Dear Cathedral Family,
I am glad to be back with you this Sunday after my time away for a week of family vacation followed by ten days of pilgrimage on Iona. And I am thankful for our wonderful staff and leadership here at Christ Church Cathedral, who do such good work and who make my time away from parish duties a possibility.
I will be sharing more with you over the next few weeks about Iona and my experience there, but for now I will say that Iona’s greatest gift to me was a shift in perspective—on God’s creation, on the vast network of human relationships through time, and on what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Perspective is one of the great themes of this week’s scripture readings. From Samuel’s anointing of David through the kingdom parables of Mark’s gospel, the holy texts show that our perspective can never be like God’s. But if we allow it, a genuine personal encounter with the Word in the person of Christ can lead us to what Paul describes in 2 Corinthians: “From now on … we regard no one from a human point of view; even if we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”
I am sure you have had some moment of surprising, clear awareness of God’s presence in you and in the world, perhaps accompanied by awe at the mysterious working out of God’s dream for making the whole creation new. And I hope the recollection of that moment lives in you and gives you hope.
I’m looking forward to seeing you all this Sunday and to sharing our life together in the Cathedral Family through the rest of this summer.
Faithfully,
Beverly+
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