From The Desk of Deacon Judy
Good Friday Offerings
On this Good Friday, we remember that Jesus is “the perfect offering for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2, from Holy Eucharist Rite I, BCP, p. 332)
On this Good Friday, I’m reflecting on the beautiful offerings at St. James during this past Holy Week.
The Lenten Lunch team offered their gift of hospitality and welcome to our guests, serving with joy, working behind the scenes to prepare and then to clean up.
Our visiting ministers offered their gifts of inspiration of the Holy Spirit with messages of “incomparable gifts”, of “walking the way of the cross”, of “looking up”, and of “who do we think we are?”, inviting us each day to ponder Jesus in our lives.
The Maundy Thursday experience of the Agape Meal and humble foot washing were perfect offerings of the love, care, and compassion in our St. James community.
On this Good Friday, the Church invites us to consider the Christian witness of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East with gifts to the Good Friday Offering. https://www.episcopalchurch.org/good-friday-offering/
By supporting life-giving ministries in the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, including St. George’s, Baghdad; the eye clinic in Ras Morbat, Yemen; the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza; and numerous other institutions identified by their dioceses, we are ensuring that our siblings in Christ are not forgotten.
· Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City provides critical medical care to all people, in peacetime and wartime alike. After twin airstrikes on Al Ahli Hospital on Palm Sunday severely damaged several departments, faithful and courageous hospital doctors and staff are restoring essential operations to continue their ministry of healing.
· St. George’s is the only Anglican church in Iraq, serving local Indigenous communities and displaced people through worship, schools, and medical care.
· Christ Church in Aden, Yemen, serves as the grounds of Ras Morbat Eye Clinic, providing critical medical care for all in a war-torn country.
· The Christian National Kindergarten at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Nablus, in the West Bank, provides high-quality early education to all kindergartners, regardless of religion.
On this Good Friday and throughout the year, AFEDJ (American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem) supports Al Ahli Hospital and all the humanitarian ministries of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. (afedj.org)
