About this Blog
When the Interim Rector started this blog a couple years ago, he said the following:
Few images in the Bible are more striking than Jacob wrestling with “a man” at the ford of the River Jabbok (see Genesis 32:22-32). This man is ultimately revealed to be either God or an angel of the Lord, for in this wrestling Jacob is blessed.
The image is one of intense, intimate, even physical engagement with the Divine. Its message is that blessing comes in one’s struggle with the Divine Love and Divine Purpose. Who is God? How do I relate to God? What does God want of me? How shall I live in relationship to God and other people? How am I being blessed?
This blog is an opportunity to explore some dimensions of our struggle with the Divine!
In those two years, St. John’s learned more about itself, prayed and discerned and finally called a new rector, the Rev. Jared C. Cramer. Father Jared started work with us in the summer of 2010, his first service being July 4 of that year. And it is of course only natural that the blog shift a bit, that it transition into something different as new hands rest on the keyboard.
But the image of wrestling with the divine seemed to powerful to lose.
And so we’ll keep it. Most of the posts after July 4, 2010 are written by Father Jared and thus may or may not reflect the views of St. John’s Episcopal Church. But they do reflect the continued wrestling that we do in this parish, the continued striving with a God that is both wholly other and yet persistently present. You’re welcome to join in the conversation through comments, or even to contact the parish office and sit down with Father Jared for further conversation. Or, if you’d prefer to just lurk, to remain in the shadows and be unseen for now, that’s fine too.
We welcome you in the Episcopal Church. And when we say that, we mean it.
Please worship with us on Sundays if you live in or are traveling to the Tri-Cities Area. St. John’s is an Episcopal (Anglican) congregation. Visitors from any denomination — or with no church background at all — are most welcome. For more information on our parish, see our web site — http://stjohnsepiscopal.com — or call us at (616)842-6260.