Dear Friends:

This coming Sunday, the lay and clerical delegates of the 180 parishes in the Diocese of Virginia will gather online for our 226th Annual Convention.  The timing of this gathering has particular resonance for me this year, as I reflect upon last week’s election and the democratic process that lies at the heart of our national life.  Some of you may know that the same principles of democracy that shaped the founding of our nation were instrumental in the organization of the Episcopal Church after the Revolutionary War; we too have a constitution, a bicameral legislative process, and a system of checks and balances similar to that of the United States government.

But more importantly, and I quote our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, we acknowledge and embrace what is stated on the Great Seal of the United States, “E pluribus unum”: From many, one. “We all came here on different ships,” he says, “but we’re all in the same boat now.” Or, in the words of the beloved hymn, “One Bread, One Body:” 

We though many, throughout the earth,

We are one body in this one Lord.

 We are many, but we Episcopalians are also a part of a single body. And in the Diocese of Virginia, we are a community of more than 68,000 baptized members and 425 clergy in 38 counties and several cities of central, northern and northwestern Virginia, serving the world through 180 congregations, six schools, two diocesan centers and six diocesan homes, and home to the largest Anglican seminary in the world.

 With this in mind, St. John’s will be offering you the opportunity to join in worship with all the parishes of our diocese in the Annual Convention service which will be made available online Sunday morning, Nov. 15th.  And then the following Sunday, Nov. 22, we will offer you the opportunity to join Episcopalians and other worshipers from all over the nation in the online service that is live streamed from the National Cathedral at 11:15 a.m.  

 It is my hope that through our participation in these services we will have a fuller sense of our connection to one another, to the Diocese, and to the larger body of the national Episcopal Church.  And to the power of many, who walk in the way of Jesus.  The way of love.

 In Christ,

 Amelie+