Dec. 24—Christmas Eve at Trinity Cathedral
“We’re into that season where the world pauses, for just a moment, to breathe, to wonder, and to worship.”
December 27, 2023
Dec. 9—Sermon and Address to the Special Convention
Our first reading is from the prophet Amos and includes that wonderful line “let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” It comes in the context of a prophetic condemnation, a charge to the people of Israel who have not done what God has asked of them, and it is a powerful reminder for us of the call to live lives of righteousness and faith. For a special convention focused on our diocesan budget, it is perhaps especially important as a reminder that our work with the financial resources entrusted to us is not about us—it is about God, and we are called not to be comfortable, but faithful, to do God’s work, with justice, compassion, and mercy.
December 16, 2023
Proper 22, 2023 Clergy Day Sermon
The Chief Cornerstone was the first part of the building that was set. It’s the very first stone that went into the ground and everything else in the building took shape from that first cornerstone. If the other stones were not properly lined up with the cornerstone, then the building wouldn’t stand.
October 6, 2023
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.
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.
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.”
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.
December 23, 2021
Episcopal Community Services of the Diocese of New Jersey Sunday
ECS is already making a meaningful and positive impact across the diocese through its education and advocacy work and through the grants it is making to address vital human needs in this part of God’s dominion. The convergence of ECS Sunday with the Second Sunday of Advent is appropriate and powerful.
November 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!
October 6, 2021
If You Want to See God, Look at Jesus
Diocese of New Jersey – Online Sermon 19 Pentecost – Proper 22 – Year B – October 3, 2021 Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16 Preacher: The Right Reverend William H.
October 3, 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.
September 25, 2021
