There’s a talented cartoonist who has been doing cartoons for the Episcopal Church for several years–in fact, every year there is a calendar printed that features one of his cartoons each month. (You can see more of them here). At the church office, it’s on the wall just as you enter. It caught my attention recently and I stopped to look at the January cartoon:

Of course it’s amusing, and there are certainly times that I might wish for some of these things, but I have to say, these are not the things that your rector dreams of, deep down. The things I dream of probably wouldn’t make for a funny cartoon, but hopefully they WOULD make the world (or the part of it that we can hope to impact) a better place. I don’t know that these would necessarily be my top four, but when this rector dreams, she dreams of a world without poverty, hunger, homelessness and violence; a world where racism, class-ism, ethnocentricity, homo- and transphobia are vague recollections of history; a world where women and children are as valued as men; a world where it doesn’t matter where you are born–you have equal access to healthcare and education and an environment not suffering from the ravages of greed.

Maybe I think too big, but I believe that all of us, empowered by meaningful worship and experiences of the holy, and then dreaming together and working together (or not necessarily in that order), will make the world a better place. Sure, I’d love it if you raised your pledge (operators are standing by: call 973-539-0703…) or insisted that I preach longer sermons, but my dreams are bigger than that.

What do you dream of?

Yours in faith,
Cynthia