​My heart goes out to the clergy of Parklawn, Florida. In that traumatized city, pastors, rabbis and priests are burying parishioners who were killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It’s hard to bury someone, let alone a teenager, let alone a person killed violently and suddenly.  I know we at St. Paul’s are holding these victims and their families in our prayers.

How does our faith inform our position about guns in America?  Maybe we are passivists - we'd never own a gun, let alone use one. Maybe we’ve thought about when and why it’s permissible to kill another person and we're comfortable with our position. Or, maybe, the laws of the land are our guide and we haven’t given it that much thought otherwise.  Our faith requires that we think carefully about our position and how it aligns with Christ's teachings.  Here is Shane Claiborn’s reflection on American gun culture. It's a good start.

This Sunday, February 28 at 9:20 AM, let’s gather in the parish hall for a conversation about American gun culture. We’ll look at what Jesus had to say, what the tradition has taught, and we’ll share our own ideas as people of faith.  Join me!

​Near Emminence, Missouri there is a place called Blue Spring. 90 million gallons of clear water gush from the depths of that spring every day. The water is so mineral rich and yet so clear that the surface appears to be a royal blue.  For those who visit, it's this surface that is most often admired.

Church is like that too.  Drive by any Christian community and what you mostly observe is the flat facade. Sometimes the building is beautiful, - certainly ours is. But the outside doesn't often reveal much about what's going on inside.
 
There is a season when Blue Spring becomes easy to see into -- even down into the depths. In high summer, when the sun angles just right, light plunges down into the underwater cave. The textures of the cave wall, the fish and water plants, even the currents are visible. 

As we enter this season of newness – me as your Rector, you as my new congregation; we are in that time of light. We are looking at ourselves in new ways. A light is shining down into the depths and enabling us to see how we will be church together. For me, it will be time of getting to know St Paul’s from more than superficial level.  For you, it will be a time of getting to know me to the degree you’d like.  May the Holy Spirit be our guide as we deepen and strengthen in our common ministry. And may we be a source of fresh living water for Carondelet and beyond.

Let's dive in to the depths!
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