Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

Worshiping God, living in community, reaching out to the world.

Category: Bulletin Inserts

The bulletin insert for September 17, 2023
This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Episcopal Service Corps Program Spotlight: Plainsong Farm & Ministry

Plainsong Farm & Ministry is an Episcopal Service Corps program in Rockford, Michigan, dedicated to cultivating connections among people, places, and God. By making a place that nurtures belonging and the radical renewal of God’s world, Plainsong Farm is a living laboratory where fellows can experiment with how to pray, belong, grow, rest, serve, and play.

Plainsong Farm is currently recruiting Corps members between the ages of 21 and 32 for its 2023-2024 program year. Over nine months, Plainsong Fellows will experience the following:
- A balanced life of prayer, feasts, play, rest, study, conversation, retreats, and work
- Immersion in regenerative agriculture and conservation practices for health and healing of all creation
- Weekly evening formation gatherings which include cooking farm-fresh meals, Christian scripture, hands-on activities, contextual analysis of power, possession, people, and place, both in history and today, and doing the dishes
- Conflict resolution coaching
- Monthly field trips
- Life in community with one another and the various intergenerational communities of Plainsong Farm
- Lots of cucumbers and embodied practice
Dates of service:
January 14, 2024 to November 1, 2024

Weekly commitment:
32 work hours per week, 8 formation hours per week

Compensation:
- $425 monthly stipend
- Housing on the farm
- Utilities
- End-of-service award
- Health insurance
- Spiritual direction
- Seasonal vegetables
This leads to a total estimated value of $12,000.

About Episcopal Service Corps

Now in its 23^rd year, Episcopal Service Corps (ESC) is built on the belief that change happens when we bring together diverse teams of committed and passionate young leaders ages 21-32 and support them as they tackle some of our nation’s most difficult challenges.

Find out more about Plainsong Farm.

Learn about Episcopal Service Corps.

Apply today at https://episcopalservicecorps.org/apply/.

Published by the Office of Formation of The Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

© 2023 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
September 15, 2023
The bulletin insert for September 10, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Welcoming Young Adults into Your Congregation

If we lose a generation of young people in the church, it won’t be because we didn’t entertain them. It will be because we didn’t dare to do something meaningful with the Gospel in light of the world we live in.
Shane Claiborne

Young adults (18-30 years old) enrich our communities with a variety of gifts, experiences, and perspectives. You may have heard a lament that young adults aren’t coming to church. We want them to be part of the life of the church, but where and how do we engage in ministry with them? The inclusion of young adults in the life of the church requires a sincere and intentional invitation, welcome, and inclusion.

Welcome and Relationship

Young Adult and Campus Ministries

Young adults want to be treated and welcomed just as anyone else. Introduce yourself, be attentive, and respect their boundaries. Strike up a conversation without assuming things because of their age.

“Hi. My name is ____. I don’t think we’ve met.”

“Tell me about yourself and what brought you here today.”

“Can I introduce you to my friend?”

Community and Empowerment

Young adults experience a variety of transitions and a community of faith creates an atmosphere of support and belonging. From this sense of community, young adults will seek ways to live out their Christian calling. We have an obligation to empower young adults in their lives in Christ and how they might be feeling called to engage.

Mentoring Environments

The presence of young adults in our parishes provides them an opportunity to engage with God through the Episcopal tradition and experience. A mentoring parish recognizes, challenges, supports, inspires, and engages young adults in order to foster their faith. The prophetic voice of young adulthood can challenge the church to more fully live into its calling as the body of Christ.

Our Responsibility to Young Adults

We are called to share the wealth and worth of the Christian story with young adults and hear what the Christian story means to them. We must engage young adults in honest and sophisticated conversation about God and the calling and value of every human being. We must equip young adults with the tools of our tradition for facing the tough ethical, moral, ecological, relational, and religious challenges of the broader world.

For more information about ministry with Young Adults, visit episcopalchurch.org/yacm.

Published by the Office of Formation of The Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

© 2023 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

September 8, 2023
The bulletin insert for September 3, 2023
This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

The Feast of Constance and Her Companions: The Martyrs of Memphis

On September 9, The Episcopal Church celebrates the witness of Constance and her companions, remembered along with other faithful Christians, as the Martyrs of Memphis.

Yellow fever is a mosquito-borne illness that frequently affected the American South during the late 19^th century. It had reached an epidemic status in August 1878. Memphis, Tennessee, on the banks of the Mississippi River, had been afflicted by the disease several times before. This lead citizens to flee the city en masse at the earliest signs of an outbreak. More than half of the city’s population left, leaving more than 20,000 people behind.

According to A Great Cloud of Witnesses, “As cases multiplied, death tolls averaged 200 daily. When the worst was over, ninety percent of the people who remained had contracted the fever; more than 5,000 people had died.”

Icon of Constance and Her Companions, from St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Memphis, Diocese of West Tennessee.

Faithful Episcopalians and other Christians remained behind in the stifling heat to serve the city in its crisis. Chief among these saints were Constance, the Superior of the Sisters of St. Mary, and several other sisters of the order, who had come to Memphis some years earlier to found a girls’ school at St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral.

The cathedral was located in the thick of the yellow fever epidemic. This provided ample opportunity to minister to the afflicted. They tended the sick, gave rest to the weary, soothed the suffering, and blessed the dying, making a special effort to find and take care of the numerous orphaned children of Memphis.

Constance and her companions knew well the danger and destruction that the fever represented. However, they would not be deterred from serving God and neighbor in that place. By the end of September, four of the sisters, along with two Episcopal priests and many unnamed volunteers, had succumbed to the fever:
- Sister Constance
- Sister Thecla
- Sister Ruth
- Sister Frances
- The Rev. Louis Schuyler
- The Rev. Charles Parsons
Sister Constance’s last words, uttered when she was no longer physically able to serve, are enshrined in the altar at St. Mary’s Cathedral: “Alleluia! Osanna!”

Collect for Constance and Her Companions

We give you thanks and praise, O God of compassion, for the heroic witness of Constance and her companions, who, in a time of plague and pestilence, were steadfast in their care for the sick and dying, and loved not their own lives, even unto death; Inspire in us a like love and commitment to those in need, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Published by the Office of Formation of The Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

© 2023 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
September 1, 2023
The bulletin insert for August 27, 2023
This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Get Connected: Young Adult and Campus Ministry

Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. – Matthew 18:5

Are you a young adult looking for community and relationship? The Office of Young Adult and Campus Ministries wants to help you. Connect to any of the following:
- Ministry
- Chaplaincy
- Local clergy
- Congregation
- Group
- Leader
- Organizer
The Office of Young Adult and Campus Ministries, along with the Young Adult and Campus Ministries Council of Advice, help young adults find new communities. They connect individuals wherever they are in with The Episcopal Church. Finding your community can be a daunting and overwhelming task. We want to help in any way that we can.

Here are a couple of ways to get you connected to a new ministry.
1. Check out the Episcopal Asset Map. Visit this link to search your area and see what is going on: https://iam.ec/yacmmap. The Young Adult and Campus Ministries Network map has some but not all of our ministries represented. If your ministry is not on here, please submit information!
2. Fill out a Young Adult Referral Form. You or a mentor, parent, or clergy person can fill this out. Once you submit this form, the Officer for Young Adult and Campus Ministries and the Council of Advice reach out to local ministries to find the best possible connection. Find the form here: https://iam.ec/yareferrals.
If you have questions, please contact the Rev. Shannon Kelly, Director of the Department of Faith Formation and Officer for Young Adult and Campus Ministries, at skelly@episcopalchurch.org.

Published by the Office of Formation of The Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

© 2023 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
August 25, 2023
The bulletin insert for August 20, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

The Feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle

The Church celebrates the Feast of St. Bartholomew on August 24.

One of the twelve apostles of Jesus, Bartholomew is known to us only by his being listed among them in the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. His name means “Son of Tolmai, and according to Holy Women, Holy Men, “He is sometimes identified with Nathanael, the friend of Philip, the ‘Israelite without guile’ in John’s Gospel, to whom Jesus promised the vision of angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (Holy Women, Holy Men, page 538).

Unfortunately, this is the only information recorded about Bartholomew across the Gospels; few other historically reliable sources are available. Despite this lack of a reliable historical record, tradition has filled in several details around his travels, ministry, and martyrdom.

This hagiography, or writing of the life of a saint, has come to diverse conclusions. Some sources hold that church historians Jerome and Bede knew of a Gospel of Bartholomew, though such a text is lost to us today. Eusebius of Caesarea writes in the third century that a Hebrew text of Matthew’s Gospel was found in India by a traveling philosopher-theologian, attributed by locals to “Bartholomew, one of the Apostles.”

There is also a tradition that Bartholomew, along with the Apostle Jude Thaddeus, brought the gospel to Armenia. While there, they are reputed to have converted Polymius, the king of Armenia, to Christianity, thus enraging the king’s brother, who ordered Bartholomew’s execution. The story holds that the apostle was flayed alive and crucified at Albanopolis, leading to a common (and sometimes grotesque) depiction of the saint as a man or skeleton holding his own skin.

There are at least 18 Episcopal churches named in honor of the saint, from California and the Dominican Republic to Michigan and Georgia. Perhaps the most famous example is St. Bart’s on Park Avenue in New York City, a rare example of Byzantine Revival architecture from 1916 and a National Historic Landmark.

Collect for St. Bartholomew

Almighty and everlasting God, who gave to your apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach your Word: Grant that your Church may love what he believed and preach what he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Published by the Office of Formation of The Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

© 2023 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

August 18, 2023
The bulletin insert for August 13, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Jonathan Daniels

Jonathan Daniels’ name resonates as one of the civil rights heroes and martyrs of our time. Giving his life at the early age of 26, Jonathan Daniels dedicated himself completely to his work, both inside and outside of The Episcopal Church.

Born March 20, 1939, in Keene, New Hampshire, Daniels grew up devoutly religious. Drawn to the rich system of traditions and rituals, Daniels became a practicing Episcopalian early in his life. This same desire for tradition, order, and organization led him to attend the Virginia Military Institute where he eventually graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1961. A fellowship that would finance his graduate studies then led him to Harvard University’s English literature department. Not long after entering Harvard, Daniels discovered that his true calling was for ministry, so he left to pursue the priesthood.

Less than a year later, Daniels began his studies at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the epicenter of a world of social activism. Meanwhile, the southern portion of the United States found itself in the midst of chaos with protests, killings, and racism running rampant. Minister and activist Martin Luther King, Jr. called upon northern clergy to go to Selma, Alabama, one location experiencing some of the worst of these atrocities.

Jonathan Daniels decided to answer this call and moved to Selma, Alabama in the early 1960s. His time there changed his life forever. He became passionate about civil rights work and was involved in as many ways as he could.

In August of 1965, he participated in a voters’ rights demonstration in Fort Deposit, Alabama, where authorities arrested him. On Friday, August 20, 1965, he was released from the county jail without warning and without bail. Daniels and other released activists walked across the street to buy soda at the corner store. Thomas Coleman, local and volunteer deputy sheriff, blocked their way and ordered them off the property while wielding a shotgun. He aimed his gun at 17-year-old Ruby Sales, an African-American activist. Daniels instinctively pulled her back and stepped into the line of fire, dying instantly but saving Ruby’s life. Coleman stood before an all-white jury facing charges of manslaughter, not murder, and was acquitted of all charges.

While Jonathan Daniels’ life was cut dramatically short by an act of violence, his heroic legacy of selflessness and compassion lives on in schools, history, and the Church, even today. The Episcopal Church made Jonathan Daniels an official martyr of the church and added him to the Lesser Feasts and Fasts calendar of commemorations in 1994, designating August 14, the day of his arrest, for his feast.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

August 11, 2023
The bulletin insert for August 6, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

The Transfiguration

August 6 is the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which commemorates Jesus’ unveiling as the Son of God, and his radical change of appearance while in the presence of Peter, James and John on a mountaintop.

The Gospel of Matthew records that Jesus “was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light.” At this moment Moses and Elijah appeared, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter, misunderstanding the meaning of this manifestation, offered to make three “booths” (or “dwellings”) for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. A bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud stated, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” The disciples fell on their faces in awe, but Jesus encouraged them to arise and “have no fear.” When the disciples looked up, they saw only Jesus (Matthew 17:1-8).

The Transfiguration is also mentioned in two other gospel accounts (Mark 9:2-8 and Luke 9:28- 36) and is referred to in the Second Letter of Peter, which records that “we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” and “we were with him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:16-18).

The Transfiguration is a pivotal moment because it revealed Christ’s glory prior to the crucifixion, and it anticipated his resurrection and ascension. It also prefigures the glorification of human nature in Christ. Some think that the setting on the mountain is significant because it becomes the point where human nature meets God, with Jesus acting as a point of connection between heaven and earth.

Celebration of the Transfiguration began in the eastern church in the late fourth century. The feast is celebrated on August 6, which is the date of the dedication of the first church built on Mount Tabor, which is traditionally considered to be the “high mountain” of the Transfiguration. There are scholars, however, who believe the Transfiguration occurred either on Mount Hermon, which borders Syria and Lebanon, or on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

Collect for the Transfiguration

O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (Book of Common Prayer, p. 243).

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

August 4, 2023
The bulletin insert for July 30, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

William Wilberforce

On July 30, the Episcopal Church remembers William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833), along with Anthony Ashley Cooper (1801-1885), prophetic witnesses of the Gospel of Christ. Wilberforce was a British statesman and evangelical Anglican who used his position as a Member of Parliament from the Yorkshire area to advocate for the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire.

Noted for personal charm and great eloquence as a public speaker, Wilberforce was elected to Parliament from his home town and district of Hull at the age of 21. After a conversion experience in 1784, he joined the evangelical wing of the Anglican church and became interested in social reform movements.

Lady Margaret Middleton, the wife of another Member of Parliament, approached Wilberforce as a likely person to work within the government for the abolition of the slave trade. The enormity of the task was daunting to Wilberforce, who wrote, “I feel the great importance of the subject and I think myself unequal to the task allotted to me.”

But Wilberforce accepted the mission. “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners,” he wrote in his journal in 1787. His health, however, had never been good, and illness prevented him from immediately taking on the challenge. It was May 1789 before he made his first speech in the House of Commons on the subject of the slave trade.

When Wilberforce formally proposed abolition of the trade in 1791, his fellow members voted against his motion by nearly two to one. Wilberforce continued to press the matter, making similar proposals some nine times by 1805. During that time, due to the efforts of many reformers, the British people learned about the horrific conditions endured by enslaved Africans, and public opinion gradually turned against the slave trade.

It took longer to convince Parliament, but the Abolition of the Slave Trade bill was eventually passed in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords by large majorities and took effect in March 1807. Although the successful bill was introduced by another Member of Parliament, Wilberforce received full credit — and a rare standing ovation from the House of Commons — for his untiring efforts. Unfortunately, the 1807 bill did not immediately stop the slave trade. Seafaring traders flouted the law, sometimes covering this illegal commerce by throwing their captives overboard to drown when ships of the British navy approached. Many people became convinced that only the abolition of slavery would stop the trade.

Wilberforce at first resisted calls for outright abolition, writing in 1807, “It would be wrong to emancipate [the slaves]. To grant freedom to them immediately would be to insure not only their masters’ ruin, but their own. They must [first] be trained and educated for freedom.” But he eventually came to support full emancipation and worked to bring public opinion and political will together to that end. He continued to serve in Parliament, supporting a variety of causes, including overseas Christian mission, increased education, and greater freedom for Roman Catholics. He retired in 1825 due to ill health but continued to campaign for an end to slavery.

Wilberforce saw his efforts rewarded when Parliament passed a law in July 1833 outlawing slavery throughout the British Empire. He died three days later at age 73. In honor of his service to the nation, he was buried in the north transept of Westminster Abbey.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

July 28, 2023
The bulletin insert for July 23, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

The Feast of St. James, Apostle and Martyr

On July 25, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. James, apostle and martyr.

This James is often styled “St. James the Greater,” to distinguish him from the other Apostle of the same name and from James, “the brother of our Lord.” Along with his brother John, James was called by Jesus at the Sea of Galilee as they mended nets with their father, Zebedee, and his hired hands. St. James is named regularly during major events in the Gospels, witnessing the Transfiguration of Christ (Matthew 17; Mark 9; Luke 9), the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5, Matthew 9; Luke 8), and Jesus’ agony in the garden (Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 22).

St. James the Greater, Altarpiece of Mount San Martino; Carlo Crivelli, c. 1480.

For all this honor, though, James also receives correction from Jesus on more than one occasion. He and his brother are given the nickname “Sons of Thunder,” or Boanerges, for their zealous and temperamental dispositions. For example, when Samaritan villagers refused to welcome Jesus, the brothers eagerly asked whether he would have them call down fire from heaven to destroy the town. The Lord rebukes them and instead moves on to another village (Luke 9). The Gospels record the brothers (or perhaps their mother) asking the Lord to place them at his right and left hands in his kingdom, which also results in admonishment (Matthew 20), and James is among the apostles who fall asleep in the garden while Jesus prays (Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 22).

Still, James’ dedication to Jesus is without question, as he is understood to be the first of the twelve to die for him. As the Acts of the Apostles records, “About that time Herod the King laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the Church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword” (Acts 12:1–2).

Holy Women, Holy Men explains the veneration of and devotion to St. James following his death: “According to an old tradition, the body of James was taken to Compostela, Spain, which has been a shrine for pilgrims for centuries” (p. 484). His name was translated from the Hebrew Ya’akov to the Spanish Iago; thus, “Saint James” becomes “Santo Iago,” or “Santiago.” Santiago de Compostela was an extraordinarily popular destination for pilgrimages, leading to the development of the Camino de Santiago, a route across the countryside, marked by the fisherman’s symbol of a scallop shell.

Collect for St. James

O gracious God, we remember before you today your servant and apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that you will pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among your people; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

July 21, 2023
The bulletin insert for July 16, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

UTO Awards

More than $1 million in United Thank Offering grants was designated for 22 projects within The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion related to the worldwide incarceration crisis. The funds came from the United Thank Offering’s 2022 Ingathering, where monies collected in UTO “blue boxes” at Episcopal churches throughout the year are gathered as thank offerings. This year’s focus for grant applications was projects addressing the worldwide incarceration crisis, specifically preventative programs and intervention, prisoner support outreach, prison reform work, or post-prison reentry.

“The worldwide incarceration crisis affects us all, whether or not we know someone directly affected by incarceration,” said UTO Board President Sherri Dietrich. “Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 and the Way of Love encourage us to work for justice in the world and to respect the dignity of every human being, including prisoners and their families. The grants UTO funded this year will create that ministry in new places around the world.”

Below are some of the projects funded by the UTO in 2023. Find the whole list at iam.ec/uto2023en.

Well Time 2.0: Empowering Reentry

Des Moines, Iowa, $22,048

Well Time 2.0: Empowering Reentry will recruit/prepare volunteers from churches to provide faith-based support to women recently released from prison through weekly group meetings at the Waterloo Women’s Center for Change and through individual reentry teams for women to offer compassionate guidance to overcome personal, societal, and economic barriers.

Partner for Success

Elkridge, Maryland, $31,408

Partner for Success is a faith-based mentoring program designed to help those who are incarcerated make a smooth transition back into society in the greater Baltimore, Maryland, area. Participants are matched with a mentor and a worship community to establish short- and long-term plans–of–action for successful reentry back into society.

Sowing Love and Education

Eloy Alfaro, Canton Manta, Ecuador $79,604.14

Construction of the Child Care Center, which provides comprehensive and integral care to children from 3 months to 5 years old of incarcerated persons. The center will promote integral development of minors and their abilities, guarantee a safe and caring environment, initial education, psychological care, and support for families who take care of them.

Compassionate Anglicans Youth Republic Project of Campo Verde

Missionary District, Brazil: $55,000

This project is to create the Compassionate Anglicans Youth Republic Project , which will provide support, subsidized housing, and job training/work to a group of 10 young men who have aged out of shelters, are in vulnerable situations, have broken or extremely fragile family ties, and who do not have the means for self-sustenance.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

July 14, 2023

Maundy Thursday, April 2, 2026. Services at 12:00 noon and 7:00 pm. Gethsemane Watch Vigil from about 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

Good Friday, April 3, 2026: Services at 12:00 noon and 7:00 pm.

Holy Saturday worship at 9:30 am.

The Great Vigil of Easter, Saturday, April 4, 2025. Service at 8:00 pm. This is the night....

The 3rd Sunday of Easter (Year A), April 19, 2026. Services at 8:00 am (no music) and 10:30 (music). Education classes for adults (9:15 am) and children (9:30 am).