Dear St. Thomas’,

Our family enjoyed an important, if limited, trip to see family a couple weeks ago. We are now finishing out our quarantine period, as required by the state of New Jersey. I think the biggest challenge for me was missing the funeral for Mary Tyers.

While traveling, I took the opportunity to read the new encyclical from Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti; On Fraternity and Social Friendship. Like the words of encouragement we receive regularly from our own Bishop Stokes and Presiding Bishop Curry, this is a letter sent out by the Bishop of Rome, recognized as the chief pastor of the Roman Catholic Church and a well-respected exemplar of faith for very many of us who are Christians but not members of that community.

Fratelli Tutti is an inoccuous-sounding name, taken from an address by St. Francis of Assisi. But like every really helpful text, it contains challenges within that speak to the lives of individual Christians, our witness together in community, and our role in the wider world around us. This is not an esoteric theological treatise, but a consideration of many current issues and what a Christian response might be to the real-life challenges we face from day to day.

One theme that especially caught my eye is Pope Francis’s advocacy for a new culture, a “culture of encounter capable of transcending our differences and divisions” (§215). To be a part of such a culture, he writes, means “to be passionate about meeting others, seeking points of contact, building bridges” (ibid.).

If you listen to the news too much, the narrative you hear is one of division and isolation. This is made worse by the precautions associated with the pandemic, which reduce even further our opportunities to meet face to face, to witness one another’s body language, and to affirm our basic solidarity and affection for one another despite and even because of our diversity of opinions.

Fratelli Tutti would make a great subject for a conversation group over the course of several weeks!

My prayer is that the hardships of this season of isolation, this lengthy struggle with disease, will awaken in each of us a thirst for connection and commonality. My prayer is that the vitriol of this election season will awaken in us a hunger for substantive discourse and a toleration for the genuine differences that a real conversation will bring to the surface. A passion for meeting others heart-to-heart so that we can each be shaped and encouraged to grow.

When a group of people with a common interest or opinion gather together, that’s a club or a committee. When a group of people with common genes gather together, that’s a family reunion. When a group of people bound not by opinions nor by genes nor by any other worldly value gather together out of their common love for Christ, that’s called a church. Since we serve a God who is bigger than any one of us can conceive, we rely upon the breadth of our community to give each of us a fuller idea of what God is actually like, and what God is concerned about.

Frattelli tutti is a beautiful, timely expression of the summary Jesus gives us in this week’s Gospel reading:

’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

These are the things that interest God. As those who would belong to God, these are the things that interest us. I look forward to encountering many of you this weekend.

Faithfully,

Todd+

Click here to read Fratelli Tutti online or download it here.

• Saturday, 6.00pm: Evening Prayer in the Nave (limited capacity)
• Sunday, 8.00am: Online Morning Prayer with Sermon
• Sunday, 9.00am: Online Sunday School by St. Thomas’!
• Sunday, 10.30am: Holy Eucharist Outdoors at St. Thomas’
• Sunday, 6.00pm: Online Sunday School for Teens

contact Dan O. for connection details

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• Wednesday, 7.00pm: Bible Study with Bishop Stokes

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Bishop Curry and Forward Day by Day invite you to participate with Episcopalians across our country as we pray during this election season. Using the traditional model of the novena, a nine-day period of focused prayer, they offer guidance from the BCP for your prayers as we approach a contentious election and its aftermath. Whatever the results, we can pray for the unity and wellbeing of our nation, our world, and all its inhabitants. See the brief video. Download the prayer guide. Or sign up to follow on social media or receive nine daily emails.

During this season of coronavirus infections, when attending events on campus at St. Thomas’, please demonstrate your love for your friends and neighbors by:

1. Wearing a mask (covering both mouth and nose)
2. Remaining six feet apart from anyone you don’t live with
3. Refraining from touching, hugging and shaking hands – even during the Peace
4. There will be no singing
5. Service bulletins you have touched must be taken home
6. After the service everyone must disperse with no lingering
7. No sharing of common objects such as pens, paper, etc.