Dear People of St. Francis’
This week a parishioner sent me a letter in which he said:
I have been reading Karen Armstrong’s The Lost Art of Scripture. I’m finding the chapter on Embodiment very interesting. It gives a comparison of the interpretation of scripture in the Eastern and Western Churches. According to Armstrong, Augustine said, ‘Quarreling about the interpretation of the Bible was foolish and destructive because the purpose of scripture was to create a bond among Christians.‘
The phrase “to create a bond among Christians” has stuck with me all week for two reasons. First, seven new households decided to share a Christian bond with us here at St. Francis. We will celebrate these new members and bless their part in our communal life this Sunday at a 9:30am continental breakfast and at 10:30am liturgy. Make sure to join us! Second, as Covid rages on, our region and country seem to fracture into pieces. As Christians, it is our call to think of the greater good, not just our own, and to create a bond, not just among all Christians, but among all peoples.
I pray that St. Francis Church and each of us as individuals may be that force for creating a bond in an ever more fractured world.
In hope,
Laurie+