house mirror, and things are not as they should be. I believe this happens when we make God in our image rather than allow us to be in God’s image. What does this to do with All Saints Sharon Chapel? The world has changed a lot since the founding of this church. The world has changed since the heyday of US church attendance in the 1950s. We will not remake that. But let us be clear that the purpose of the church is to bring people to Christ, to make disciples. I don’t need to remind people that since the founding of this church before the civil war, there is a lot of societal change. There have been and remain a lot of national tensions and ethnic/ racial tensions. All these tensions mix together to create a very different America and world than when the church was founded, but a church both then and now, always in need of healing power of the Triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Yet, the mission of the church, more accurately, God’s mission for God’s disciples, all wrapped in our baptismal vows, does not change. We don’t get to pick and choose. If we never again have a full church here at All Saints, it will be okay, but regardless, let us be real authentic Christians. Let us care, let us do the right thing in the world, let us be disciples. So instead of looking for an easy miracle, or the glamorous role in society or the right political position, we can keep it simple: we must stay with the crucified, the marginalized, and still have joy. We don’t get one without the other. We need humility and to pray for God’s vision, and we must do the work that God has given us to do in the world as Christians. Paul’s letter to the Romans has the theme of the second Adam, who is Christ, making everything right… Although Adam was responsible for bringing sin into the world, Christ’s act of righteousness sets things right…. The early church figures, such as Iraneus, focused heavily on this… that in Jesus, God redoes humanity into what it was meant to be. What was broken in Adam is redeemed and recreated in Christ. And so eschatologically (at the end times) creation attains its destiny. We live in the already and not yet, we are still broken and yet we are redeemed and recreated. This is where the church writ large, and where All Saints has space to be: still broken and yet working in God’s act of redemption and recreation. IMAGE ATTRIBUTION: Bruegel, Jan, 1568-1625. Mountain Landscape with the Temptation of Christ, from Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57314 [retrieved February 25, 2026]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jan_Brueghel_(I)_-_Mountain_Landscape_with_the_Temptation_of_Christ.jpg .

We will have two Ash Wednesday services on February 18 at 12:00 PM and 7:00 PM . We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance and our need for the love and forgiveness shown to us in Jesus Christ. We invite you, therefore, in the name of Christ, to observe the beginning of a Holy Lent, by self-examination, by prayer and fasting, by practicing works of love, and by reading and reflecting on God's Holy Word. We look forward to you joining our journey this season to spiritual renewal. For more about Lent at All Saints, please go to: sharonchapel.org/lent IMAGE ATTRIBUTION: Moyers, Mike. Ash, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57140 [retrieved February 12, 2026]. Original source: Mike Moyers, https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/.

As we process the heavy news reaching us from Minneapolis and across the country, we are reminded that our call to follow Jesus often involves risk. Our faith is not practiced in a vacuum, but on the streets where justice and mercy are most needed. The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia are calling us to transition from "watching with concern" to active witness. Please read the following statements from Bishop Stevenson and Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe regarding the events in Minneapolis. We have also included specific ways you can advocate, mobilize, and give to support our siblings in Minnesota and immigrant communities facing fear today. Standing in Solidarity with Our Siblings in Minnesota Dear Friends in Christ, In solidarity with our siblings in Minnesota, the Diocese of Virginia stands firm in our shared call to love Jesus, embody justice, and be disciples. Read  Bishop Loya’s Response to Events in Minneapolis January 2026 Read  Presiding Bishop Rowe’s Statement: Death and Despair Do Not Have the Last Word As a Diocese we are committed to racial justice and the dignity of every human being. We refuse to let the light of our hope be shadowed by despair. We follow a Savior who was himself a migrant and who commands us to care for the “least of these.” How you can act: Advocate: Urge your senators to reject further ICE funding and call for de-escalation. Mobilize: Support  Migration with Dignity Sunday , and local peaceful demonstrations to protect our democracy. Give: Support the Diocese of Minnesota’s “subversive love” through  donations to Casa Maria . I will be releasing additional personal reflections soon. In this moment of reckoning, let us love. Faithfully yours, The Rt. Rev’d E. Mark Stevenson From Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe: Death and despair do not have the last word Dear people of God in The Episcopal Church: Like Jesus, we live in frightening times. His earthly ministry began, as we heard in today’s Gospel reading, when John the Baptist was imprisoned by authorities who wanted to silence his preaching and prophesying. Jesus knew what happens when earthly powers persuade human beings to fear one another, regard one another as strangers, and believe that there is not enough to go around. In Jesus’ time, the power of these divisions motivated John’s beheading and Jesus’ own death on the cross at the hands of Roman authorities.  In our time, the deadly power of those divisions is on display on the streets of Minneapolis, in other places across the United States, and in other countries around the world. As has too often been the case throughout history, the most vulnerable among us are bearing the burden, shouldering the greatest share of risk and loss, and enduring the violation of their very humanity. But we do not grieve without hope. The Christian story is full of people who lived in frightening and brutal times, and who followed Jesus’ call that we heard in church today . His proclamation turns us away from the fear born of sin and death and toward the kingdom of God, toward Christ’s ministry of justice, reconciliation, and love. “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view,” the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians 5:16), exhorting them to reject the divisions of their time in favor of being ambassadors for Christ. This is God’s call to The Episcopal Church now, and it is not an easy one. In the United States, we no longer live in a time when we can expect to practice our faith without risk, and we are confronting what vulnerable communities of faith have experienced for generations. Our right to worship freely as one church, committed to the dignity of every human being, has been curtailed by the fear that too many immigrant Christians face when they leave their homes. Peaceful protests, a right long enshrined in the Constitution, are now made deadly. Carrying out the simple commands of Jesus—feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, visiting prisoners, making peace—now involves risks for the church and grave danger for those we serve. As Christians, we must acknowledge that this chaos and division is not of God, and we must commit ourselves to paying whatever price our witness requires of us.  In the coming years, our church will continue to be tested in every conceivable way as we insist that death and despair do not have the last word, and as we stand with immigrants and the most vulnerable among us who reside at the heart of God. We will be required to hold fast to God’s promise to make all things new, because our call to follow God’s law surpasses any earthly power or principality that might seek to silence our witness. To those of you who are in the center of the storm, please know that I am praying for you as you embody the love of Christ in your ministries and communities. To those of you who are watching with concern and fear, I ask you to pray for those who have died in protests and detention, for those who witnessed their deaths, and for everyone who bears authority and responsibility in this moment, that they may exercise wisdom, restraint, and courage. Pray too, especially in the days to come, for the witness of our church in these times and for a hedge of protection around all the beloved children of God who live in fear this day. The Most Rev. Sean Rowe Presiding Bishop The Episcopal Church IMAGE ATTRIBUTION: Duccio, di Buoninsegna, -1319?. Christ Calling the Apostles Peter and Andrew, from Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=49261 [retrieved January 27, 2026]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duccio_di_Buoninsegna_036.jpg .

All services and activities for tomorrow, Sunday, January 25, are CANCELLED. Given the severe forecast for this weekend, the Vestry has determined it is not safe to gather in person. Please stay safe and stay home. While we won't be in the pews, we recommend family devotions and LOTS of sledding! We would love to see how you are spending your snow day. Please send photos of your winter fun to Jessica at jgap.dennis@gmail.com or post them on our Facebook page: ASSC Facebook Page Stay warm, Your Vestry

Epiphany is one of the seven principal Feast Days of the church (along with Easter, Ascension Day, Day of Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, All Saints' Day and Christmas). Most of these days fall on a Sunday. We can transfer All Saints day. Ascension Day is always on a Thursday and it is only Epiphany that is at the whim of the calendar and also not a national holiday that people have "off" from work. What I find this means is that rarely can you get people to come to church for an Epiphany service... therefore, I have embraced home blessings. Since the time of the Middle Ages, it has been a tradition that on the Feast of the Epiphany, we pray for God's blessing on our dwelling places, marking the entrance to our homes with chalk. Chalk is used as a tangible reminder of the dust of the earth from which we are all made. We mark the main door of our home with the initials of the magi and the numerals of the new year. The initials remind us of the (purported, from later tradition) names of the magi—Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar—-and also stand for the Latin motto: Christus mansionem bendedicat, "May Christ bless this house." We connect the initials and the numerals with crosses at a sign that we have invited God's presence and blessing into our homes. Please send an email to me (Sarah) if you are going to be home on Epiphany, January 6th and would like your house blessed (rector@sharonchapel.org); please also send your address and preferred time. I will try to accommodate requests and do as many as feasible. If you won't be home, and would like chalk, we can send you home with blessed chalk for you to bless your own home.

We are delighted to welcome Bishop Mark Bourlakas , Assisting Bishop for Northern Virginia, who will visit us on Sunday, November 23rd . We will celebrate with a single service at 10:30 a.m. , followed by a special reception to honor the Bishop, our confirmand, and their families. 🍽️ Potluck Request: Bring a Dish to Share Please consider bringing a dish to share for the reception! To ensure a smooth reception, please observe the following guidelines: Ready-to-Serve:  All food must arrive ready to be placed directly on the serving table. Please bring your dish on its own serving platter or bowl . Take It Home:  Please be prepared to take home your serving dish and any remaining leftovers immediately after the reception. We cannot store leftovers in the church refrigerator or freezer, as the kitchen must be cleared for upcoming events. Suggested Potluck Dishes Here are some ideas for hand-held and easy-to-serve options: Hand-Held Savory Tea Sandwiches or sliders Quiche bites or mini frittatas Pinwheels or wraps Meatballs (served warm or cold) Savory Scones or muffins Sides & Dips Deviled Eggs Salads (pasta, potato, green) Cheese & Cracker platter Veggies & Dip (hummus, salsa) Chips and Dips Sweets Cake Cookies Brownies or blondies (cut small) Lemon bars  🤝 Set-Up Crew Needed! We need world-class volunteers to help with pre-service set-up! Please join us at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 23rd , to lay out tablecloths, plates, cups, and utensils. The tables will be staged in advance, so your help will be critical in making the reception area warm and welcoming before the food arrives. Thank you in advance for making this celebration special and supporting the newest confirmed members of our church! If you would like to contribute food or help set-up, please fill out the Sign Up Genius form here: Volunteer Sign-Up

From the moment we wake up, we are bombarded with messages to perform. Be more productive. Be more informed. Be more mindful. Be your best self. Our culture puts an incredible burden on us as individuals to fix ourselves and, somehow, to fix the world. It’s a lonely and exhausting way to live. We feel the full weight of the world’s problems on our shoulders, and can’t help but be overwhelmed by the knowledge that our individual strength is never quite enough. What if the way forward is found not in perfecting what we have in isolation, but in offering it to be multiplied within a community called to love, serve, and help heal a broken world? A Community That is Transformative At All Saints Sharon Chapel, we believe the deepest form of community is transformative. It’s a place where we move from being a collection of disconnected individuals into a single, unified Body . This transformation is at the heart of our worship. We listen to our shared story in the Scriptures. We pray for a broken world. And most profoundly, we gather at the Eucharistic table. It is here that we are reminded of our truest identity. When we receive the Body of Christ in the form of bread and wine, we hear the ancient call to " become what we receive ." Our "Amen" is our commitment to that call—a promise to live as the Body of Christ, participating in the healing and redemption of the world. From Belonging Flows Our Strength We stop being isolated individuals and start belonging to each other in a new way. And from that deep sense of real connection flows our collective strength. This is where the miracle of the loaves and fishes becomes our story. We often feel like we have so little to offer against the world’s great needs—just a few loaves, a couple of fish. But we bring these small gifts of our time, our energy, and our passion to the altar. And here, our humble offerings are taken, blessed, broken, and shared, becoming more than enough to feed the community and do the work we are called to do. This is how our belonging becomes action: It leads us to the work of reparations , not because we have all the answers, but because the Spirit calls us to offer what we have to this work. So we are helping to found the Northern Virginia AAHGS chapter , leveraging our collective energy to restore the stories of those whose histories were intentionally erased. It calls us to be stewards of the very land we inhabit, recognizing its complicated past. Our ministry of stewardship extends across all 4.5 acres of this wooded, biodiverse ecosystem, including our historic Sharon Chapel cemetery and memorial ash garden. So we offer the full measure of our gifts to this work: the talent that secured a grant for restoring native plants; the time and energy of our community in hands-on care for the grounds; and the treasure that sustains this commitment for the future. Through these gifts, we leverage our small patch of earth to be a place of healing, remembrance, and renewal for all of creation. It moves us to nurture the spiritual lives of our children in a loud, distracting world. So we offer our dedication to our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program , collectively creating and maintaining a sacred, quiet space for the children of our parish. And like the loaves and fishes, this offering has been multiplied. What began years ago with the seed of a diocesan Mustard Seed Grant has since grown into a recognized training center, a place where we can share this beautiful way of nurturing faith with the wider church. An Invitation to the Work We are not a community that has it all figured out. We are a community committed to the messy, faithful work of showing up, listening for the Spirit, and acting together. If you are tired of feeling small and disconnected in a big world, we don't offer easy answers. We offer a place to belong, a community to practice with, and meaningful work to do. Come find your place with us, and let's discover what the Spirit is calling us to do next, together. Join us for worship this Sunday at 8:00 or 10:30 AM. The work is ready, and there’s a place in it for you.

16th Sunday after Pentecost - Sept 28, 2025 Rev Sarah Colvin You can find this week's readings here . “Live simply so that others may simply live.” is a quote by Mahatma Gandhi.   This phrase is probably as a good place to start as any for this sermon. The last two weeks our readings, particularly our passages from the Gospel of Luke, have had a lot to say about money. Many clergy are uncomfortable talking about money, maybe especially in a sermon, which is kind of funny given how often it comes up in scripture. Given what Jesus talked about routinely, day in day out, and what he makes no mention of, it sometimes seems as if some Christians in our day and age have read a different Gospel. Jesus really, really cares about wealth and who has it and who doesn’t, and what effect it has on the haves and the have nots.  And so, we begin our stewardship season today, this is officially a stewardship sermon.  This story in the Gospel is directed to the Pharisees.  As was popular at the time, and is still popular but now called a Prosperity Gospel, there is a belief that God grants good things for those who behave well. If one is suffering, then that is God’s punishment.   Evidently at the time, the Pharisees were known to read scripture this way, a manner based largely on passages in Deuteronomy. For them, these passages could justify their actions.  In fact, it is possible to defend the rich man’s actions in the Gospel by saying that if someone interfered by helping Lazarus, that person would be interfering with God’s punishment.  Yet, as a caution in response to this, when we read scripture always remember that Jesus points us to God. So, if you find conflicting ways to read scripture, Jesus tells us in not so many words that it is probably always best to choose the way that is the most loving and the most gracious. This is not something that the Pharisees wanted to hear, that the rich man in this story and therefore they should listen to Moses and the prophets, that Moses and the prophets say to be a giving and compassionate person. We all know that being convicted, or basically being told you wrong, never feels good.  So, there is a rich man and there is a poor man. The rich man doesn’t get a name in the story, which is usually not a good sign. The poor man is named Lazarus, which the audience of Jesus’s time would recognize as the Greek permutation or almost nickname based on Eleazar, or “God help him.”  The rich man is living the good life—the decadent cocktails on the beach while watching the sunsets, or whatever you most think is decadent. Lazarus is experiencing extreme suffering. The rich man does not SEE Lazarus. It is as if he is invisible. He does not truly hear the teachings of Moses and the prophets just as he does not see Lazarus.  He does not see over the chasm in life that he has constructed for his eyes.  We could talk almost endlessly about which people we choose not to see, but because the lessons all have to do with how we handle our fortune, let’s for now focus on not seeing poor people, not seeing those in need. (Or worse yet, seeing them as those who should be exterminated as the Fox News host did a couple of weeks ago.)  Death is, of course, the great equalizer, and so for a moment in the story, they are both dead. Then Lazarus gets whisked away to comfort. The rich man is sent to be tormented. In his suffering, the rich man can actually SEE Lazarus and then he calls out to Abraham as his ancestor, showing he HAS actually seen Lazarus in life and knows his name, asking for Lazarus to be allowed to come help him, to cool his lips with some water. Abraham explains that in death, there is a fixed chasm.  The rich man, then resigns to his fate, but wishes to warn his brothers, which are people that he was responsible for after his father’s death. He suggests that Lazarus go back and make a beyond the grave appearance to warn his brothers. Abraham explains that the brothers have Moses and the prophets and that people would not believe an after-death appearance.  This little phrase functions as a conviction or statement against those who do not believe in Jesus’s resurrection appearances. Paul’s first letter to Timothy warns about the dangers of being rich, that inherent to being wealthy is a real danger that one will put one’s wealth before God. Rather than pursue wealth, we are taught to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.”  There is also a command for the rich…that “they are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.” How can he say this with such assuredness?  And what is this good foundation? Well, he’s not offering an ad for a financial institution, although it sounds like it. Rather, he knows that when you are claimed by God, this is foundation for the future. God has claimed you. If you are baptized, God has claimed you. If you wandered into a church, once or many, many times, God has claimed you. And God’s claim on you involves relationship.  I am quite sure that like all parishes, within this parish there is a range of incomes- whether the incomes are earned, inherited, invested or other. And yet, with the world becoming more and more connected and thus smaller and smaller, this has the effect of putting us in our place and we are convicted. No matter how you look at it, even the poorest person in the United States is wealthy compared to the rest of the world. We are convicted. It’s probably worth asking yourself every now and then, what you believe and why. I’m not about to give everyone a litmus test, to see if what you believe is orthodox. You may have heard that Mother, now Saint, Theresa did all of her selfless work in the world reportedly only once being sure that there was God. What I ask from you is if you profess or say you believe that Christ actually matters in your life, then I challenge you to ask yourself: how do I live, and how do I give, as if Christ matters?  We profess to be Christians, we profess every Sunday that  “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”  `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will [we] be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’" Wow, we say we believe that Christ rose from the dead…and so I suspect then we are all convicted.  I believe that we are all convicted by the Bible stories and left to feel we are kind of missing the mark when it comes to where God feels we should be in terms of taking care of those who do not have enough.  It follows that we have every reason to give more than what we have given. There are some who will be motivated to give out of fear that they will end up like the rich man in Hades.  However, I would put to you that we live in a relative abundance, and for all this abundance, there is nothing that we formed for ourselves. We are dependent on God for all.  And so instead take a look at why you give what you give.  If by chance, guilt inspires you to give, well, I guess by all means give. If fear of retribution in the afterlife inspires you to give, well, by all means give. I mean the process of giving is important no matter what the reason is behind the giving. Yet, there is a better way and it is what I hope for you. it is a desire of mine that as priest and shepherd of this flock, that you grow in your faith, as I try and grow in mine. And neither of these reasons (guilt or fear) is one that will help any of us grow in faith.  But to have abundant life, that  is a motivation to give, and to work out of that motivation is to grow in faith.  As we enter stewardship season, “live simply so that others may simply live.”  As Paul says in his letter to Timothy, “for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.” So, look at your gifts that you have been given and be grateful. Don’t give to avoid guilt, don’t give to make yourself feel good, but give to those in need out of the gratefulness that the treasures that God has given you.  Give to God from what you don’t need, for we are all rich indeed… and therefore “live simply so that others may simply live.” IMAGE ATTRIBUTION: Schäufelein, Hans, approximately 1480-approximately 1539. Rich Man in Hell and the Poor Lazarus in Abraham's Lap, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57073 [retrieved October 8, 2025]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Rich_Man_in_Hell_and_the_Poor_Lazarus_in_Abraham%27s_Lap,_from_Das_Plenarium_MET_DP849940.jpg.

All Saints Sharon Chapel has used Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) for our children’s faith formation program since 2001. Many of our parishioners have become fully-trained catechists and our church includes many of the program’s alumni. We welcome anyone who has an interest to tour our atrium and ask questions. We are delighted with our atrium and enjoy sharing it . We have a rolling registration, and accept children into our program throughout the year. For more information, please contact Davette Himes cgs@sharonchapel.org . CGS is child-centered & utilizes Montessori best practices. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd as implemented at All Saints Montessori atrium is intentional, deep formation for children as well as for the adults who accompany them in a joyful journey of nurture as the children grow in their relationship to Jesus. Rooted in the bible and liturgy, our CGS at All Saints Sharon Chapel opened in 2001, established through an evangelism and outreach Mustard Seed Grant from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia serving families throughout Northern Virginia and the DMV region, both nationally and internationally through our hybrid atrium program and CGS training. We have served hundreds of children and adults over the years. CGS is relational. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is relational and centered on growing their relationship with Jesus. The Montessori atrium is a place for the “serene enjoyment of God.” The environment of the atrium nurtures prayer and is attentive to the child’s individual relationship with God and where the religious values of childhood predominate. It is a place for both the head and the heart; a place of “heart’s knowledge” of God. Trained Atrium guides are essential to CGS. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd supports the needs of children with adults trained in Montessori pedagogy and best practices and learnings from neuroscience. Atrium guides who lead the children complete 90-hours of training for each level. The atrium guides ensure the environment is hands-on, and child led, supporting multiple learning styles, differently abled and neurodiverse children. Presentations are primarily small groups or for individuals and are tracked through recordkeeping throughout the atrium life of the child. Children may be admitted to the atrium on a rolling basis and may enter the program at any time. Orientation and tours are offered year-round. CGS is developmentally appropriate. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is developmentally appropriate, using a Montessori approach to serve families with young toddlers and elementary children through age 12. CGS seeks to build Beloved Community and to lead in the Way of Love. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd seeks to build Beloved Community and to lead in The Way of Love. The atrium is culturally responsive and shares many pathways for children to explore the Unity of the God’s Kingdom and to honor the dignity of every human being and to love God and our neighbors. All are welcome. Want to learn more? Read here for more history about Catechesis of the Good Shepherd .

17th Sunday after Pentecost - Oct 5, 2025 Rev Sarah Colvin You can find this week's readings here . Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy.  Amen. During this past week our Jewish brethren observed Yom Kippur, their day of atonement.  I remember a Jewish friend explaining that it is their very big day for confession.  Of course, our ritual practices are to confess our sins weekly, but perhaps if you save your sins up all year, when you lay them before God at Yom Kippur, it is a very meaningful release.   We share a good chunk of our scriptures with our Jewish brethren. If you hold up a Bible (reverently), it is quite the visual to remind ourselves how much is the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament and how much is the New Testament.    We do well to remember that we share the Hebrew Scriptures, particularly as we linger over them.  We have moved from reading passages of Jeremiah to passages of Lamentations. Fair warning: it may be that it is not a particular good idea to read the small book of Lamentations if you are looking for a word of biblical lift. The book is a genuine downer; it is an ode to shock, horror, and disquieting despair. There is little wonder that the book has long been connected to Jeremiah, although there is no evidence that Jeremiah wrote Lamentations, but it could  have been composed by that dark prophet who witnessed the end of Judah, the destruction of the temple and the king’s palace at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar's thugs, and the exile of the final Davidic king, Zedekiah, after the murder of his heirs. Jeremiah must have felt pretty dejected after forty years of a ministry that announced doom and destruction, all of which came horribly true. Of course, these images are familiar to us in the 21 st  century; we have visuals from the news with similar scenes, sometimes from faraway lands of war and exile and terror, and sometimes closer to home. As we read Lamentations, we see a struggling people clinging to hope in God amidst pain and death that could consume them and consume their faith. It is a wonder how one can maintain faith in the hope and promise of God when confronted with the genuine awfulness of what we humans can and have done to one another.  And we don’t have to go far in our imaginations to think of more recent occurrences.  There are, of course, the horrors of the Shoah---the death camps of Hitler.  I promise myself to not always perseverate over what we could term today’s versions, but we have said “never again” and yet, we have Christian nationalists with their masked ICE agents kidnapping people off the streets and disappearing them.  One can imagine that some who were there in Jerusalem during those days, might have felt that the old beliefs were no longer possible. Maybe some days we do too. The memorable book of Lamentations could urge a preacher to get real about the dangers and difficulties of faith in a world gone mad. When the promises of God are all gone in a rush of Babylonian blood lust, faith may become compromised and difficult and questioned. When the anticipations of ease and comfort and success are snatched away in economic chaos, terroristic plots, and personal health challenges, faith may become compromised and difficult and questioned.  But other than into a rather mire of dismay, where does this lead us?   Lamentations remind us: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. We know that this is not easy to hold to when life gets dark.  It was not easy for those in Jerusalem thousands of years ago, it was near impossible for the Jews persecuted at the hands of the Nazis. But here is the paradox: in the times when this faithfulness is hard to hold is exactly the times when it is most crucial to hold it; and most life-giving to do so.  Perhaps the Gospel will help here.  Let’s first go over the basics of this passage and clear up any issues:  The “faith like a mustard seed” parable is shared by Luke and Matthew gospels: the versions differ in form and purpose. Both are directed to the inner circle. In Matthew, Jesus slightly scolds his followers when they can’t do what he can. In Luke, however, the apostles just ask for more faith and Jesus implies that the faith they already have— even if it is tiny— is enough to do everything that they want to achieve. The reference is to a great mulberry tree (in Matthew, it’s a mountain) being uprooted and moved. This is hyperbole with one plant image humorously juxtaposed with another to make the point that even a little faith can do a lot.  And then Jesus teaches the apostles that the fulfillment of the responsibilities that come with leadership are not a reward system, but a kind of service. And this service is just WHAT WE DO. the service does not create any kind of obligation on God’s part. God does not owe us anything.   Succinctly then the point of the passage then is for us to make use of what little faith to perform great things—faith is not sought as a badge or some sort of power.   And why does it matter, where is there hope in this?  So, I will let you in on a little thing about me, if not a secret, it is something I don’t routinely broadcast this.    In a world where many like to say, “I’m spiritual but not religious.”   I like to say that I am “religious, not spiritual.”  I don’t say this to be cute, and I say this phrase with my tongue firmly implanted in my cheek, because of course, I have spiritual moments, as do we all.  However, having spiritual moments involves a “feeling”, so what I mean by this is that I continue to be religious even when I don’t FEEL spiritual.  There are always moments that are dry.  How does this help me and how could this help you? There are times when we may feel abandoned by God, there are times when we may feel we don’t have enough faith, there are times when we may feel like we are in a competition, there are times when we don’t know why we come to church, there are times when some may feel we are trying to get credit so that we can “make it into heaven.”  The truth of it is, we show up in God’s mission for the world because God calls us to; because God’s love and mercy never cease; God calls us and if we have even the smallest of faith, even the smallest of faith is enough.  It is enough to answer to show up. And we show up, answering God’s call, and God is there. In the times when this faithfulness is hard to hold is exactly the times when it is most crucial to hold it; and most life-giving to do so.  The Lord is good to those who wait for him,to the soul that seeks him. We show up at church to get refueled for the ministry. We will fail to be worthy, but we don’t follow Jesus to be worthy; God makes us worthy so that we can follow Jesus.  It is Jesus who makes that bridge of redemption for us, with just the smallest of faith.  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;great is your faithfulness. Join me and sing LEVAS 189, verse one and the chorus.  IMAGE ATTRIBUTION: Hochhalter, Cara B.. A Parable - The Mustard Seed, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59282 [retrieved October 8, 2025]. Original source: Cara B. Hochhalter.

At All Saints Sharon Chapel, our faith involves action. We believe racial reconciliation isn't just a topic for a committee, but a core spiritual practice of repair. It calls us to ask: What does it mean to uncover the truth of our past, and how can we actively help restore what has been broken?   Our journey into racial reconciliation began with the hard work of confronting our own history. Now, we are excited to take the next step from truth-telling to active restoration. For us, one of the most powerful answers to that question lies in the work of reparative genealogy . Confronting the "1870 Brick Wall" For many Americans, tracing a family tree is a straightforward hobby. But for millions of African Americans, the search often hits a "brick wall" at the 1870 census . This was the first federal census to list formerly enslaved individuals by name. Before that date, people were most often recorded as property, without names, ages, or family connections, making it incredibly difficult to piece together a lineage. This isn't just a gap in records; it's the result of a system that intentionally erased family histories. The work of restoring those connections—of finding and speaking the names of those who were silenced—is a profound act of justice. It is the work of making people whole. Our Next Step: A Two-Pronged Approach to Restoration That's why we are thrilled and humbled to announce our next step in this essential work. We are deepening our commitment to reparations through a powerful, two-pronged approach that combines national expertise with local, relational healing. First, to build regional capacity for historical recovery,  All Saints Sharon Chapel is helping to found the Northern Virginia Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) . As one of the premier national organizations dedicated to preserving African-ancestored family history , this new chapter will create a hub for our entire region, providing the scholarly resources and network to help in this vital work of restoration. A working group from our parish will be actively involved in this effort to uncover African-ancestored family histories. We especially invite those with experience in non profit governance as we form this inaugural chapter’s working groups. We will meet Sunday, October 26 at 1PM  in person and via Zoom. Second, to create a space for healing and repair,  we are partnering with the Northern Virginia chapter of   Coming to the Table . CTTT’s mission is to bring community members together to surface difficult histories and undertake the work of reconciliation. This partnership is where our parish will focus its most personal reparative work: building relationships with and learning from the descendants  of those formerly enslaved at Wilton Hill. To support this dialogue, volunteers from our new AAHGS chapter will help research and restore these family connections—work that is deeply tied to the very land on which our chapel now stands.  An Invitation to Everyone This is not a project for a few, but a project by the many. We believe this essential community work needs allies, experts, and curious neighbors of all backgrounds to come together in partnership. You are invited to join us if you: Have an interest in family history and want to help African Americans uncover their family stories. Have expertise to share in research, history, or storytelling. Are simply a curious neighbor who believes in the power of connecting our shared past to our shared future. If you see yourself in any of these descriptions, there are two key ways to get involved: For those interested in genealogical research:  The AAHGS chapter will focus on the scholarly work of uncovering and documenting African American family histories from across our region. For those interested in dialogue and relational repair:  The Coming to the Table meetings hosted at Sharon Chapel will focus on processing these histories together and building a more just and truthful community. You do not need to be an expert to participate in either group, and your racial background does not qualify or disqualify you. All who are committed to the work of repair are welcome. Join Us The work of faith is the work of community, and we invite you to be a part of it. To learn more and join the interest list for the AAHGS genealogical research  and/or the Coming to the Table dialogues , please contact Davette Himes at cgs@sharonchapel.org . She will ensure you receive information about the first AAHGS meetings in October and updates on when the CTTT meetings will be scheduled. We can't wait to begin this work together.

Turn on the news or scroll through a social media feed, and it's clear the world feels louder and more anxious than ever. We hear competing narratives, deep-seated fears, and profound grief. In the midst of all this noise, we as parents are left asking a fundamental question: How do we raise children who have a core of inner peace? How do we give them a quiet space to simply be? For many of us, the traditional Sunday School model of crafts, songs, and lessons doesn’t quite seem to meet the needs of this moment. While well-intentioned, it can sometimes feel like just another scheduled activity in our children’s already over-scheduled lives. We felt a deep need for something more—not just more information, but more wonder. The Power of an Intentional Space A recent New Yorker article exploring an intentional community of Palestinians and Jews in Israel highlighted the incredible power of creating a "sanctuary"—a space set apart to model a different way of living. That's exactly what we believe the Atrium is for a child's spirit. This is what makes Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS), our approach to spiritual formation at Sharon Chapel, so different. The Atrium is not a classroom; it is a holy space, prepared just for children. It’s an environment intentionally designed for quiet, reverence, and a child’s direct, personal relationship with God, standing in stark contrast to the rush of the world outside its doors. A Language of Faith, Not Just Facts In the Atrium, children don't just learn about God; they are given the tools to encounter God. Using a hands-on, Montessori-based approach, children work with beautiful, sensory materials—small wooden figures for the parables, a miniature altar and chalice, maps of Israel—that allow them to sink into the stories of our faith at their own pace. Just as a community struggling with conflict knows that the words we choose have enormous weight, we believe the language we offer our children about God is profoundly important. In CGS, we don't offer them simplified cartoons or catchy slogans. We offer them the real, beautiful, and potent language of our faith: the parables of Jesus, the words of the liturgy, the names of the prophets. We trust that this true language, absorbed in a place of peace, will form a foundation of faith that lasts a lifetime. “I’m thankful for a place where my child can think through something by slowing down. All of life feels like it’s tricking you and into speeding up, and over this last couple of years I’ve seen that change in her and have really appreciated it.”— A Sharon Chapel Parent Equipping, Not Sheltering It's natural to wonder if creating such a quiet space is just sheltering our children from the complexities of the "real world." We believe the opposite is true. The peace of the Atrium isn't meant to be a permanent escape from the world's problems. Rather, it is a place to build the spiritual "muscle" children need to face that world with compassion, resilience, and a deep, unshakable knowledge that they are loved by the Good Shepherd. Just as our parish’s work in racial justice calls us to engage the world’s complexities, our CGS program equips our youngest members with the spiritual fortitude to do the same. By giving them one hour a week of pure, quiet wonder, we aren't hiding them from reality; we are giving them the spiritual anchor they will need to navigate it. In a world that will always be loud, we are committed to providing a space for quiet. When you bring your child to the Atrium, you’re not just enrolling them in a program; you’re joining a community of other thoughtful parents who are asking the same big questions you are. We invite you to come and see what makes this approach to faith formation so unique. You can learn more about Catechesis of the Good Shepherd on our website . If you'd like to see the Atrium for yourself, we would love to show you. Please join us this Sunday.