Saint Clement's Episcopal Church

05/22/2026

One of Bishop Deon’s early mentors is a dear friend of Joy’s. This is an important story to consider, as you think about who is harmed in deportation and detention processes.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1ALLoshdCw/

What happened to Bishop Deon Johnson's family was not supposed to happen. A routine green card appointment in Mexico turned into a yearlong separation. His husband, who came to the United States as a young child and had never known another home, was told he could not return. For an entire year, two children grew up without one of their parents present. A Quinceañera was canceled. Ordinary moments that families take for granted simply vanished.

Bishop Johnson did not withdraw. He continued leading the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri while quietly navigating one of the most painful experiences of his life. When his husband finally returned home on Valentine's Day of last year, the bishop chose to speak. Not only about his family, but about the thousands of people across this diocese and this country who face the same uncertainty without the platform to say so.

This week, St. Louis Public Radio sat down with Bishop Johnson for a candid and moving conversation about faith, family, fear, and what it means to live with the constant shadow of a system that can upend a life without warning. It is a story that belongs to all of us.
Click below to read the full article and listen to the interview.

Full article: https://www.stlpr.org/race-identity-and-faith/2026-05-20/episcopal-bishopmissouri-immigration-striggles

05/20/2026

Per request, Sunday’s sermon begins at minute 35:16. Be of good courage, hold fast to what is good, exchange no one evil for evil…

https://youtu.be/JMbqlDwGT0A?si=IPyAK45xdeiEGSh5

05/14/2026

Beloved in Christ,

The modern world has shaped us with a largely unexamined bias against the supernatural and the inexplicable. Ironically, we take it on unquestioned faith that anything not rational or explainable is not possible or believable.

The ascension of Jesus into heaven, which we celebrate today, slams squarely into this bias. It’s a crazy thing to claim or imagine: After his physical resurrection from the dead, Jesus ascended in his full body into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of the creator. Its oddness, and that fact that the feast always falls in the middle of the week on a Thursday, means that most Christians don’t give it much thought, and when they do, are quick to pass over it.

But the Ascension, like the whole Christian faith, is good news precisely because it is crazy. It lies entirely outside our capacity to imagine. It reminds us the world is steeped in God’s mysterious presence, and sustained by God’s power which we can scarcely imagine. It establishes that in Jesus, heaven and earth have been decisively and permanently tethered together, and God’s promised future of perfect love and justice breaks in and pulls us forward toward it even now. The Ascension is another way our faith is always opening up new possibilities and new horizons of hope before us even as we journey through a hard and painful world. It reminds us that our hope is not grounded in our own ability, but in the unfathomable power of God’s love.

So rather than an embarrassed pushing aside of this part of our faith, we do well to boldly embrace its glorious and world-saving strangeness in our faith and proclamation.

My kids and I always blast the great Ascension Day hymn, “Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise” on the feast each year. I hope you will find some small way to rejoice in God’s almighty, irrational, unstoppable, and unimaginable power and love this feast day. Hail the day that sees him rise indeed.

Grace and Peace,

The Right Reverend Craig Loya
Bishop X
Episcopal Church in Minnesota

05/10/2026

Lovely music, solemn prayer, scripture, and community. Come for some peace and beauty -- stay for the reception afterwards!

04/16/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1CYrxrn1H7/

I stand with my brother in Christ, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, in his courageous call for a kingdom of peace.

As I prepare to visit Rome later this month to meet and pray with Pope Leo, I am mindful of his call to keep our eyes open to the suffering of the world, and our gaze fixed on our crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ – the image of the invisible God, in whose image and likeness every human being is made. In him, we recognise that we are children of the one Father and members of a single human family. Prayer is not an escape from the world, nor a turning away from injustice; rather, it is a turning towards God in the midst of it, confronting evil, seeking God’s will, and becoming instruments of transformation and peace.

Read my full statement on my website.

04/14/2026

This Saturday, April 18th, is the Back to the 80s Choir Cabaret!

Cabaret is a fundraiser event for the Choir’s 2028 summer pilgrimage to sing at Ely Cathedral. What’s in it for you? Music! Excellent food and drink! Comedy! Dramatic readings! Trivia! Raffle tickets to win excellent gift baskets! Here’s your chance to celebrate the 80s - not just the 1980s, but the 1880s, the 1780s, the 1680s and possibly others.

Join us this Saturday, April 18th, beginning at 7:00pm in St. Clement’s Parish Hall.

Photo: St. Alban's Cathedral, the site of our last choir pilgrimage!

04/07/2026

We worship a Creator whose every hope for us is peace and whose Son we know as the Prince of Peace. Pray for justice and peace. https://www.facebook.com/share/17EnMq29WR/

URGENT: Tonight at 7 PM CT, light a candle wherever you are.

The people of Iran deserve peace, safety, & dignity.

Say a prayer. Stand in solidarity. Refuse to be silent in the face of violence.

04/03/2026

Just a couple of weeks after Holy Week and Easter, do come for some fun and entertainment!

03/27/2026

Dear Friends,

This Sunday is Palm Sunday and marks the beginning of Holy Week. We invite you to explore the offerings at St. Clement’s in the days ahead, and we hope you will join us on the road to the Resurrection.

As we prepare for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, we share this reflection from former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams:

"At the beginning of Holy Week, we stand with Jesus before the gates of a city. We know that once we have entered we shall be swept up in events that we cannot control and that will bring us to the very edge of what we can bear, as we walk with him to Calvary and the tomb ... Jesus does not steer us away from the gates and send us back into the holy silence of the desert or the peace of the countryside. He keeps us close to him as we stand at the gates, and he tells us that these are also the gates of heaven. If you recognise your involvement and prepare to walk with Jesus into the city, to the cross and the tomb, there is a joy and a mystery at the end of the path, because it is inexhaustible divine love that walks with us."

Blessings,
St. Clement's Clergy and Staff