A Montessori Spiritual Parenting Lab for Ages 18-36 Months Grace Space is a weekly parent-child program blending Montessori practices with spiritual formation, held on our wooded historic grounds at All Saints Episcopal Church, Sharon Chapel. Each 90-minute session includes: Grace Space – Peaceful time in our churchyard and sensory garden, exploring the Parables of the Good Shepherd with music, movement, and prayer Spiritual Parenting Lab – Conversation and connection with other parents, exploring your toddler's developmental and spiritual needs Montessori Prepared Environment – Hands-on language and practical-life activities, plus a communal snack When:Wednesdays or Fridays, 10:00–11:30 AM Wednesday Sessions Session I ($180): Sept 23, 30 · Oct 7, 14, 21, 28 Session II ($180): Nov 11, 18, 25 · Dec 2, 9, 16 Friday Sessions Session I ($180): Sept 25 · Oct 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Session II ($180): Nov 6, 13, 20 · Dec 4, 11, 18 Tuition assistance is available — we want every family to be able to join us. 📞 703-960-4808 | 🌐 sharonchapel.org/toddlers A collaborative project of the Lilly Endowment, the Center for Children and Theology, and All Saints Episcopal Church.

5th Sunday of Easter, Year A - May 3, 2026 Rev Sarah Colvin You can find this week's readings here: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me." How many people succeed in doing this? No judgment here, and please know that I am particularly NOT judging your faith. To loosely quote a song, "if you succeed in doing this, tell me how." At any one time, I suspect around half of us have troubled hearts. It may be that our marriage or relationship is rocky, or something is off with our kids, or we have financial woes or concerns, the insurance company is not covering a bill and we are having to fight, the price of gas is too high. Sometimes these heart troubles are all-consuming; sometimes they are more trivial and go in and out of our consciousness. And that other half of the congregation who currently don't have troubled hearts? Give them an hour, or a day, or a week, and their hearts too will be troubled. And then, as my household experienced this week, we heard the news of a young adult child of colleagues who took his own life. And Lord, the agony of that burden is almost incomprehensible. We definitely never know what another person carries, even those sitting next to us today, but make no mistake, we all carry something, at least some of the time. This Sunday is terribly inconvenient when it comes to readings; we can't just move to a different reading to move away from any unpleasantries and try to keep this light. This week's lectionary also gives us the stoning of Stephen, which is hard to spin into a feel-good light, at least in terms of how the culture explains it. Still, having one's faith firmly fixed on Christ despite what might be going awry is the definition of a martyr—or what the Greek word martyr means: a witness. This is witnessing to Christ that no matter what, even death, there is nothing that separates you from God, and that relationship is of primary importance. There is no denying that life is hard. It has always been hard. Social media does not help with loneliness, but for all of history, some subsection of people have been awful to some other subsection, and at the same time also amazing to each other. There is "red in tooth and claw" that we see throughout nature, as Tennyson wrote, and as we see in ourselves. And yet, as we are instructed to remember the lilies and the birds, God provides—still God provides. So instead of moving away, let's turn into our Gospel to get more from it. Driving on the way back from clergy conference this week, there was a religious commercial on my rock station, the point of which was that believing in Jesus Christ would provide you everlasting life. I'm not denying this, but the curtailed approach seems very transactional. We, of course, do not know if or how much God grades on a curve, as it were. For instance, if Hitler had a deathbed confession and repented, how would that land with God? I like to think that God's grace is huge, but we don't know exactly how this lands. Is believing in Jesus enough? Perhaps more to the point, what does it look like to believe in Jesus? I would argue that we do know there seems to be more to the Gospel than a simple assent to belief in Jesus Christ. The assent to believing is a necessary, important first step of the Gospel. In our very Gospel Jesus goes on to say, "And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." It is not just believing, but being on the journey with Jesus. Believing is not holding thoughts in your head; it is following Jesus as the way. We can see why the early followers of Jesus were called followers of the Way. (Which, by the by, is a very Old Testament / Hebrew Bible concept—walking in the paths of God; as usual, Jesus is not inventing a new religion but is deep in his Hebrew roots.) So, maybe it is by design that we had the reading of the martyring of Stephen. As I have said before, following God in Christ on the way just might get you killed. We all have such different baggage and different paths; it is hard to know exactly how to follow Jesus, which is perhaps why the Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote, "Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking." We are all carrying something, bearing something, but still we walk the Way. "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and, in fact, will do greater works than these." It is by our belief that we can do works. And it is by walking the road; there is truth, there is life, for it is because of Jesus that we are able to put our burdens down (some bigger, some smaller). It is by Jesus that our load is made light, full of truth and life. And with truth and life, joy comes. For in the process of walking, of following Jesus, our hearts are less burdened. We don't sweat the small stuff, because we recognize it is all small stuff. It is only the following of God in Christ which is the big thing, and is that which we walk toward every single day. Do not let your hearts be troubled. I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and, in fact, will do greater works than these. It's hard to put our burdens down; in grief, it is almost impossible, but there is no other way to true life. The Way, the Truth and the Life, to which we are beckoned by God, is where we belong, for this is the only thing that matters, the only big thing. I am the way, says Christ. So let us walk that way. Carrying big things and small things, trying to believe even when it is hard, trying to bear witness, making the way by walking. But knowing that Christ walked the way for us first. Thanks be to the Risen God in Christ. Alleluia, Alleluia! IMAGE ATTRIBUTION: Angelico, fra, approximately 1400-1455. Stephen and the Dispute before Sanhedrin, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55294 [retrieved May 29, 2026]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Angelico,_niccolina_02.jpg.

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. Kramskoĭ, Ivan Nikolaevich, 1837-1887. Christ in the Wilderness, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54297 [retrieved May 29, 2026]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kramskoi_Christ_dans_le_d%C3%A9sert.jpg.

Day of Pentecost - May 24, 2026 Rev Sarah Colvin You can find this week's readings here. Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. I go back to that song often, and I'll explain why. My father was a psychiatrist. There is a saying in medicine that one goes into psychiatry because you yourself are crazy or a close family member is crazy. His mother, my paternal grandmother, was very crazy, crazy and mean, the worst kind of crazy. She was also Pentecostal. Through her interpretation of the choices in her life, the Spirit led her to do almost every action she did. If she had had a loving open heart, I might believe she was that intimately connected to the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, she did not, and as a young child and then adolescent, her attributing everything to the Spirit, honestly just confused me. I'm not unique, everyone has some degree of unlearning of their life to make sense of new data. My parents had found the Episcopal church, and they didn't talk about the Spirit much. I had to leave my grandmother's interpretation of the Holy Spirit, to make room for what I read in the Bible and what I experienced myself. Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. There is a theological concept Communicatio idiomatum, that all members of the Trinity are present at all times. It is not that one does one action and not the others. It is God in the Godhead, Son and Spirit who in all time creates, saves and sustains each of us. Again, this is conceptually tricky, but if you can think of the Word in Jesus being present in the beginning, so too is the Spirit. How this plays out is confusing… because theologically this comes from the Bible and it is ALSO confusing in the Bible. The Bible is just not always clear about God's Spirit. It is elusive at times. Although we kind of seem to know what we mean by the term when we use it. It brings to mind the word “ineffable”— those things that are just not able to be known about God. How can God's Spirit be placed on others from the time of Moses which we heard in our reading from Numbers and yet is received when the crucified and risen Jesus breathes it on his disciples? The imagery is nevertheless consistent between the members of the Trinity. The ruak (translated as spirit or breath) of the Old Testament is breathed into Adam in the book of Genesis to make him man from the adama of clay. The pneuma or breath/ spirit/ life of the Holy Spirit is what Jesus breathes on the disciples. The Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost in our reading in Acts. The first original celebration of Pentecost is/ was a Jewish wheat harvest festival. So, on this day of Pentecost, there is this strange and wonderful event where everyone can hear and understand all languages and people are able to speak and be understood in languages they don't know. This was an amazing occurrence; this is beyond what is known as glossolalia— what is also known as speaking in tongues. The work of the Spirit is always seen best or only by its fruit. The conversion and baptism of new members who heard, saw and understood and then who began to follow in the Way of Christ, and thus began the spread of the early church—this is indeed good, sweet fruit. And so, we can say sincerely Happy Birthday Church!! Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Where the challenge and the stretch of being Christian comes in is in the last line of today's Gospel. Turn to it with me: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” It is not just that the Spirit can land on you. It is not just that God has already turned your heart and that Christ was crucified and rose for you. The last line of the Gospel gives us some very basic practical words, our marching orders as it were. Christ confronted the authorities when he forgave others their sins. This forgiveness by Jesus had curative effects, whether physical or psychological, but for those who were forgiven, their worlds were made right. This last line that upon receipt of the Holy Spirit, becomes something that you too can do, you can forgive sins (of yourself or others) and they are then forgiven, OR you can retain these sins, and the sins are then retained. This is where free will comes in. This is where you can choose whether or not you want to be Christ in the world. With the assistance or work of the Holy Spirit, there is a choice to be made. The Holy Spirit is what allows this to happen should you choose to forgive; this is actually HOW to forgive. Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. You can't do this all by yourself, it takes a conversation with God, it takes prayer. But just imagine the concept that it is possible for you to lay the baggage down of all the hurts that just kind of stick onto you, almost like briars when one walks through a forest or plains, to be able to lay them all down and not perseverate over injuries that you may have, --real or perceived, but instead to leave it all up to God, who is in charge of forgiveness in the grand scheme of things…. This allows you to be a better person to others, even better than that, it allows you to be Christ in the World. This allows your wounds to not have control over your life. The slate CAN be washed clean and the world is ready to be embraced as only you as Christ in the world can do, by acting through the Holy Spirit. This is good, sweet fruit for you and those you forgive. And now for a not so radical confession, I genuinely struggle with this, I do. In my better moments, I can be pretty good, but those are only my better moments. Most of the time, I too am so very, very human. There are some sins I retain of my own, that I have not forgiven myself and sins of others, that I try, and will continue to try, not to retain. I suspect we may share this trait. And so, when the Spirit moves, I will pray and invite you to pray. … Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. IMAGE ATTRIBUTION: Koenig, Peter. Pentecost, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58542 [retrieved May 29, 2026]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.

6th Sunday of Easter, Year A - May 10, 2026 Rev Sarah Colvin You can find this week's readings here: "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence." I'm sixty years old—or sixty years young; I'm not sure how I should view my age. What I can say is that for most of the time, this very well-known Biblical verse used to pop out at me as "hey, this is important," and probably necessary. It was at least necessary in the abstract. With all that is going on these days, I don't think in living memory that the phrase has ever seemed more poignant, more meaningful: "Always be ready to make a defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you…" Well, the first problem, or at least hurdle, then, is that we must identify the hope that is in us. For the moment, let's put a pin in this, and just hold to the concept that I do believe that we do have a hope. I promise that we will get back to it; I promise you that this is not a "fake it until we make it" endeavor. The hope that is in each of us draws its water, draws its life, its very foundation, from the Gospel we heard today. Our Gospel is one of these that chronologically has hints at the Ascension (Jesus ascending into heaven, which is celebrated this Thursday) and also hints at Pentecost (the Spirit or Advocate coming to us), and so our Gospel is truly appropriate for Easter 6. You perhaps know that in scripture (remembering that the New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek), there are three Greek words for the different types of "love" (which we, in English, read as "love"). In the Bible, you almost never read about "eros," or romantic love. Jesus doesn't really have much, if anything, to say about that. Many times, you will read about "philia," or "brotherly love," which is where Philadelphia gets its name. Philia is friendship love. However, it makes a difference whether Jesus is talking about philia (brotherly love) or agape (sacrificial love). It is probably always helpful for us all to look at this when you see the English word "love." Agape love, often considered the highest form of love, embodies selflessness, sacrifice, and unconditional care for others. Agape transcends mere feelings. Agape love is a sacrificial love that unites and heals. We see the love of God through the cross of Jesus Christ. This love saves and restores humanity in the face of sin and death. Agape could be defined as charity. However, in today's world, we often think of charity as giving away money or things, which doesn't encompass what agape is about. Agape love is unconcerned with the self and instead concerned with the greatest good of another. Agape isn't born just out of emotions, feelings, familiarity, or attraction, but from the will and as a choice. Agape requires faithfulness, commitment, and sacrifice without expecting anything in return. Agape love, in the Bible, is love that comes from God. God's love is not sentimental; it's part of God's character. God loves from an outpouring of who God is. As the first letter of John (4:8) states, "God is love [agape]," meaning God is the source of agape love. God's love is undeserved, gracious, and sacrificial. I will give you a big tip here: in the Gospel of John (which we always read all of Easter, and in the burial rite), as well as in the letters of John, English "love" in the Koine Greek is pretty much always agape. "Jesus said, 'If you love me, you will keep my commandments.'" And, "They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." Now, with the overlying understanding of what agape is, we hear them this way: "If you sacrificially love others in my name, you will keep my commandments." And, "They who have my commandments and keep them sacrificially love me; those who sacrificially love me, I will show to God, because they are willing to give, to love sacrificially, and I will sacrifice myself for them, and show them myself." We don't tap into the Greek often; it may even sound unfamiliar, but once you hear it, you know it, and you can't unhear it. This sort of loving, of giving—this is the hope that is in us. So we are to love God and others with agape love. Agape is a choice, a deliberate striving for another's highest good, and is demonstrated through action. God set the standard for agape love by sending Jesus to die for us, while we were—are—still sinners. We then are truly to be like Jesus. We are to love selflessly, because there is no such thing as deserving agape love. God in Christ dwelling in us becomes the hope that is in us. Our hope, the only hope, is that we learn, we hope, to love like Jesus loved. Jacopone da Todi describes this hope that is in us, this agape, poetically as this: Love beyond all telling, Goodness beyond imagining, Light of infinite intensity Glows in my heart. I once thought that reason Had led me to You, And that through feeling I sensed Your presence, Caught a glimpse of You in similitudes, Knew You in Your perfection. I know now that I was wrong, That that truth was flawed. Light beyond metaphor, Why did You deign to come into this darkness? Your light does not illumine those who think they see You And believe they sound Your depths. Night, I know now, is day, Virtue no more to be found. He who witnesses Your splendor Can never describe it. On achieving their desired end Human powers cease to function, And the soul sees that what it thought was right Was wrong. A new exchange occurs At that point where all light disappears; A new and unsought state is needed: The soul has what it did not love, And is stripped of all it possessed, no matter how dear. In God the spiritual faculties Come to their desired end, Lose all sense of self and self-consciousness, And are swept into infinity. The soul, made new again, Marveling to find itself In that immensity, drowns. How this comes about it does not know. This hope that is constantly being birthed in us, from the waters in which we were baptized, is both all that we know of God and something we cannot know. It is the sacrificial love in us being born for our neighbor. This is God's will, and our hope—agape. IMAGE ATTRIBUTION: Pittman, Lauren Wright. Complete Joy, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57075 [retrieved May 29, 2026]. Original source: Lauren Wright Pittman, http://www.lewpstudio.com/.

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.