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Message from the Rector
By The Rev. Dr. Vincent Joseph Kopp
Dear Good People of St. Stephen’s,
Wait, watch, and listen—these are the disciplines of Advent; its paradox, though, is that we wait, watch, and listen for someone who has already arrived: the Messiah, Jesus Christ—whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.
So it is in the 21st Century of Christianity that our waiting, watching, and listening for the One who has already come is commemorated annually, not just individually but as a Church.
What we do in Advent we do in each other’s company—as the Communion of Saints—even as we wait, watch, and listen to receive, know, and sustain God’s eternal presence in our individual lives. In this effort Advent is our time of vocation, discernment, and return—collective and individual—to the find, repair, and stay on the path God set for humanity from the beginning—to do on Earth what is done in Heaven, where love, mercy, and justice reign.
Throughout Advent seek your unique call, discern how your call fits into the life of the Church, and return to the basics that guide and sustain us above all else—Scripture, the Sacraments, the Book of Common Prayer, and our experience of God in each other's presence. In them we will find the Messiah who lives and reigns forever.
Let Us Pray:
“We beseech thee, Almighty God, to purify our consciences by thy daily visitation, that when thy Son our Lord cometh he may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
In Christ,
Vincent+
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