A reporter with the Providence Journal recently contacted me to ask about our church's experience of poverty in Southern Rhode Island and what sort of commitment we had to work for its relief. After cataloguing our Faithbuild, Jonnycake Center, and other charitable
work, I said this of you: I surveyed our members a few years ago about the work they did as volunteers for helping projects and agencies in RI and between them, they worked for over 35 organizations, from the Nonviolence center at URI to local public libraries, health care centers, tutoring and mentoring, Scouts, youth programs, the senior center, and more.
Ordinarily most of this practice of compassion and loving-kindness happens quietly - no fanfare or self-promotion, just steady faithful work by many hands. They also practice extraordinary kindness to one another, particularly in times of loss and trouble - a quality which touches my heart constantly.

I believe our church members give generously and fearlessly because they understand that giving is good for the soul, is at the core of the Gospel message and the calling of the prophets, brings us closer to God, and brings joy. It is a privilege to be able to give, whatever one's means, to the work of building up God's reign. It is what Jesus asks of us.

I am so grateful for your generous lives and I feel honored to serve among you. Plus, even amid loss and illness, sadness and dying, this community is filled with laughter and fun and a lot of good food! These are all hallmarks of the reign of God.

We have coming up our next Senior Lunch (June 5, noon) and parish picnic and swimming at Larkins Pond (June 28, 6pm). How very blessed we are to have our own master chef and certified Food Safety expert Rob Ravenscroft lending his spirit and gifts to these dining events. Jesus used parables about feasts and enactments of marvelous feeding a lot in his ministry and pointed to these as characteristic of God's reign.
"It's like a marriage feast," he would say; or "The Kingdom of Heavenis like a banquet thrown by a king". And next we'd see him inviting himself to dinner at some undesirable's house, or reclining at table with the rich and famous of the little towns where he preached and healed. He probably seldom ate alone, but rather surrounded by bands of his friends and disciples, hosted by the women disciples and women relatives of the men (women who also financed the travels of the group and often provided lodging and later hosted house churches in their living rooms). The tiniest child sticking out her hands understands that holy joy comes through eating among loved ones. My Dad in his very senior years at the nursing home still finds meals, and his afternoon tea and biscuits with me, to be highlights of a difficult stage of life. Viscerally, we understand that God feeds us - with all the abundance of the earth on our tables and also with Godself in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, holy communion. God's generosity fuels our
generosity. How fortunate we are to be divinely fed and to be able to feed our neighbors divinely in the hungers of our souls and bodies!