Nurture and Challenge Your Spirit
a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
A Project Addressing Social Justice Issues
Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Gloucester, MA
2023
Early in 2023, a project was developed to address issues of social justice in the communities of Cape Ann, with the objective of “Building a Beloved Community” at Saint John’s. A series of Sunday service liturgies were designed to address these issues so as to inform parishioners about how we could become more aware of how social justice
affected our community.
Starting with the First Sunday in Lent, and scheduled through May, 2023, services focused on specific topics which included: Love Your Neighbor, Love Is Love (LGBTQ+ community), Understanding Race and Racism, Food Insecurity, Homelessness, and Immigration. For each service, an informational handout was distributed, specific readings and music addressing the topic were selected, and a sermon was delivered by the Rev. Lise Hildebrandt, interim pastor.
We invite you to click on each link provided and take the time to read the information provided here. You will find how both liturgy and issues addressing social justice can come together in helping to build a beloved community.
Living Our Faith As Christians
“It is impossible to love God without loving our neighbor.”
Mother Teresa
Building a Beloved Community: Our LGBTQ+ Community
“When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free.”
Barack Obama
Understanding Race and Racism
“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist. We must be anti-racist.”
Angela Davis
Feeding Our Neighbors
“The only time you should look in your neighbor’s bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don’t look in your neighbor’s bowl to see if you have as much as them.”
Louis C.K., Actor and Film maker.
Serving the Homeless
“People who are homeless are not social inadequates. They are people without homes.”
— Sheila McKechnie, Housing Campaigner and Activist
Our immigrant Neighbors
“We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”
Jimmy Carter
