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January 28, 2026
Dear saints,
I’m writing to you today in an attempt to speak into the present hour of our nation’s life, especially thinking of recent events in Minneapolis, MN, as well as events closer to home. I wish to write this letter to you not because of any authority I might think belongs to the church to talk about national immigration policy, the rule of law or any other such matter that is the purview of other people in other places. Instead, I wish to write to you about a matter the church is clearly in authority to talk about: human dignity and God’s call upon our lives to uphold it.
I am not going to pretend to know what you think or feel about the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. I don’t know the extent to which we see the world the same way as one another. We watch different news channels. We vote for different parties. I do know, though, what our baptismal covenant says and that when asked if we will ‘seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself’ and ‘strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being’ Episcopalians answer, ‘I will, with God’s help.’ That covenant is our north star for a moral life. It is grounded in our faith and it is a commitment we make together as the Body of Christ. As such, this commitment in faith is how the world knows who and whose we are, and it is how we come to know one another.
For my own part, when I think about the needless loss of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the span of life that they each had before them, I find myself thinking about who they were to their parents, to loved ones, to friends, to colleagues, and the heartbreak those people must now be feeling. As I watch news footage of children held in immigration detention centers in Texas protesting alongside their parents the imprisonment of children and the inhumane nature of their daily conditions, I lament over the kind of society Monica and I are raising our own children to live in and the values that seem to have been so easily eroded in our common life. And when I hear the voices of my own clergy colleagues in Hispanic congregations across this diocese crack with emotion as they describe church members who are too afraid to leave their homes, I grieve not only that they are immobilized by fear, but that day-by-day they are being rendered invisible. It is easy to despair.
But then I am reminded of the infatigable human capacity for goodness. I look to Minneapolis and see everyday people taking to the streets to bear witness to the dignity of their neighbors. I see the power of peaceful protest and the resolute refusal to accept that these egregious cruelties are all that will be remembered of this particular season in our life as a country. And among these brave men and women, placing their bodies between the often brutal force of the state and their fellow Minnesotans, I see people of faith. Clergy in a rally at the airport. Fellow Episcopalians supporting the ministry of Casa Maria, which in the words of Diocesan Bishop Craig Loya is the diocese's ”primary engine of underground care and subversive love…providing much-needed food, supplies, and community to the most vulnerable.” I see these people, and I remember our calling to hope. I see them and I am reminded of the quality of the Christian faith - a faith that knows how to love its neighbor because it is married to justice.
This Saturday evening, at 5:00p.m., All Saints’ will hold a Vigil Service for Justice and Peace in the church. I warmly invite you to attend so that we can lift up before God and one another the cries of God’s people and draw upon our resolve to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world. In that spirit, whether you worship with us in person or online, you will be asked to pray for your neighbors near and far not merely in your hearts but through your lives by engaging in acts of justice through advocacy, legal counsel, and financial support, details of which you will find at the end of this message. Now is a time for us to pray and act, to speak up and to offer what we can of ourselves for the welfare of others; to stand together as a church as, in the words of Jeremiah, we seek the shalom of the city (Jeremiah 29:7).
With God’s help we are able to be the church Christ calls us to be, seeking and serving our Lord in the life of every human being. In this febrile hour in the life of this nation, I invite you to make your voice heard and your solidarity known. You and I are called to follow Christ Jesus, and as followers of such a Savior, we know that the dignity of every human being is a non-negotiable truth that marks the character of our life as Christians living in the world.
The One who calls is faithful, dear saints. Take heart. After all, we know how this story ends. Love wins.
Peace,
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