Read more from the Diocese. Read here. 

Bishop Hughes shares her experience of finding community both with the pilgrims who last week heard first-hand accounts of the civil rights movement in Alabama and at a conference for Black clergy women this week in Chicago, and talks about what community means to her and why it's important to seek it out.
(Time: 5:39 | Read the transcript.)

This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark, and I am not in our diocese this week, nor was I last week. Last week, I joined together with people from our diocese as we went on pilgrimage to the American South. We spent the week in Alabama learning about, exploring, discovering the issues leading up to the civil rights movement and how the civil rights movement was experienced by people in Birmingham and in Montgomery and in Selma.
We had the incredible honor of listening to people talk to us in each of those cities, they are called foot soldiers. They were all children. They were 13 when they were a part of the civil rights movement. They gathered and marched together. They had instructions in how to participate in civil disobedience in non-violent ways, and all of them could point to the place where they were either chased down by police, by dogs, or had fire hoses turned upon them. They could point to those places. They could also point to the place where they were arrested, to the jail that they were sent to at 13. And as they told us these stories, one of the things that they said over and over again that was so important to them, as they so passionately told these stories, is it that they tell them because it’s important for us to know our history. It’s important for us to not make the same mistakes again and again, and that knowledge of history is the only way to prevent that.
Something else wonderful happened on that time together is that the community, those of us who gathered to be a part of this pilgrimage, that we as a community, leaned upon each other. We experienced sadness. Shock. It was hard to hear, at times, the things that had happened, hard to read about, to see about, but also, we found ourselves inspired and uplifted by the story of others, and in that five days that we spent together, we became a very solid community together.
I said goodbye to that group on pilgrimage in Selma, and as they headed back to Newark, I headed on to Chicago to gather for a conference hosted by some of the Black women bishops in The Episcopal Church for Black clergy women, both deacons and priests, across the United States. There are about 70 of them that were able to gather with us, and we’ve been spending time talking about what ministry is like for us these days, learning from a theologian, the Reverend Dr Renita Weems has been with us, and also supporting each other in our ministries. And we, too, in the short time we have been together, have become a very strong and deep community.
And I, when I think of these two experiences being back to back the way they are, there is something that that both of them have in common, though they were very different gatherings and were together for very different reasons. But what they hold in common is what happened to us as a place of community. We have been honest with each other, we have told the truth, we have said exactly what we think and what we feel, and not tried to blame anybody else for our feelings, but have been able to hold each other in the things that we feel. We’ve been able also to talk about our hopes and dreams and the things that we worry will not ever come true. And we’ve also been able to talk about the ways that we have seen God do nothing short of a miracle in our own lives. We became very strong communities in a short amount of time.
And I cannot help but say to you, as we head into the deepest part of the summer: please use this summer as a time to be a part of a strong community. And I’m not just talking about coffee hour conversation after church. I’m talking about being in the place where you can tell the truth, when you can let down the facade, when you can be genuinely who you are, a place where you can be hopeful, where you can be sad, where you can be shocked, where you can be weary, and where you can look for where God is doing something in life and in the world. Be a part of community.
It’s interesting to me right now how people want a place where they belong, but they don’t want to belong to anything. It’s as if we have forgotten how to be in community. But I can tell you this, that if you start, if you try, you’ll be surprised how fast it all comes back to you.
I would say, both on that pilgrimage and in this conference, the biggest gift that everyone received was the gift of community. I hope that you will go after that gift. It is there. It is waiting for you. Go find it this summer.

More from the Diocese. Read here. 

Addressing the current conflict around immigration, Bishop Hughes reminds us that silence can be misinterpreted as agreement, and encourages Christians to engage in meaningful, compassionate conversations grounded in the teachings of Jesus – even across deep differences. (Time: 6:18 | Read the transcript.)

This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. I have been asked in the last few weeks by people, both in our churches and people from other denominations and people from no faith tradition at all, including people who don’t believe anything. I’ve been asked while in church. I’ve been asked while in the grocery store. I’ve been asked all along life’s way from people, how are we supposed to talk with people about immigration when the opinions are so strong and fixed and finite and polar opposites? How can we be in conversation about what we’re seeing?
So I think it’s important to recognize that our reactions to what we’re seeing, are a way of God’s Spirit talking to us saying, you’re called to say something. You are called to do something. When you see someone being hurt, when you see someone’s rights being trampled, when you see someone being treated unfairly or without dignity, without respect, and treating in ways that are not humane at all, and you have a reaction to that that tells you that person needs help. That’s the spirit saying, your job is to help them. And part of helping right now is learning how to talk about this and how to talk about it across difference, because what we’re being fed by people who are motivated to keep us separated and to keep us in polar opposite camps, what we’re being fed about them is that the others will not listen.
And there may be truth to that, but still, whether we think someone listens or not, it’s important for us to think through what it is we want to say. So there’s some areas that I think are really important to prepare ourselves to be able to talk succinctly into this. One, as people of faith – and I’m speaking directly to Christians right now – as people of faith, get yourself in the gospels. Read Jesus’s words. What did he say about taking care of the people who were the least among us? How does he treat people who are other, or people who are in trouble? What does he say about talking with people or being with people across differences? And what does he say about how we are to treat the people that we think of as our enemies. Use his words as guidance and motivation, and pay attention to the ones that resonate the most with you, and say those to yourself over and over and over again until they become part of your very own vernacular.
My own example of that, as I say so often, if I have a problem with my sibling, my brother or my sister, I go directly to deal with them before I take myself to the altar. I don’t sit and stew over something. I go directly to them. That’s my way of internalizing something that Jesus said about how we are to work with other people. You need to find your way to do that.
Secondly, I recommend that you spend as much time as you can reading people who are writing about these things, reading people who are writing – and you don’t have to just read books, they have articles that are online, many of them you can see on videotape, but people who have for years been talking about injustice and how we are to treat people with justice. Read Catherine Meeks. She’s out of our own tradition in the Episcopal Church. You can find her online, and you can find her in books. Read William Barber, who’s been leading the Poor People’s Campaign for as long as I possibly can remember, and knows something about treating people who are the least among us. Read our own former Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, who talks eloquently, both in writing and in words, about who we can be as a nation, who we can be as a people, when we all are one. We are powerful when we are one. Read Desmond Tutu. Read Matthew Desmond. These are people who are writing about the inequities that we find in the world, but read them and pay attention to the things that they talk about and how they give you a sense of real ways, not just feelings, but very practical ways to talk about some of the things we’re facing.
The next thing I think is important is to pray, to ask God to give you the words, to help you think this through, to help you frame what it is you want to say.
And then lastly, I would say, practice. These four things: looking at Jesus’s words, looking at the words of experts, looking at the thinking of experts, spending time asking God to guide you, and then practice with people that you know. You don’t want to just go practice in the middle of something happening in your family or in the workplace or with someone who you do not know at all, but you want to get your legs underneath you, in terms of how to talk about what you see happening with migrants, and what might be a more excellent way than what we’re seeing right now. It’s a starting place, and it takes time.
And I want to encourage you to spend time figuring out how to have those conversations, because now is the time to speak. Being silent is not working for us. Being silent is heard as approval. And I think kind of regardless of where you sit politically in any of this, when we look at the humanity of it, it takes the politics away. I’m always aware that at a graveside, when people are grieving, there is no party, there is no political party. There is simply sadness and a sense of loss. And the people who help those who are mourning.
So, do the work that it takes to figure out how to speak into this time rather than being afraid of it or silent during it.



​

More from the Diocese. Read here. 

Bishop Hughes addresses the emotional toll of hate and injustice in today’s world, acknowledging the pain many feel while emphasizing that responding to hate with hate leads to spiritual emptiness. Instead, she recommends three daily practices: cultivating gratitude, actively helping others, and seeking rest – both physical and spiritual – which will fortify us for the demanding ministry needed today. (Time: 6:06.)
Video TranscriptThis is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. Recently, someone shared with me what they’re struggling with in this time that we’re in, and as they said it: “You know what? These people hate us and I hate them right back.” And then they went on to say that it didn’t actually make them feel better to hate them right back, but they couldn’t stand what people were doing so much, they didn’t know what else to do but to hate them right back. But it didn’t leave them in a good place. Of course, it didn’t leave them in a good place, because that is not how God created us to be.
On one hand, I completely understand that hate in response, when you feel out of control, when you’re watching abuse of power, when you’re watching corruption, when you’re watching people be diminished or be dehumanized or spoken of in ways that are dehumanizing, in addition to the behavior towards them that is dehumanizing. When you see the loss of decency on a large scale, when you see the kind of re-interpretation of things that are historical fact, as if that they are something that we can simply forget and life will go right on. That when you see all of these things, and when you know people whose lives are in danger, of course you’re going to have a reaction to that.
So my question for us is, how do we react in such a way that we’re joining Jesus Christ, and that we are living out bold acts of justice, peace and love as we follow Jesus Christ – that’s what our mission statement says. We invite people to join us in following Jesus Christ into bold acts of justice, peace and love. It sounds like just the ticket for right now, but also it is a hard place to be when we watch the level of disregard for the dignity of other people go on.
So one of the things that I’m aware of is that when you’ve got a big task in front of you, it’s important to orient yourself towards that task. So we know that what we want to do is live into these bold acts of justice, peace and love, and what will help us do that? I’ve got three things in mind. One, that we need to practice gratitude. We need to spend time being grateful for the things that God has given us. That we pay attention every day, all throughout the day, different times in the day, thanking people for the goodness that they bring into our lives, or for the gift that they have given us just by their very presence or by taking care of something. And that we also are grateful for the world that God has put us in, that we notice the things that are part of creation, and that we’re grateful for those things. When you are spending time practicing gratitude, you forget to be fearful and you forget to be full of hatred, because you get very much caught up in the love that God has for all of us. So one is practicing gratitude.
Two is to help God’s people, wherever they are and with whatever they need. And when I say God’s people, I mean all people, because God created all people. I don’t mean just Episcopalians. I don’t mean just Christians who believe the way you believe, but I mean all people. When God says, “Feed my sheep,” God isn’t talking about one or two little sheep from one herd. God is saying a”ALL of the sheep!” Please take care of God’s people. When we start taking care of God’s people, then we forget to think of ourselves as helpless. Find somebody every day that you can help.
And then the last thing that I think is really important right now is to get good rest. Some of this is we are tired. We’re tired of the non-stop intensity, the non-stop abuse that we’re seeing, the-non stop lying that we’re seeing, the non-stop distortion of things, that that wears us down. So what we have to do is put ourselves in the place where we see truth and where we see love and where we see God’s peace. Part of that is getting enough sleep, but part of that is taking a break for those other things. Take a break from your devices. Take a break from cable news. Take a break from the voices that are bent on telling you what you cannot accomplish, and put yourself in the presence of God, whether that’s go sit in a quiet church someplace, or to sit in your backyard or in a park or go for a walk, to read scripture, to listen to your favorite music or listen to hymns that you like, to read spiritual autobiographies – put yourself in a place where you get not only good physical rest, but good spiritual rest.
It takes hard work, deep faithfulness and fortitude to do the kind of ministry that we’re talking about doing today. And if you are one who wants to live into those bold acts of justice, peace and love, then it is very important that you feed your own spirit. So on a daily basis, find ways, look at ways, to practice gratitude. Make that part of your life on a daily basis. Find someone that you can help. Make that a part of your life. On a daily basis, put yourself in the presence of God and get good rest. No matter how it is you want to serve God and God’s people, God will meet you there you.

​ANNOUNCEMENTS - The Week of May 4 2025
Here’s what’s happening at St. John’s, around the diocese, and in the local community.​

SAVE THE DATES:
We are in Easter Season. Join us Sunday's at 10:30 A.M. Keep in an eye on this page for updates on upcoming events. 

PRAYER LIST Let Kathy Cascone (casconek(at)yahoo.com or 973-219-1007) know if you wish to add anyone to the parish prayer list, or if a name is ready to be removed.
 
COMMUNICATION Staying well-informed is important, especially during transitional times. Here are some ways to learn what’s happening and stay involved:

• Alert Sharon Liparini if your email changes, so you can continue to receive parish email announcements.
• Check out our website, Facebook page and other social media. (And let Sandra Lee Schubert know if you’d like to help post photos and events.)
• Subscribe to The VOICE Online, the diocesan newsletter published every other Wednesday with news, events and features from around the diocese. Sign up at https://dioceseofnewark.org/e-news

More from the Diocese. Read here. 
​
We’re living in a time right now where we’ve got to work through chaos, says Bishop Hughes, and the way we do that as Christians is we show our love. Recording this video in her kitchen where she’s preparing a special dinner for some diocesan members – “Cooking is my love language,” she says – she urges us all to think and pray about how we can show love with actions as well as words. (Time: 4:44.)

Video Transcript

This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. It is the second week of Easter, which means we’re in those great 50 days of Easter. And I am not filming at my desk today. I’m making this little tape as I stand in the kitchen. I got up early before I have to be in the office because I have people coming over for dinner tonight, and I’m excited about those people. They’re a marginalized group in the world, and I don’t want them to feel marginalized in our church.
So I’ve invited members of the trans community and our transgender community in our diocese over for dinner tonight. And one of the things that happens for me, naturally, when I cook is I think about the people who are coming. I want to make sure that they know that they are loved and cared for. And cooking is my love language, it is how I let people know that they are really, truly cared for. I hope and pray that we have really great conversation. And most of all, I want them to know that they are not alone, and they are beloved by God and beloved by me.
So I’m excited to have them here. But I have to say I’m at that point in the kitchen where I wish I could just stay, but I’ve got meetings, I’ve got to get into the office. But I just want to share with you a little bit of the disaster that it looks like this morning.
I think every cook recognizes this moment where things are not neat and tidy. As a matter of fact, they’re kind of everywhere. There’s a long ways to go. The only thing I’ve gotten done this morning is dessert, but it’s easier to get dessert done. Texas sheet cake, by the way, for those of you who know it and like it. But there’s still a ways to go, while on the other side of the kitchen, you can see some of the stuff – potatoes that only get peeled later tonight, there’s a butternut squash that’s already chopped up and veggies that have to be chopped up – but this is what it’s like when you’re pulling dinner together.
And I show you all the messy part, not just to say, Oh, look, this is what it looks like in my kitchen when I’m baking – I’m sure it looks as messy in yours when you’re cooking or doing whatever you’re getting done to get the next meal ready – but it’s to remind us that every single day of our lives we work through some mess, through some dirt, through some chaos, in order to get to something that we really like and something that we really want. And we’re living in a time right now where we’ve got to work through the mess. We’ve got to work through the chaos, and the way we do that as Christians is we show our love.
And so in these great 50 days of Easter, I wonder how every single person in this diocese could show their love. Show your love to someone who’s marginalized. Show your love to someone whose rights are being compromised. Show your love to those who need to know that they are loved. It might mean that you feel a little awkward. It might mean that you don’t quite know what to say or what to do. But think about it and pray about it first. I thought about this and prayed about it, like how, what’s my best way to support people in the transgender community in the diocese and let them know, other than my words, which I have shared frequently – no one’s surprised by my stance – but other than my words, how can I let them know? And it just struck me, this is one of the ways I show people that I love them.
So there is a strand of Christianity that is very much focused on proving who is wrong, who does not belong, where Satan is, and who God cannot tolerate. And I can’t help but look at the God who incarnated fully human, fully divine, in order to be with us and keep us connected to God forever – I can’t help but look at that and feel nothing but expansive love. And what Jesus tells us to do is to love our neighbor, and that when we see someone to love, that in some way, we are seeing Christ in that person.
So we’ve got 50 more days of – well, I guess it’s more like 47, or 43… math is not my gift – but we’ve got a number of days in front of us to still celebrate Easter, and I invite you to celebrate it in this specific way. Let people know that they are loved by God and loved by you. Show that love as much as you say that love.

More from the Diocese. Read here. 

During this time of uncertainty and anxiety, Bishop Hughes emphasizes the benefit of worshiping in-person – in community – this Holy Week and Easter, engaging with scripture, and praying with one another. (Time: 5:15.)

This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark, and it is Holy Week. And it is an unusual Holy Week – in some ways it reminds me of Holy Week back in pandemic where there was so much worry and anxiety and fear that that seemed to impact everything that we did. But there’s a big difference. Back then, our worship had to happen online, and now our worship happens in person. And I want to encourage you this week to make an effort to go to as many Holy Week services as you can. I know it sounds like I say that every single year, and I do say it every single year, but this year is different, and different in that way that it was during pandemic.
This year, there’s a level of worry and a level of anxiety that is not going to go away. There’s a sense of danger that some are feeling – not everybody. There’s the danger that people feel personally and that they also feel about family members. The way people order their lives has been changing dramatically, deciding whether they can fly out of the country or fly into the country, and as families had plans, this is a time where families are often together, some are discovering that it just doesn’t make sense to do that right now. There’s too much uncertainty about how they would make it safely home, whether that is coming or going into the United States. This is real worry, and when we’re worried about our work and we’re worried about our family members, when we’re worried about the state of the nation and how its governance is going to work with us or against us, that is deeply concerning. As someone said to me, “These are the things that keep me up at night. I get so worried I can’t sleep.”
So again, I say during this week, especially when so many of our churches and our congregations are gathered to worship, get yourself to as many as you possibly can, and in part, it is to put yourself in the presence of God with other people. There is something about sitting in a quiet space with other people who are praying that connects us, not only to the other people, but connects us deeply to the divine, and the loving presence, the powerful presence that God has for and with us. So being in a service with other people gives us that kind of connection. It’s different than doing it on your own. And can you do it on your own? Sure, but it’s different when you are doing that within a group of people.
Also, pay attention to the readings. Pay attention to the lyrics of the music. Pay attention to the words and see in what ways they speak to you. And I tell people in services all the time, tear that piece out, or take a picture of it so it’s on your device. Or tear that little piece out and let it be a bookmark or put it on your mirror. Put it where you’re going to look at it every single day and keep going back to those words. If something catches your attention in a service, if they’re words or a phrase or a verse or the turn of a phrase in a hymn, let that minister to you through the week.
I would also say this: now is the time to be bold and ask for what you need. If you are sitting in a pew in an Episcopal Church and you need somebody to pray for you, I tell you, either speak to the person who is sitting next to you and ask, “Would you pray for me or with me?” Ask them to do that. Most Episcopalians will. If you feel too shy to do that, you go directly up to that priest after the service and ask them to lay hands on you and pray for you. There’s no reason for us to sit isolated, alone, and worried, and afraid, and when we reach out to each other and when we allow God into the situation with us, not only do we feel God’s presence and blessing, and not only do we put our worry in front of God and we can let it go, but also we can start to hear the way God is trying to guide us. God does not plan for us to sit hopeless and helpless and afraid. God has plans for every single one of us to live a life that is full of joy, that is making meaning and has a purpose, and that purpose usually involves taking care of other people that belong to God too in some way, and God does not mean for us to be alone.
So it is Holy Week. Wherever you are, I ask you, I offer it to you. I urge you to embrace it, go and receive what you need from other people who faithful, from the sacraments, and from sitting in the presence of God with the community. God bless you, and God bless you in this Holy Week.

April 02, 2025 (To read more about what is happening in the diocese click here.)

What churches that grow seem to have in common, says Bishop Hughes, is not chasing church growth – it is their members growing their own spiritual lives. Ironically, these church wind up growing without chasing growth, because what they have is irresistible to the people who visit them. (Time: 6:13.)

Video Transcript
This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. I have been listening to people talk about the level of fear and worry they have about things happening in the United States, but also things happening across the world. And primarily that worry is driven from a sense of kind of not knowing how to face the challenge that’s in front of us right now. All the while, worried even more about the challenge that will arrive tomorrow, that we don’t even know about yet. And for some people, underneath that is a real sense of danger, a loss of personal safety. All of this has been difficult.

I’m aware too, though, as those conversations about worry happen amongst Episcopalians, that there’s an overriding worry that Episcopalians have when we get together, and that is about the decline of the church. That people are so scared about our churches closing, so scared about having so few people sitting in church, and truly, truly worried about that focus on, how do we get more people to come here? How do we get young families? How do we get more people in pews and more people pledging so our church can continue doing its ministry?

And I want to offer you a different way of looking at this, and that is this. I am a lifelong Episcopalian, which means I’m a lifelong Christian. I’ve seen many churches grow. I’ve been in churches that have grown. I’ve led churches that have grown. I’ve also seen churches that cannot seem to get out of their own way and do not grow no matter what they try and do. But I want to talk first about what churches that grow seem to have in common, and it is this. They are not chasing growth. What they are chasing is growth in their own spiritual lives, growth in their faith life. But they’re not chasing the growth of the church.

In these churches, I’m keenly aware, they come together as community and as individuals to put themselves in the presence of God – and sometimes that means worship together, sometimes that means a quiet prayer on their own, or praying with a small group of people – but these are people who put themselves in the presence of God. And another way they put themselves in the presence of God is they study deeply the teachings of Jesus Christ, not just so that they can name them or rattle them off in an argument, but they study the teachings of Jesus so that they can pattern their life after the way Jesus taught the disciples and apostles to pattern their life. To be the kind of person who is always looking to the least around us and serving those who are the least.

I’ve also noticed that in these churches, these two things – regularly putting themselves in the presence of God, and working to learn about Jesus and about His ministry – leads to an awareness, an ability to see, hear and know the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit. These are parishes that are very clear about what God is asking them to do as individuals, and what God is asking them to do as a church.

And it changes everything when someone comes in to visit them, because visitors very often remark on how joyful the church is, that there’s a robustness to the worship, that people are actually singing. They’re not just holding the hymnal and allowing someone else to do the singing, that they are singing. That they are offering their own voice, that the prayers are energetic, and the individual prayers and biddings that come after are often very touching. That these are people who will pray with you, who will ask how you are, and will lay a hand on you and say a prayer for you and then check on you the next week to see how you’re doing. That in these kinds of churches, there is a clear sense – you can almost hear the hovering of the Holy Spirit. There’s a sense of deep peace and knowledge about what the church is doing and its focus in the world and its focus amongst its own community.

These churches have something unique and special that only comes from truly working on their own spiritual lives and sharing their knowledge and love of God with other people. Ironically, without chasing growth, they wind up growing because what they have is irresistible to people who come and visit them.

I want to offer this to you in the coming, the last few weeks and days of Lent as we head into Holy Week and Easter, because we know we will have people visiting during those times, people do head back to church, especially in Holy Week and Easter. I want to invite you to do all that you can, to put yourself in the presence of God. Do all that you can with those who you attend church with, to learn about the teachings of Jesus and to pattern your life along that way. I want to invite you, as you sit in church with the beloved members of your community, to be listening to the way the Holy Spirit is moving. And I ask you to trust me, that if you do these things, the joy, the peace, the love and the wisdom that you have will be irresistible. It may grow your church, but it most definitely will bring healing and transformation to the people who surround our churches and who desperately want to know that they are loved by somebody.

March 19, 2025 (To read more about what is happening in the diocese click here.)

This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. This past Sunday marked the five-year anniversary of the start of pandemic in our diocese. It was five years ago this Sunday, with about 48 hours’ notice, that all of our churches began to refrain or fast from gathering together to worship on site in their buildings. They had 48 hours to get online, and most of us did not have that equipment. It was a scurried, hurried, frantic start, and people got online any way that they could, whether it was YouTube or Facebook or Zoom – however they did it, our churches were worshiping online that Sunday. I would say that Sunday was not our best moment online. It was certainly bumpy, but we were there. We were together.
That was our first lesson of pandemic: how to change quickly, and how to stay together. Pandemic was hard on us. There were so many losses, many of them tragic, not all of them to COVID, but we were bereft, especially because funerals could only have 10 people attend. So there was not that time for friends and family to gather in an extended way and to remember together the person who left us. We still feel that loss of the year and a half that funerals were that small, even though memorial services waited, we still feel that loss.
I am also aware that when we take the time to look back at those pandemic times, we can see the many ways that we were shaped by God into being the people that we needed to be to get through pandemic, not just for ourselves, but to make sure that our neighbors got through pandemic too. First of all, it was the use of that word – that our neighbors weren’t just the people in our churches or just the people next door to our churches – that that word “neighbor” became very expansive. It became all people. It became all people that belong to God, and that means everybody, because everybody belongs to God. It was important to us that no one go hungry. We did everything we could to make sure that people had food wherever they were in northern New Jersey, that there was no loss that way. We made sure that people had friendship, that they had company, conversations that took place on front porches or through a window; many the phone call or online gatherings. People found ways to stay in touch with people, to get Communion to people, to pray for people. We learned how important that was.
We also learned how to face hard things. It wasn’t just the hardships of COVID we had to face and our own personal losses, but we faced those racial killings. We didn’t try to name them something else. We didn’t ignore them. We faced them as harsh and as shameful and as hard as they were. We looked directly at them, and then we asked ourselves, what is God calling us to do? And we got busy in terms of making sure that people were safe, everywhere that we have churches, and everywhere that we go, that that has been important to us. It’s important for us to remember not only the losses and the people that, whose memories that we hold dear, but to remember how we grew, how we grew as faithful people who could stand on our feet, who could change and change quickly, who could make sure that people felt connected, make sure people had food, make sure people knew that they had company and that they had care and they could face hard things. All of this is important because it prepared us for the moment that we are facing now.
There is trouble in our land, there is trouble in our world, and it is going to take strong people, faithful people, people who can face the truth, people who care about their neighbors and people who see their neighbors as being people all over the whole wide world. It is going to take people like that, people who came through a pandemic, not by their own will or might, but by the grace of God. People who by God’s grace, also grew to be people who are strong enough, who are faithful enough, and who are brave enough to face this present and the future before us. Remember who you are.

​March 5, 2025 (To read more about what is happening in the diocese click here.)

On Ash Wednesday, Bishop Hughes reminds us that making a bold statement about our faith is especially important in the world that we’re in right now. Our piety, prayer, fasting, giving – all of that can remain private, but our faith needs to be something that people can see. (Time: 5:29.)
This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. It is Ash Wednesday, and the first day of Lent. Most Episcopalians will observe that by attending a service at some point during the day. Some of you probably already have, some of you might have it at noon today or sometime this evening, and during that service, there are two specific things that you’re going to hear. There are things you’ll do, but there are things that you’re going to hear.
One of those is an invitation to a holy Lent. I want to read you a part of it.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting and self denial, and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word.
And we do all those things, not just to prove that we are faithful, but we do those things so that we turn ourselves to God. That word repentance that is in there, repentance means turning back, turning away from something else and turning back over to God.
You’ll also hear from the sixth chapter of Matthew – and Matthew talks very specifically about these same things that you’ll hear in the invitation to a holy Lent – talks about the way that we pray, the way we give to others, the way we stay in relationship with God, the way we fast. And he says in that particular piece of the gospel that when we do those things, we don’t do them to make a fuss about ourselves or to humble brag about our faith. No, we do it in secret, that our piety, our way of practicing the faith, is done in secret so that God can work with us, and it is not about what we’re doing in front of other people, but is about our being in relationship with God. And that piety is private. That’s something that’s very important to Episcopalians. We like a private piety.
I want to add a third thing, because one of the things that we do on Ash Wednesday is to receive ashes, and those ashes are a very bold statement. It really is literally burned up ashes. Ashes are used to mark the sign of a cross on our forehead, as a symbol of who we belong to, as a symbol of our mortality, and as a symbol of what we believe in – that one day we will be raised again the same way that Jesus was raised. There is something about those ashes walking around on us that defies everything that we hear in that service, which is to be quiet about your piety, but still make a bold statement – that your faith makes a bold statement.
And I want to say, this third piece of making a bold statement is especially important in the world that we’re in right now. That your piety, your prayer, your fasting, your giving, all of that can remain private, but your faith, your faith needs to be public. It needs to be as public as those ashes that are on your face. Your faith needs to be something that people can see.
I keep remembering all that we heard about Jimmy Carter, about President Carter and his death. How many stories people talked about him saying, I have to make this decision, because my faith tells me I must make a decision. I need to help people get into a home – my faith tells me I must do that. That he was open in talking about his faith, and he was open in making faithful decisions. We’re going to have to make those decisions going forward, and it is our faith that makes those decisions.
I’ve been struck by the number of people who have told me that the whole notion of keeping people safe in church sounds like I am telling them to break the law. There is no law that tells us we cannot be kind to our neighbor. There is no law that tells us we cannot see to the safety of those who are endangered. As a matter of fact, our laws actually protect safety. They actually tell us how to do that, and the law for us as Christians that really guides how our faith happens in the world is the one that says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.
I want to invite you along as a part of that invitation to a holy Lent, to look for the ways that you can make someone feel welcome, to look for the ways that you can make someone feel safe, to look for the ways that you can assure those who are afraid and those who have been targeted for cruelty – there is nothing else to call it but targeted for cruelty – that you look for the ways that you can help and assist them. That can be lawfully done in the United States, and it can also be done as a faithful Christian in a way that upholds not only the greatest commandment – that would mean the greatest law that Jesus gave us – but would uphold every vow in the Baptismal Covenant that has been given to us.
Do your prayers in secret, but do your faith in public.