The Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 23, 2022

Dear Friends,

Let me give you two good reasons for coming to the Sunday Forum this week.

The first is the speaker and the topic.  V.K. McCarty is a scholar of early church history who teaches widely throughout the city and diocese.  One of her focal areas of study has been the role that women played as the church rapidly grew from a frightened few disciples to a movement that turned the known world upside-down.  We often hear about the inner circle around Jesus: Peter, James, and John.  Beyond them are other well-known disciples, all of them men: Thomas who doubted Jesus, and even Judas who betrayed Jesus.  But the Gospels also indicate the steady presence of women as Jesus traveled the Galilean countryside and finally came into Jerusalem.  After the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles shine more light on who these women were and how they served.  I am eager to hear V.K. over the next two weeks as she helps us see a fuller, richer picture of early Christian communities.  Read below for more details.

The second reason for coming to the Sunday Forum is a door prize for everyone who attends in-person.  Recently a parishioner hosting a party over-ordered COVID rapid test kits for the guests who were to attend.  Not knowing what to do with them, but wanting to put them to good use, she inquired at the church as to whether we needed them.  We did, and yet still we have a surplus.  So … everyone who comes to the Sunday Forum this week will receive an On/Go COVID-19 Antigen Self-Test.  Each box contains two tests.  Yes, we are told that Omicron is on the wane, but don’t drop your guard just yet.  Yes, we are told that the government is planning to distribute millions of these in the months to come.  But if you wait for the government, the simple truth is, you have to wait.  Do you want to wait?  No!  So come to the Sunday Forum this week at 10 am in the reception room, where good things come even to those who don’t wait.  First come, first served while they last and one box per person.

See you in church.


The Rev. J. Donald Waring
Rector