Dear Friends,

Several of you mentioned how much you appreciated the memorial created on Sunday at church for the police officers and young black men who died in acts of violence in our country last week. Sadly, we have had to create too many of those memorials. The Sunday before, flags of Iraq, Turkey, and Bangladesh commemorated lives lost in terrorist attacks in major cities in each of those countries. And just a few weeks before that 49 candles and photographs helped us to pray for the victims of the shootings in Orlando.

While I regret having to create such shrines, I am also struck by how that side corner of the church has become a place of true devotion. Most weeks, three icons – of Jesus, John the Evangelist, and of Mary the Mother of God – provide the central  focus of this side altar. You may pass them unnoticed. Or it may be that  you have been drawn to this corner before or after church for a brief prayer of thanksgiving or petition, before the icons or before the faces of those who have died.

Yes, the main altar in the chancel is a central focus for our worship. It is where we gather each week to meet Christ in the Eucharist. But there are other places of holiness and devotion as well. Just a few years ago, the side area by the door to the garden  was a storage place – a shelf for candlelighters and other things that might be needed in worship. Now the words that once were inscribed over our “high altar” – Holy, Holy, Holy, have become the base of another altar that has transformed a cluttered area into a place of devotion.

It makes me think about corners of my own life that God is seeking to transform. And I wonder if there are parts of your life -neglected areas, or a corner or aspect of your being that has grown cluttered. What is God seeking to make more holy in your life?

As you walk by that side altar in church on Sunday, consider that question. And give thanks that God is continually making all things new, even in the places in our lives where we may least expect it.

Faithfully,

Tom