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Dear Friends in Christ,

As I prepare for our early morning Morning Prayer Service and our evening Compline Service, I read about the saints that are commemorated in our Lutheran and Episcopal liturgical calendars.  

There is Ignatius who was killed by the lions in the Coliseum in Rome.  As he prepared to die, he considered how the teeth of the lions were like the millstones that ground wheat into the flour that was made into the bread that we serve at the Eucharist.  

There is Julia Chester Emery who died peaceably in her bed after a long and fruitful life having advocated for the women who worked in the mills and sweatshops of the American Industrial Revolution.  She founded the United Thank Offering.

  There are Lutheran missionaries that evangelized the United States, India and Sumatra challenging established norms, insisting on the inclusion of all people, bringing the German liturgies to German immigrants to this country, translating the Bible into Tamil and Batak. 

There are hymn writers and poets.   Theologians and founders of charitable institutions.  

There are men and women who identified themselves as Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Moravian, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist, Members of the Church of South India; Christians all.

One of the great gifts of the Reformation is an appreciation that all followers of Jesus are saints.  We may not make it into the history books, but each one of us has his/her own place in the hearts of those who love us and in the ever-capacious heart of God.

Faithfully yours,

Rebecca