07/03/2026
A pastoral letter from our bishop for this holiday weekend:
Dear People of God,
I hope that you are celebrating with joy this Fourth of July and the 250th birthday of our nation. Parades, fireworks, reenactments, museum displays, music, and food are embodiments of pride and our particular experience of what it means to call these United States of America our nation. Our Sunday worship is another place of celebration and reflection, as we consider what it means to be a citizen of God’s reign as well as a citizen of this country in our day.
Last week, a member of our diocese, David Streever, who is the spouse of the Rev. Hilary Streever, experienced the effects of demonstrating what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. David and his family were approached and tracked by ICE agents seeking to question him about a letter he wrote in January denouncing the actions of ICE agents in Minnesota and calling on the Department of Homeland Security’s director to consider his conscience. They alleged that his letter was threatening. David and his lawyer are clear that he was exercising his right to free speech in a participatory democracy. His full story can be found on the National Public Radio website in a story by Jude Joffe-Block or in the Democrat & Chronicle.
This past month, we have been reading the tenth chapter of the gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus speaks openly and frankly with his disciples about the cost of discipleship. Jesus tells us not to fear because “nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.” Our call as disciples of Jesus Christ is to speak the truth, to witness to the way of God, which proclaims peace, mercy, and justice for every person without exception. Jesus reminds us that there is a cost to such a witness. “Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.” We are well aware of how God’s people have treated the prophets; we remember every Sunday the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ, the one we are to imitate.
David Streever’s experience reminds me of what it means to be a disciple of Christ and a good citizen of this country. Many of you have expressed discouragement and despair of the actions taken by our government and fear that your voices aren’t being heard. David’s letter did get noticed, and though it led to intimidation efforts, his willingness to use his own privilege to speak up should inspire us to do the same. When actions taken by our government do not stand up to the moral standards we profess as Christians, it is both our Christian and our civic duty to speak and act.
As Episcopalians, we are uniquely aware of the value of the separation of church and state. While many Anglicans remained loyalists in the American Revolution, others claimed that we could worship God and pray for the president instead of the king, that a church with Christ as King could operate as a democracy in a democracy. We shed the role of the established church and became a church that supports a state established by and for the people for the common good. We formed a community that is able to participate in and critique our own government.
Let us continue to use those rights our ancestors fought so hard to establish and maintain. Keep staying current with the news, keep connections with family, neighbors, and co-workers, keep talking as a community, keep writing letters, protesting, and working for the American ideals that have helped us to flourish- free speech, free exercise of religion, and equal protection under the law. Let us celebrate the history and diversity of this nation, remembering that rights are not pie slices, to be taken from one person and given to another, but rather a banquet in which the more people are invited to the table of rights and privileges, the richer we all become. The bigger we make the table, the closer we come to the promise of God’s table, that banquet of love and justice which we strive every day to bring to fruition.
God’s Blessings,
+Kara Wagner Sherer
