Fourteen from the US and Rwanda gathered in Kigali and then half went to Kibundo, Tanzania and half went to Gisenyi. Several bishops with leaders from their dioceses were coming together in both places for a week of teaching, worship and prayer, and sharing about ministry.

Listen to these voices, voices of the soul: "Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real." -- Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses "The soul is healed by being with children." -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky "And I felt like my heart had been so thoroughly and irreparably broken that there could be no real joy again, that at best there might eventually be a little contentment. Everyone wanted me to get help and rejoin life, pick up the pieces and move on, and I tried to, I wanted to, but I just had to lie in the mud with my arms wrapped around myself, eyes closed, grieving, until I didn't have to anymore." -- Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

On previous Sundays, the lectionary readings taken from Luke’s narrative centered on amazing stories of conversion and faith, stories about people not ordinarily considered to be worthy of such a close relationship with God. Through these stories Luke has confronted his readers with the legalistic and materialistic nature of their day, pointing out that their ways, from the leaders to the general population, provide severe hindrances to a loving relationship to God.

Dear Friends at New Covenant, I want to share a few things with you: PLEASE PRAY Fr. Christopher, Sheryl, and I leave for Rwanda Friday and return July 6 and 7. Christopher and I will be ministering in Gisenyi, Rwanda, on the Congolese border, with 5 bishops and their leaders. Sheryl is on the team going to the Kibondo Diocese in Tanzania. Please pray for us.

The Kindergartners in our class were taking turns walking on the water, and pulling their friends, (a parade of Simon Peter stand-ins) to safety and smiles inside the boat. Vacation Bible School has been a beautiful week of busy volunteers preparing early each morning, children arriving with their parents or grandparents just before 9 and then a whirlwind.

The Peddler of Choices is one of the more provocative and lesser-known appellations ascribed to our Lord. As in the gospel reading for this Sunday, the story of the widow of Nain, Jesus reveals God's mercy and the oppression of people. And when our eyes are opened and we can see more clearly we realize the choices before us.

What can we do in 100 days? If we ask Satan he'll remind us that it's doable to slaughter, kill, murder 10,000 men, women, and children every day for 100 days. Just look at Rwanda's spring of '94. Let's not ask or look.

What is Infinity + 1? I remember sitting in my eighth-grade math class, half-excited that it was nearly over and half-annoyed that we were listening to a classmate argue with the math teacher about the definition of infinity, in math used to symbolize the largest number imagined. She wasn't really arguing. She was trying to understand how infinity could be the largest number possible. Every time the teacher tried to explain that the term was not really a number but a rather a symbol, she would exclaim, "Well then, what is (Infinity+1)?"

“He was a good man. He was a great sinner. He has a great Savior.” Those words bookended perhaps the best eulogy I have heard. The liturgy, in late April at Truro Anglican Church in Fairfax, was for a priest who was a good friend of mine and whose sins had become notorious – splashed across the Washington Post. All three of his sons shared from their wounded hearts at the service. Each courageously expressing the pain and love they felt in their own way. The last to share, the youngest, the one who used the words above, was absolutely brilliant. So much so that when the preacher began, he simply said, “Ditto to what Jamie just said.” As he told me afterward he was tempted to stop there.

Lately, a huge doublewide, honestly ugly, modular building landed on our charming New Covenant campus. When I first saw it I thought, “I’m sure I’ll find the witch’s feet sticking out somewhere. I know she’s here.” Its landing zone had been ‘out back.’ Out of sight, more or less. But zoning, or fire, or water, or sewage, or something brought it in from ‘out back.’ People used to say when coming on our property, ”What a beautiful campus.” When someone asked, “What is that?” I came back with, “What do you see?” After 40 plus years in the ministry I still find parish life fascinating and unconquerable. There are eddies of opinions swirling about and a plethora of tastes that go well beyond the riverbanks of religion. I can understand the diverse opinions but in this case what I find truly amazing are those that haven’t noticed the monstrosity in their midst!