While our actual anniversary was on January 25, this Sunday St. Paul’s will celebrate the laying of our cornerstone 150 years ago on Sunday, January 29^th.  If you are in Rome, please do join us for our Eucharistic celebration in the morning at 10:30, and for our Solemn Evensong at 18:30 in which we will join with our ecumenical and diplomatic guests in giving thanks to God for the life and ministry of this church. We can’t wait to celebrate with you!
 
St. Paul’s was the first non-Roman Catholic church built within the Aurelian Walls, and as a church that understands itself to embrace both the historic catholic faith and the spirit of the Reformation, a major part of our role is to serve as a willing partner and connector between the divided parts of the Body of Christ.  One look at Edward Burne Jones’ mosaics that adorn our apse reminds us that the many diverse gifts of the church—those from the East and from the West, those from clergy and from laity, those from humanity and the wider creation—these gifts are given to us in order to call the larger world to abundant life in Christ.  Those of us who gather for worship here, like each of those unique and brilliant tessera, reflect the greater glory of God individually, but shine even more brilliantly when we add our gifts to the larger work that God is doing among us as a united Church.  As such, our church has always held strengthening the bonds of ecumenical appreciation and cooperation to be a major part of our mission.
 
The first Rector of St. Paul’s, The Rev. Robert Jenkins Nevin, gave the better part of his life and ministry to seeing St. Paul’s arise and thrive in the years following our Episcopal foundations as Grace Church in 1859.  In those early days, we were truly an American Church, representing both the Anglican form of worship that grew up in the colonies after the American Revolution, and our particular form of American bicameral democratic government that now exists in both the sacred and secular spheres (in the Episcopal Church and in the US.Congress).  While we are ever thankful for our American roots and heritage, St. Paul’s today comprises an intentionally international community, and we worship in English, Spanish, and Italian most Sundays.  This evolution and expansion from our American roots has been a faithful one, and it has, in part, grown out of our ministry among the guests of the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center for over 40 years.  Such a witness—of human beings gathered from all nations in the worship of God and working together toward better understanding while engaging in authentic worship that leads to personal and societal transformation—wasn’t exactly what our American founders might have envisioned.  But I believe that as they join us as part of the communion of saints in this anniversary celebration and each time we worship, that they are pleased that we’ve faithfully received the best of what they had to offer and built upon those solid foundations with the grace and assistance of the living Christ to become the church we are today.
 
If you are reading this and do not have a church home, or a community with which to engage in the deeper matters of identity, ministry, and the Spirit, please know that you are always welcome to join us here at St. Paul’s.  We look forward to Sunday’s celebration, and to building upon this wonderful legacy together in the years to come.
 
 
Yours in Christ,
 
Austin  

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
January 29th, 2023, 10.30 am

Conversations with Scripture continues this Sunday at 9:15am in the crypt!