Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends,

Today we welcome Rob Radtke, the executive director of Episcopal Relief and Development. Next week we welcome our bishop for his final official visitation as our diocesan bishop. Peter and I recently returned from Jerusalem and visited with the Archbishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem and visited with Christians across the Holy Land. It’s easy, in the life of the Church, to forget that we are members not just of a local, isolated branch of something called the Church.

We are Episcopalians and our ministry is an extension of the bishop’s and ministries like that of Episcopal Relief and Development are carried out with our prayers and support. We are Anglicans and share in the stories, joys, and sufferings of our brothers and sisters in the faith in places like the West Bank and beyond. We are Christians and are connected by baptism as one Body with our fellow Christians who have worshiped and ministered from the days when Jesus walked the paths that our pilgrims will walk in May.

Whether it’s singing Angels from the Realms of Glory with Korean Christians at the Shepherds’ Field in Bethlehem, or knowing that our gifts make it possible for Christian children in the Gaza Strip to have a chance to get a quality education in the most dire of places, or seeing nuns at The Crèche orphanage in Bethlehem continue the work of protecting children born in the shadow of night, we are one with Christians around the world making a difference — a life-changing, life-saving difference in the world and in the lives of those with whom we are one Body.

We welcome Rob Radtke today and will hear how ERD is changing lives. We welcome our bishop next week who is our connection to parishes large and small across Arizona. Later this spring we will welcome Raphie Etgar, the curator and director of the Mueum on the Seam in Jerusalem who started the world famous Coexist campaign (I have seen some of thes bumper stickers in our parking lot) and he will share how Christians, Muslims, and Jews are working across differences for peace. Next fall we welcome members of the board of the American Friends of the Diocese of Jerusalem who will share with us stories of Christians in the Holy Land. Next fall we will host the Episcopal Church Border Ministries conference to hear how the work of crossing borders of all kinds is being supported and made possible by our connections as one Body.

May these guests and their stories inspire us and give us the faith, hope, and love to continue to be a partner in changing communities and changing lives both right here in Tucson and across a world too often divided even as Jesus prays for us to be one.

Robert