Below you can find a message from the Very Rev. Pamela. These are sent out most Fridays in our newsletter. Published January 30, 2026.
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Message from the Very Rev. Pamela from January 30, 2026:
Dear Ones,
So often my conversations these days revolve around the question “But what can we do?” The topic might be the climate crisis, or the unraveling of our democracy, or the latest act of state-sponsored violence, or any of a number of other issues that feel so impossibly big right now. I hear in these conversations an echo of the Breton fisherman’s prayer: “The sea is so vast, O God, and my boat is so small.”
It’s not a coincidence that since the earliest days of Christianity one of the most popular emblems for the Church has been a boat or a ship. It’s why we call the main space of a church building the “nave” (from the Latin navis for ship). So when we feel overwhelmed by the vastness of the world’s problems and the relative smallness of our own resources, I think the answer might be that we get in the boat together.
Jesus spent a lot of time in boats, most famously when he calmed a storm that the disciples thought would send them to their deaths. Boats aren’t necessarily safe places. But they are, at the risk of pushing this metaphor too far, places where it is absolutely essential that people coordinate their efforts, row in the same direction, and recognize that we all sink or swim as one.
What can we do? We can work together. We can show up in the ways that are best for us, and support others who can do the work we can’t. Coming to church strengthens our relationships, with one another and with God, so that we are better able to do what God would have us to do—and to discern faithfully what that is. And it goes beyond church, to the many organizations in our community that are working on issues that deeply matter to the work we are all called to do. Volunteering at the DCMH meals, attending the Celebration of Abraham, bringing food to the newly-christened Jerry Hulbert Food Collection Basket—all of these are ways to bring God’s kingdom a little closer to fruition, to make our boat a little bigger and more seaworthy, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Blessings,
Pamela+
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