These summer weeks, after we reopened with COVID19 hurtling into a new phase, offer a special opportunity to explore who we are and where we’re going—especially in our two universes, in-person and online.

This new hybrid chapter grows out of what we learned and shaped during our total virtual life during lockdown and its transitions. We migrated mostly to Facebook for our lived public, interactive programs, with live or video’d services, in partnership with our sister church, St. Gabriel’s in Olney. We created new formats—morning prayer, Midday Prayer, Compline—presented by St. Stephen’s lay staff, people like us all, worshipping, living this experience together. In the process we gained a virtual global community, some of whom we know, some we don’t but are hugely welcome.

The Friday Reflections, presented in rotation by Father Peter and our historian Suzanne, took shape as a form of nontraditional service. Unlike the others, these are illustrated texts posted on the church’s website and linked to Facebook for appearance at their given times. 

Father Peter and Suzanne will retreat from St. Stephen’s until September. In their absence, we’ll revisit some of their recent Reflections as springboards, or perhaps compasses, for much-needed broader reflections on any course forward.

We’ll begin with Suzanne’s foundational questions about this church, how it came to be associated with St. Stephen and how that first martyr/deacon speaks for us today. We then move to Father Peter’s observations on the direction of the Church at large today. 

It’s amazing what different and productive thinking for Now can emerge from reviewing writings on essential questions of only months before. But what months!!

No one can predict with certainty what will come tomorrow, let alone in the coming year or beyond. St. Stephen’s will continue to move forward seeking to be a new kind of ministry by reflecting on her past, being fully mindful of the present, and never being afraid of the future. Our name is rooted in martyrdom, our heritage in healing, and our present in being focused on anyone who wants and needs care for the soul in the obstacles, opportunities, and grace-filled daily moments of our life together. 

We pray that you enjoy revisiting these reflections in August!

—Saint Stephen’s Staff

View the first rerun here: How does St. Stephen Speak for Us?