links

September 15, 2016, The Rev. Jane Brady

September 9, 2016, The Rev Jayne Oasin

July 21, 2016, The Rev. Jayne Oasin

Documents

Funeral Customary

Committee Trifold Brochure

Worship Service for Caregivers

Older Adult Ministry in The Episcopal Church

Aging is Changing

New Jersey Division of Aging Services

New Jersey Foundation for Aging

Administration on Aging

National Resource on LGBT Aging

  • 808 W. State Street, Trenton, NJ 08618

Sermons

Oct. 23—Stewardship Sunday 2022 Sermon

It’s all about God…All about God and God’s grace in Jesus Christ. We are what God has made us. The good works we do, including our financial stewardship, including our giving of time and talent, we do because God made us for these, we do them by God’s grace as our thankful response to the love God has so abundantly and freely bestowed on us. To God be the glory in our serving. To God be the glory in our loving. To God be the glory in our giving. To God be the glory in our living and whenever that day comes, to God be the glory in our dying.

View Sermon >>
October 16, 2022

May 1—ECS Sunday: “Tend my Sheep”

Episcopal Community Services of the Diocese of New Jersey is a significant means by which we all can show our love for Jesus by tending to the sheep he has entrusted to us, and especially those who hurt most, who are most fragile and vulnerable.  This third Sunday in Easter, as we proclaim the risen Lord, I pray you will join me in giving thanks for the work we are doing together through Episcopal Community Services of the Diocese of New Jersey.  More important, I pray you will support the work of the Lord, our feeding the sheep and tending the flock entrusted to our care by generous with your donations and your prayers.

View Sermon >>
April 27, 2022

Bishop Stokes’ 2022 Easter Message

“For ancient Israel, Passover was God’s saving event, in which Moses led the people Israel out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land. For Christians, Christ is God’s “saving event” calling us, leading us, out of bondage to the slavery of sin and death into the light of God’s love and life, love and life, here, now, today, in our world and in our lives. And we today, and our world, are desperately in need of this saving event.”

View Sermon >>
April 15, 2022

Bishop’s Christmas Message 2021

Christmas came into my mother’s dull room in a New York City nursing home last week.  It is my prayer that the newborn Christ comes just as surely, and with that same heavenly light and joy that shines, that always shines, in darkness, wherever and whenever that darkness exists.

View Sermon >>
December 23, 2021

Stewardship Sunday & the Rich Young Man

Gracious and generous God, giver of all we have and hold as stewards; grant the people of this church a deep and abiding awareness that all that we have-our health, our incomes, our jobs, our talents –  are gifts received from your hand. Send your Holy Spirit to help us as we swim against the rising tides of materialism and greed in our culture. Send your Holy Spirit to teach us that we make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give! Send your Holy Spirit to remind us that when we give generously and joyfully, we grow in grace and our spiritual lives are transformed as our stewardship becomes a witness to the love of Jesus Christ in our lives.  We pray with grateful, thankful hearts, in the name of Jesus, the Christ…AMEN!

View Sermon >>
October 6, 2021

Not Following Us! 18 Pentecost 2021

How often we create obstacles for one another. How often we create obstacles to the Good News of Jesus Christ. Checking in on our own behaviors is important. Today’s reading from the Letter of James offers some guidance here—“confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed” (James 5:16). It points us to humility with one another. Too often, today, humility seems in short supply.

View Sermon >>
September 25, 2021

Who is the Greatest? Pentecost 17

When we welcome and serve the marginalized: children, the oppressed, welcome and serve those without power—we might think of Afghan refugees or immigrants at our borders, for example—when we welcome those who are broken through abuse and addiction, when we welcome and serve those who know they need Christ and his love or welcome and serve those who haven’t discovered that need yet….When we welcome all in his name and love we are welcoming Christ himself. When we welcome Christ, we are welcoming God.

View Sermon >>
September 18, 2021

What Language Do We Speak? Pentecost 16

Some asked on that day twenty years ago, and some continue to ask, “Where was God?” My response is always, right there; right there in the selfless sacrifice of all those people who did not think of their own safety, but acted for the sake of others at great risk, and in far too many instances, at the highest cost. Greater love hath no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends, Scripture says (John 15:13). On September 11, 2001, that greater love was shown over and over and over again and that’s where God was. That’s where God always is. That is my conviction. That is our conviction as believers in Jesus Christ.

View Sermon >>
September 11, 2021

The Syrophoenician Woman

I love this story. It’s one of my favorites in the New Testament. It invites rich reflection. To begin with, I think it portrays an “aha” moment for Jesus, a moment when he grew in wisdom and understanding. This makes some people uncomfortable. But consider.

As Episcopalians, it’s our teaching and conviction that Jesus is both “fully human” and “fully divine.” There are times in our reading of the Gospels when the full “divinity” of Jesus is on clear display, as when he casts out the legion of demons from that suffering Gerasene man (Mk. 5:1 ff.), or when he feeds 5,000 (Mk 6:30 ff.), or when he walks on water (Mk 6:45 ff.). So, too, there are times when we catch clear glimpses of Jesus being fully human. Consider his aching cry in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Mk. 14:36).

View Sermon >>
September 3, 2021