Last Sunday we closed out the liturgical year with a festive Eucharist at St. Mark's Lutheran with strings, full choir, a chanted Eucharist and 'sufficient' incense for those in the congregation who prefer not to see the person in front of them.

Memorial and St. Mark's have a recent tradition of joining together a few times a year to celebrate the bonds between the Lutheran and Episcopal Traditions and to add some signficance to feast days like Christ the King.

This year, in addition we invited a guest preacher, the Rev. Rob Lee, who has recently gone from a church pastor to traveling preacher after he was asked to resign after taking a public stand supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and asking that confederate monuments be removed. He told the truth, that often we are all 'goats' in Jesus' view, but as we come to the end of the year, it is a good time to prepare ourselves to become sheep once again - by speaking truth to power, standing up for the downtrodden, and not being afraid to speak up for the Gospel.

The Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Donnella II, pastor of St. Mark's, the Rev. Rob Lee, guest preacher; and the Rev. Grey Maggiano