On June 3, 1886, thirty-two young men, pages of the court of King Mwanga of Buganda, were burned to death at Namugongo for their refusal to renounce Christianity. In the following months many other Christians throughout the country died by fire and spear for their faith.
If you are looking for ways to help our immigrant and refugee communities here, check out the Tacoma Community House. It is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization that provides English language education, counseling on employment and housing, and many other services. There are no special requirements for many volunteer job opportunities. For example, you can participate in “Talk Time”, where you sit at a table with people who know some English and let them talk to you about anything, and you talk back for one hour a month.
Easter season is upon us. It’s a period of 50 days beginning with our recent Easter Sunday and concluding with Pentecost, this year on June 8th. On May 4th, the Third Sunday of Easter, we will have a visit from the Rev. Cristi Chapman, our Canon to the Ordinary. She will celebrate and preach at our 9:30 service. Her appearance reflects a new policy that Bishop LaBelle has instituted. He intends to visit parishes in the diocese every three years, about as much as he can given the size of the Diocese of Olympia. Every year, however, each parish will get a visit from a diocesan official, and this is our time with Rev. Chapman. I’m looking forward to it. She was very helpful at the passing of Deacon Jeffrey, and she wants to maintain a relationship with us.
On Tuesday, I took our Palm Sunday donations to Nativity House. It included: 72 pairs of socks, 115 pairs of underwear, 12 t-shirts, 2 pairs of pants, 1 pair of jeans, 1 hat. The attendant was very grateful
At the age of seven, Bede’s parents brought him to the nearby monastery at Jarrow (near Durham in northeast England) for his education. There, as he later wrote, “spending all the remaining time of my life…I wholly applied myself to the study of Scripture, and amidst the observance of regular discipline, and the daily care of singing in the church, I always took delight in learning, teaching, and writing.”
Lent is upon us once again. It comes early this year, beginning with Ash Wednesday on March 5th. We will have a service at noon. The First Sunday in Lent is on March 9th. Palm Sunday will be on April 13th.
James De Koven was born in Middleton, Connecticut, in 1831, ordained by Bishop Kemper in 1855, and appointed professor of ecclesiastical history at Nashotah House. In addition, he administered a preparatory school, and assisted at the Church of St. John Chrysostom in Delafield, Wisconsin.
I want to begin by remembering Deacon Jeffrey Boyce. Losing him was a tragedy for all of us and especially for me as his priest. He embodied what it means to be a deacon.
Beginning February 9, we are restarting our monthly grocery collections for hungry and needy people in the community. Please bring your shelf-stable food, toiletries and pet food to church each second Sunday and the donations will be taken to Saint Leo’s food bank in downtown Tacoma later that week.
Polycarp was one of the leaders of the Church who carried on the tradition of the apostles through the troubled period of Gnostic heresies in the second century. According to Irenaeus, who had known him in his early youth, Polycarp was a pupil of John, “the disciple of the Lord,” and had been appointed a bishop by “apostles in Asia.”
