News and Updates

Christmas greetings! For some friends and neighbors, Christmas may end at midnight on December 25 – but in the life of our church, the Season of Christmas has just begun! We celebrate the nativity until January 5, including Lessons and Carols this Sunday. Then we...

Dear Friends, Although I have yet to experience it myself, throughout this season of Advent I’ve loved hearing people speak of Christmas at Bethesda with such joy, awe, and anticipation. Between the music, the trees, the beauty of our sacred space adorned with greens...

Waiting for Christmas has its own kind of pattern. Children, especially, start counting down early. At first, the weeks of December seem to stretch out forever. But soon the days start to become a blur of activity. Then all of a sudden, it’s Christmas morning!...

A new liturgical year brings special musical offerings and compelling reasons to invite someone to join you at Bethesda. This Sunday, December 4, we will celebrate Advent with its own Lessons & Carols. Like its Christmas cousin, we will hear lessons and sing great...

Dear friends, I’m not sure about you, but we’ve had lots of family descending on the rectory this week. Between both our boys, both our mothers, and a step-father thrown in for good measure, we’re bursting at the seams! Of course, everyone is curious to see us in our...

Dear friends, “Behold, I make all things new.” This phrase from the Book of Revelation (21:5) has been rattling around my head these past few weeks. Partly it’s because after our move to Palm Beach and starting my ministry among you, all things do indeed feel new. In...

This week I had the opportunity to attend a lecture on the History of Palm Beach County, and what an extensive history it is. From the Native Americans who first settled here over 12,000 years ago, to the early 19th century pioneers, to the barefoot mailmen, to Henry...

Growing up in South Florida, my family repeated the same joke this time every year: “Our week of fall has arrived – don’t blink or you’ll miss it!” Everyone knows we enjoy palm fronds year-round here, with no golden leaves to cue us that autumn has arrived....

Human beings are usually much better at beginnings and “hellos” than endings and “goodbyes,” but the people of Bethesda could not have concluded our time and this interim in more wonderful ways. Valerie and I are touched by your expressions of gratitude, for the...