The following is Associate Rector Areeta Bridgemohan’s monthly opening message from our weekly e-newsletter the St. Georgian. If you’d like to receive our weekly e-newsletter, sign-up here.
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Advent-ure – December 2019, St. Georgian
The following is Rector Joe Hensley’s monthly opening message from our weekly e-newsletter the St. Georgian. If you’d like to receive our weekly e-newsletter, sign-up here.

We often think of the four Sundays of Advent as a countdown to Christmas. It was not always so. In the Middle Ages, this season was more about preparing for the apocalyptic second coming of Christ. Nowadays with Christmas decorations going up earlier, it feels like Advent is more of a “nesting” time, like a parent preparing the home for a newborn. Slow down, be quiet, ponder Christ entering the world while gazing at the Advent wreath or Christmas tree.
Learn – November 2019, St. Georgian
The following is Associate Rector Areeta Bridgemohan’s monthly opening message from our weekly e-newsletter the St. Georgian. If you’d like to receive our weekly e-newsletter, sign-up here.
“God comes to us disguised as our life.” – Paula D’Arcy
‘The Way of Love’ is patterned after the monastic rules of life. I like the analogy of a rule of life as a trellis; a structure around which the rest of our lives can grow and take shape. We all have core values and commitments that we orient our lives around, sometimes these are expressed formally as in baptism or wedding vows, and sometimes they function as an internal compass, quietly shaping our decisions and responses.
The vows in the ordination service form a trellis. In preparation for ordination, I spent some time reflecting on the vows I was about to make. One of the promises that excited me the most was: “Will you be diligent in the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures, and in seeking the knowledge of such things as may make you a stronger and more able minister of Christ?” This vow articulated a commitment to a life of intentional learning about God, our sacred story, and all of God’s creation. Implicit in that promise, is the idea that we are not expected to have all the answers and that we are constantly in a process of becoming, of growth and learning, and ultimately transformation.
Learning requires a certain posture: it embraces curiosity and questions, it relies on a desire and willingness to receive, and an openness to wonder. These are helpful postures to life in general, which is perhaps our greatest teacher. My spiritual director often refers to life experiences as “earth school”. Experiences that teach us something new about ourselves, something new about God, that expand our capacity for love and healing, providing us with opportunities to grow into the full stature of Christ. I have taken earth school classes in self-acceptance, embracing solitude, to let go of control and trust God… I’ve come to suspect that the curriculum is as long as my life! Where is learning in the trellis of your faith? What class in earth school are you taking right now? How might this faith community support your learning?
May our faith journeys never cease to be a source of learning and growth.
Yours in Christ,
Areeta+
Turn – October 2019, St. Georgian
The following is Rector Joe Hensley’s monthly opening message from our weekly e-newsletter the St. Georgian. If you’d like to receive our weekly e-newsletter, sign-up here.
Dear St. Georgians,
As followers of Jesus, we strive to “live the life that really is life” (quoting the end of Paul’s first letter to Timothy). Last year, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry unveiled the “way of love” which summarize such a life for Christians in seven essential actions: turn, learn, pray, worship, bless, go, and rest.
Post-sabbatical, I am at a turning point in my ministry. Having had a chance to reflect on my rhythms of life, I no longer want to fit my “life” around my work. I want my work as a priest at St, George’s, which I love, to blend more with the wholeness of my life and the other work that I do as a father, spouse, and as “Joe.” That means being more intentional about what I do, about my time, and about creating ongoing space for reflection and turning to God on a daily basis.
I also want to resist the temptation that our society lures before us to find worth in productivity and how much work we can accomplish. Our work as followers of Jesus is often just as much about “being” as “doing.” Turning to God is about going deeper, not farther.
In that spirit, we are shifting from a weekly to a monthly article in the St. Georgian with more depth. Over the next year, we will feature the seven actions of the Way of Love as well as themes of our liturgical seasons. The article will be printed in the first newsletter of the month with a link to the article in subsequent weeks so that more of our readers will read it or re-read it.
The first action, which I have already alluded to, is “turn.” In order to follow Jesus we have to turn toward him, turn toward God. While on retreat this summer, I observed that there are many levels of turning. At first glance, simply going on retreat was an act of turning. It required a literal turn off the main highway, down a winding wilderness road to a monastery in the desert. It was turning to God by entering a place where the goal is to become closer to God. “Step one, accomplished,” right? Once on retreat, though, there was more turning that needed to happen. In prayer services with the monks, my mind would wander. Over and over I would have to turn my attention back to what was in front of me. I got bored. My internal voice would yell at me like a drill sergeant, “Turn back!” At some point, though, I wondered, “do I have to yell?” The inner voice became more gentle and the turning more subtle. I realized that a person could spend a long time learning to turn toward God with more and more sensitivity. Going deeper, I wonder if it is actually God who turns us once we stop trying so hard.
I wonder how you experience the act of turning. For example, how do we enter a worship service? By coming to church, we have already made a significant turn towards God. Then when we enter the worship space, we have more turns to make. Our inner voice may make a fuss when our mind wanders. Or maybe it grumbles because of external distractions. The act of turning attention back to God is far from simple. I encourage us to take time to observe that inner turning. Take a breath. Turn with sensitivity to the soul within which longs to be turned by God ever so gently.
As the old Shaker song says, “to turn, turn will be our delight, til by turning, turning we come round right.” May God bless us at all the turning points of our lives.
Yours in Christ,
Joe+