Dear friends in Christ,

Blessed Holy Week and Easter to you all.

In a time of war, deep uncertainty, and relentless worry, when every news cycle cries out to us of the suffering of our neighbors far and near, Holy Week arrives. We travel a path from Palm Sunday’s defiant joy, through fear and reverence at the foot-washing basin, the last supper table, and the olive trees of Gethsemane, to the heart-rending pain of the cross and the sorrowful silence of the tomb—and finally, to the awe and hope of Easter resurrection. We remember and are re-membered, as the scattered people of God, in the ancient story that echoes in our lives and our world because it is our story, too.

For all who will diligently tend to and participate in worship this week, I give thanks: for bulletin-makers and folders; for those who prepare the sanctuary to tell the story in palms and paraments, stripped emptiness and abundant lilies; for choirs, musicians and speakers; for preachers and presiders; for kitchen crews and children’s caregivers; and for children, youth, and adults of all ages who will come in person or join online. I give thanks for all who will dare to believe, or at least consider, that the story of Jesus and the way of Jesus still matter.

Beloved, I believe with my whole heart that the witness of these sacred days does matter; because the story of Jesus and the way of Jesus are true, and more important than ever. Worship is not all that we are called to do; but it is the holy place and holy time in which God invites, feeds, equips, and blesses us for our callings, and reminds us that we are fully known and wholly beloved before we do anything else at all.

That good news is our holy gift and holy responsibility to proclaim for all people, and especially for those who have too often been shut out or excluded from belonging, in our communities and in the church. In that spirit, I am mindful that International Transgender Day of Visibility falls this year within Holy Week, on March 31; and I pray in thanks for the gifts of trans and nonbinary siblings in Christ who are leaders in the church, and all trans and nonbinary neighbors, who are beloved of God and who reflect in their lives the love of God that created humanity in diversity and called us “very good.”

We remember this week the way of Jesus, who crossed human-drawn boundaries and barriers to draw people on the margins into the center of God’s love, in whom “there is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one” (Galatians 3:28). Jesus’ embodied commitment to God’s love for all people so threatened the human powers of his world that he was killed to silence his message and put an end to his ministry; instead, he was raised to new life, proving that love overcomes fear and life overcomes death.

In an increasingly fractured world, fueled by suspicion of those who are “other,” and profiting from the exploitation of human fear to make us enemies of one another, let this Holy Week and Easter remind us of the truth: in Christ, we are one. In Christ, we are called to a way of humility and honesty, love and liberation, compassion and courage. In Christ, we are comforted and called as people of the cross and people of the resurrection.

May this Holy Week and Easter renew in you, and in all of us, the power and the presence of the living God: God who created and called us “good,” Jesus whose life, death, and resurrection rescue and redeem all creation from the forces of sin and death, and the Holy Spirit who is the breath in our song, prayer, and proclamation.

+Bishop Meghan