The Bishop's Blog: For Gates of Hope

We are challenged to stand with the living Christ at the gates of hope. It is the place of truth-telling, about our own souls first of all and their condition; the place of resistance and defiance, the place from which we see the world both as it is and as it could be, as it will be; the place from which we glimpse not only struggle, but joy in the struggle. We stand there, with the Christ who sets us free, beckoning and calling, telling people what we see, asking people what they see.

Bullying, ego and the soul

Posted by Mark Beckwith on May 2, 2012

He had been labeled. And bullied. So the young man’s mother told me in an email after one of our confirmation services. She thanked me because I talked in my sermon how we all learn to label one another -- usually in junior high school, if not before. And that the labeling leads to discrimination, which can then lead to victimization – often followed by violence. Which is what happened to her son. She thanked me for raising the issue, and for making the claim that Jesus refused to limit people by labeling them. Instead he embraced people with love. Everybody. No exceptions. And I said that Jesus expects us to do the same.

Christ reaches beyond the chaos

Posted by Mark Beckwith on March 8, 2012

The interior dome over the Greek Orthodox Church in the Holy Sepulchre.

Some of went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at dawn this morning. All of us went later on in the morning as we finished walking the Via Dolorosa (the stations of the cross). The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built in the fourth century, and is literally built over the place where Jesus was crucified -- and where he was laid in a tomb. It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over the centuries.

The various expressions of Christianity in the Holy Land

Posted by Mark Beckwith on March 5, 2012

St. George's Monastery in the Judean desert. CYNTHIA BLACK PHOTO

It is fitting that on the Second Sunday in Lent we visited two different monasteries which were each built near caves where Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. Since there are so many caves in the Judean desert (which surrounds the city of Jericho and is near Jerusalem), it is hard to pinpoint exactly where it was that Jesus confronted Satan's temptations.

Last day in Galilee

Posted by Mark Beckwith on March 3, 2012

Our Pilgrimage in Galilee concluded this afternoon in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. From several vantage points, we literally saw what Jesus saw -- verdant and fertile hillsides, and a shoreline that has hardly changed in 2,000 years. The connection to this land and its stories continues to deepen -- as does the connection we have with each other. We renewed our baptismal vows near the mouth of the Jordan River, an experience which we will no doubt carry home and beyond. Tomorrow we head south, following the journey of Jesus -- to Jericho and Jerusalem.

Galilee

Posted by Mark Beckwith on March 1, 2012

Celebrating the Eucharist in the crypt of the Church of the Beatitudes.

Today was our second full day in Galilee. Although I have visited all the sites before, in many ways it is like being here for the first time. This area of Israel, where Jesus spent most of his ministry, seems to have a mysterious and wonderful spiritual magnet connected to it, which draws in the souls of the pilgrims who come here from all over the world. We went to several places along the shore of Galilee -- where Jesus anointed Peter as the leader of the church, where he fed the 5,000 and where he taught in the Capernaum synagogue.

Engaging the world with ashes

Posted by Mark Beckwith on February 27, 2012

Bishop Mark Beckwith giving Ashes to Go at Newark Penn Station

I have been receiving or imposing ashes on Ash Wednesday for nearly every one of my sixty years. Always in church, and always in the context of the Ash Wednesday liturgy. This past Wednesday – for the first time in my experience, I joined scores of clergy and lay people from across the diocese and brought ashes to a public space. Most of us were at train stations. Some set up at bus stations or post offices, or in front of a popular Dunkin’ Donuts or a hardware store.

On the governor's veto of the marriage equality bill

Posted by Mark Beckwith on February 21, 2012

“The arc of history always bends toward justice,” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote years ago. It certainly felt that way to me last Thursday, when the state legislature voted for marriage equality in New Jersey. But politics, perhaps mixed in with prejudice, bent it back again on Friday when Governor Christie vetoed the bill. The states of Maryland and Washington joined the march toward marriage equality when their respective legislatures and governors approved the measures. We in New Jersey will have to wait. And to work and pray in order to bend the arc toward justice.

Living Into Christ’s Mission

Posted by Mark Beckwith on January 11, 2012

This is my message in the January 2012 pre-Convention issue of The VOICE, in English and Spanish.

“Living into Christ’s mission.” This is the theme of our upcoming Diocesan Convention. It echoes with ‘stepping out in audacious faith,’ which was last year’s theme. Both metaphors direct us out from the church and into the world. And while it is the case that much of our work at Convention will be taken up with the business of the church – electing people to various offices, hearing reports, voting on resolutions and on the diocesan budget, and celebrating various people and accomplishments – our challenge will be to keep our focus on Christ’s mission.

God so loved the world...

Posted by Mark Beckwith on December 24, 2011

Years ago I heard a paraphrase of John 3:16. If it didn't come directly from Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit paleontologist writing in the 1950s, it emerged from one of his disciples.

God so loved the world that He planted the Christ seed so deep in nature that over time it evolved into the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who thus quickened the Christ seed in others.

They all learn to survive

Posted by Mark Beckwith on December 23, 2011

Somewhere along the line I discovered something that is common to all children: they learn how to survive. Jonathan Kozol describes the lives of several children who live in the South Bronx, and the ordinary resurrections which arise out of the love of their families and the extraordinary community of St. Ann's Episcopal Church in the South Bronx. Kozol describes many near-misses of death or tragedy for many of these kids, but their survival skills get them through.

In many ways the Christmas story is as much a story of survival as it is about birth.