A message for Pentecost from Bishop Rob. Click on the video below to listen to the sermon.
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Recently, Bishop Rob wrote an Op-Ed that was printed in the Union Leader.
“I AM WRITING in response to the recent piece, "Education's Sacred Trust" by Commissioner Frank Edelblut of the New Hampshire Department of Education. As the bishop of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire, I am compelled to respond when the word "sacred" is used, especially when used to divide by driving a wedge of fear and distraction into our communities.
In focusing on the acts of a few teachers to paint the education system in New Hampshire with such a broad brush is overreaching. In fact, Commissioner Edelblut says so himself in his piece, "To be fair, most educators do not engage in such practices," and, "Rather, these teachers provide instruction that is developmentally appropriate to the child." Striking fear into parents’ hearts that "activist educators might be knowingly dismantling the foundations of a value system they are attempting to build" in order to forward a political agenda towards school vouchers or, even worse, the dismantling of the public school system, is in my opinion as a parent and a New Hampshire resident the wrong focus…”
You can access the full article here.
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Bishop Rob delivered the Spring Term Convocation at St. Paul’s School on March 28. For a complete transcript of his sermon, “The Gift of Enough,” please visit the St. Paul’s School website.
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Bishop Rob’s report is over on our blog here.
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O God of all justice, peace, and mercy, on this Ash Wednesday, we find the face of all humanity smeared with the ashes of sin and death as a result of this immoral and contemptuous invasion in Ukraine. May God protect all who are at risk of harm and death. May God have mercy on the perpetrators of this cruelty that has resulted in the untold suffering and killing of scores of God’s children.
Today we acknowledge the frailty of all humankind and its tendency for violence and brutality. We see a tyrant wage an egomaniacal war, inflicting horrendous suffering and death upon people, many of whom are related to each other as members of the same family and certainly az members of the human family. We pray, O Lord, that you turn the hearts of Vladimir Putin and his advisors, away from the ways of oppression, away from indifference to human suffering, and away from contempt of the Commandment to Love God and our neighbor.
Almighty God, be with us today as we stand together and keep vigil with our Ukrainian siblings in the faith. Comfort and strengthen them in their anguish. Keep them from succumbing to hatred and despair. May they be confident of our support for them in this struggle. And finally, guide us all into the ways of justice and truth that peace may be re-established on this earth.
This I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, whose loving promise for all humankind is stronger than death. AMEN.
Offered by the Rt. Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld
At the Rally for Peace in Ukraine in Concord, NH
March 2, 2022
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A message for Lent from Bishop Rob. Click on the video below to watch the message or click here for a transcript.
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Click on the video link below to view an Epiphany season message from Bishop Rob.
To read the message, click here for a transcript.
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Dear Friends in Christ,
We have now entered a season of waiting for small things, events that the world doesn’t notice or easily dismisses. An adolescent girl is paid a visit by a mysterious presence. The same woman visits an aging cousin who is also expecting, which causes her child to move inside her. Grown men have dreams and visions that lead them to alter their plans. A child is born in a barn. In the present day we sit in front of tiny replicas of a small family, surrounded by farm animals and shepherds…
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September 11, 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of a day that cannot be forgotten in American history. That horrible day has become unlike any other day in our shared history. The neat lines that demarcate days on the calendar dissolve, and the meaning of 9/11 now spill into an era that I believe we are still wrestling to understand fully.
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