September 16
Friends,
I'm on a clergy retreat this week. See you in church on Sunday!
Mac+
The Very Reverend Mac Brown
575 999-5010
I'm on a clergy retreat this week. See you in church on Sunday!
Mac+
The Very Reverend Mac Brown
575 999-5010
September 9
Friends,
This week we see another sign of the resurrection around us and the hope we all have in seeing God’s grace all around us. One way we can see that grace is that, this week, we welcome Brother Angel Gabriel Roque BSG, the Diocesan Youth and Young Adult Missioner. Brother Angel will join us this weekend and will preach at both services on Sunday. He will also join us between services. You can read his kind words of welcome and biography below. This is our first diocesan staff member to visit St James since before the pandemic shutdown. This is the first guest preacher we have had since prior to the pandemic shutdown. Even though we are still in the midst of the pandemic, we are keeping each other safe with our sacrificial love and are seeing the produce of our labor. This visit, this preacher, this weekend with our Youth, are all signs of God’s redeeming Grace in our midst.
Mac+
The Very Reverend Mac Brown
575 999-5010
This week we see another sign of the resurrection around us and the hope we all have in seeing God’s grace all around us. One way we can see that grace is that, this week, we welcome Brother Angel Gabriel Roque BSG, the Diocesan Youth and Young Adult Missioner. Brother Angel will join us this weekend and will preach at both services on Sunday. He will also join us between services. You can read his kind words of welcome and biography below. This is our first diocesan staff member to visit St James since before the pandemic shutdown. This is the first guest preacher we have had since prior to the pandemic shutdown. Even though we are still in the midst of the pandemic, we are keeping each other safe with our sacrificial love and are seeing the produce of our labor. This visit, this preacher, this weekend with our Youth, are all signs of God’s redeeming Grace in our midst.
Mac+
The Very Reverend Mac Brown
575 999-5010
September 2
Friends,
This week we hear two healing miracles. Of course these miracles are stunning in their healing actions. A young girl is freed from the oppression of a demon and a man’s tongue is freed to speak and ears opened to hear. While these miracles show God’s power to heal, we may be missing the contextual clues that show even more God’s power to heal.
As you can see in the Gospel, the woman and her daughter are not Jewish. They are from a neighboring culture, one that the Israelites had displaced as they entered the Promised Land. Also, they are not God’s chosen. They are outside the ‘right’ relationship with God. And yet, we see divinity bursting through those barriers to do the work God does, heal us.
The young man too, although we do not know to what cultural group he belonged, is one that would have been seen as outside the ‘right’ relationship. His impairment may have been seen as a punishment for his sins or his family’s. And yet, God moved through our expectations to show us no one is outside seeing or hearing God.
So what barriers do we believe keep us separated from God? Does God see those same barriers? Maybe, if we allow God to destroy the barriers that we believe are between us, then we too can be healed.
Mac+
The Very Reverend Mac Brown
575 999-5010
This week we hear two healing miracles. Of course these miracles are stunning in their healing actions. A young girl is freed from the oppression of a demon and a man’s tongue is freed to speak and ears opened to hear. While these miracles show God’s power to heal, we may be missing the contextual clues that show even more God’s power to heal.
As you can see in the Gospel, the woman and her daughter are not Jewish. They are from a neighboring culture, one that the Israelites had displaced as they entered the Promised Land. Also, they are not God’s chosen. They are outside the ‘right’ relationship with God. And yet, we see divinity bursting through those barriers to do the work God does, heal us.
The young man too, although we do not know to what cultural group he belonged, is one that would have been seen as outside the ‘right’ relationship. His impairment may have been seen as a punishment for his sins or his family’s. And yet, God moved through our expectations to show us no one is outside seeing or hearing God.
So what barriers do we believe keep us separated from God? Does God see those same barriers? Maybe, if we allow God to destroy the barriers that we believe are between us, then we too can be healed.
Mac+
The Very Reverend Mac Brown
575 999-5010
August 19
Friends,
I want to be clear. The Covid case load in Taos County is growing. Those who chose not to be vaccinated are filling the hospitals with severe illness. We are seeing vaccinated individuals testing positive and we give thanks that the vaccine has lessened the impact of the disease on those friends. We are moving backwards in our fight against the pandemic. And so we saw this week, the Governor has re-instated the mask mandate indoors. Again, thankfully to your continued selflessness, St James has not been a place that the virus has been able to spread. Thank you!
As you will read below in the notes from our Senior Warden and Music Director, we are, however, unable to move forward with some of our phased re-opening plans, namely singing. In consultation with our public health officials, staff, vestry, and choir membership, we are delaying the start of choir until the beginning of the new liturgical year at Advent. There are multiple variables and contextual issues for St James that require this delay. Our choir loft space is very limited while distancing requirements are still in place, and you need to be distanced to be singing. Our choir members do not yet feel safe and our love for them allows us to give them that grace. And as we have always said, we still do not know enough to risk others' lives. I hope you all know how much this grieves me. I love our choir and I miss them and their gifts tremendously. And yet, I am girded by our faith in this pilgrimage through the wilderness, that we shall sing again. Congregational singing is also on hold. We had hoped to return soon but we need to delay that return as our numbers in Taos continue to rise. However, we will be able to begin singing if the numbers diminish back to their June levels.
One other shift, our 8 am service is so popular, that we are unable to keep our distancing requirements in the chapel. Starting this Sunday, the 8am service will be held at the high altar. This will require some shifts in our habits, but it allows us to utilize the sound system for amplification at the 8am too. I am so very happy that the 8am service is so popular. I am one of those people, who before kids and what not, would go to the 8 am at St James in Knoxville where I was last a lay person. So come and join us at 8 am for a bit more space for all.
Thank you all so very much for your faithfulness during these days. Loving others is tough work, don’t ever fool yourself otherwise. Yet, God walks with us on this path and so when you are weary, take a rest and allow God to love on you.
Mac+
the Very Rev. Mac Brown
rector@stjamestaos.org
I want to be clear. The Covid case load in Taos County is growing. Those who chose not to be vaccinated are filling the hospitals with severe illness. We are seeing vaccinated individuals testing positive and we give thanks that the vaccine has lessened the impact of the disease on those friends. We are moving backwards in our fight against the pandemic. And so we saw this week, the Governor has re-instated the mask mandate indoors. Again, thankfully to your continued selflessness, St James has not been a place that the virus has been able to spread. Thank you!
As you will read below in the notes from our Senior Warden and Music Director, we are, however, unable to move forward with some of our phased re-opening plans, namely singing. In consultation with our public health officials, staff, vestry, and choir membership, we are delaying the start of choir until the beginning of the new liturgical year at Advent. There are multiple variables and contextual issues for St James that require this delay. Our choir loft space is very limited while distancing requirements are still in place, and you need to be distanced to be singing. Our choir members do not yet feel safe and our love for them allows us to give them that grace. And as we have always said, we still do not know enough to risk others' lives. I hope you all know how much this grieves me. I love our choir and I miss them and their gifts tremendously. And yet, I am girded by our faith in this pilgrimage through the wilderness, that we shall sing again. Congregational singing is also on hold. We had hoped to return soon but we need to delay that return as our numbers in Taos continue to rise. However, we will be able to begin singing if the numbers diminish back to their June levels.
One other shift, our 8 am service is so popular, that we are unable to keep our distancing requirements in the chapel. Starting this Sunday, the 8am service will be held at the high altar. This will require some shifts in our habits, but it allows us to utilize the sound system for amplification at the 8am too. I am so very happy that the 8am service is so popular. I am one of those people, who before kids and what not, would go to the 8 am at St James in Knoxville where I was last a lay person. So come and join us at 8 am for a bit more space for all.
Thank you all so very much for your faithfulness during these days. Loving others is tough work, don’t ever fool yourself otherwise. Yet, God walks with us on this path and so when you are weary, take a rest and allow God to love on you.
Mac+
the Very Rev. Mac Brown
rector@stjamestaos.org