From the Rector

Dear Friends in Christ,

You’ll see this week an article about voting details in Arizona to ensure that your vote counts in the coming election.

There are so many ways for us to participate in community. Whether it’s volunteering, owning a business, helping to start a non-profit, making donations to help communities flourish, creating space for connections, participating in community events, and so much more, we all can make active choices that make our communities more connected, whole, vibrant, and supportive.

Another choice is to vote. It’s that simple. By participating in these patterns of civic engagement we do more than try to make one side win and one side lose. We stake our claim on the ballot box, on democratic action, as the way we will make our community’s decisions. We ensure that our voice is heard—and that each and every voice carries the same weight, in that moment, as anyone else’s.

In a time of increasing isolation, anger, and division it seems more important than ever that we hold onto Election Day as a time when we can celebrate, across our differences, the chance and gift we have as Americans to make our voices heard.

For people of faith, it is also an opportunity to find ways to see our values reflected in the policies we hope to see enacted through the democratic process. Of course, we support flawed people who will undoubtedly fail us in some way. But the challenge for the Christian is to remain engaged not only with the process but with one another—in community and with hope. We must remain engaged with the simple proposition that our vote can make a difference in the lives of our neighbors, our children, and in the lives of those we will never meet or know.

A vote is an act of hope.

Christians do not have a commandment to vote. Scripture did not imagine a democratic process. But it did imagine a way of love. Scripture lays out a clear call to justice, peace, and dignity. So while we’re not commanded to vote, we do have a call to work for a more loving and just world. We are called to speak for the voiceless, work for the powerless, and stand up for those so often ignored or shoved aside by power and privilege.

So I encourage you to vote. Exercise the tools and gifts you have been given to strive toward a future and a legacy of which we can be proud. I encourage you never to stop engaging in the discipline of hope.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert