The following invocation was delivered by Fr. Phil at the Labor Banquet held at Suffolk Downs on April 6, 2011.

O Lord, God, you have reminded us that you created each of us in your own image, not merely a preferred few, but all of us; that each of us may reflect the joy and glory of your indwelling spirit and that we should look for your presence in one another.  Through that presence you have led us through valley’s shadowed by death: from Haymarket to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, from the mills of Lowell and New Bedford to the mines of West Virginia and Utah, from the indifference which led to the 1919 North End Molasses Flood to the state sanctioned murder of Joe Hill and Sacco and Vanzetti, from criminal syndicalism to states where the “right to work” means the right to be poorly paid, from the federal raids of A. Mitchell Palmer to the governors and legislators of Wisconsin and Ohio.  You have called us not to be silent before the rich, nor neglectful of the poor.  In your comparison of the redemption of the rich with passing a camel through the eye of a needle, you did not intend us to consider larger needles, nor genetically altered camels, but to engage willingly, joyfully, in sharing with you the ongoing work of building your righteous kingdom on earth.  Lord, help us to help you build a world where laborers enjoy more respect than manipulators of capital, where borders, the artificial lines we draw across the face of your created earth, neither keep people without or within; a world where the weak are protected, and none go hungry or poor; a world where the riches of creation are shared by all; a world where diversity is respected and where no one is shut out; a world where peace is built with justice, and justice is guided by love; a world where the vision of every man and woman under his or her own vine and fig tree is insured by equal opportunity, fair wages, and enough vines and fig trees, chairs and shelters, for all.  Amen.

Pictures from the Parish Family

A recent visit from Bishop Bud Cederholm when we also celebrated the 60th Anniversary of Dick and Eileen.

Julie, our Parish Clerk, recently performed Missa Gaia (Earth Mass) with the Dedham Choral Society.