There have been so many babies this week!

It’s been an unexpected way for me to spend Holy Week.  My own children are now teenagers so I don’t get to have time with babies as often as I used to. From time to time, I have the privilege of baptizing children at congregations that I visit as bishop.

But this week I got to see babies in real life! On a visit to Ulster County I had the chance to meet two children of our clergy. Both were born in the last six months. They are beautiful and precious and just beginning to explore the world around them.

I also had the chance to meet a baby born two weeks ago while her mother is in custody on Riker’s Island, the New York City jail. The facility has more than 7,000 women and men in custody — and, now, one baby. We visited for the long tradition of prayer and foot washing for Maundy Thursday.

This baby, alone in the Riker’s maternity ward, is beautiful and precious, too.  

The locations couldn’t have been more different, an Irish restaurant in the rural Hudson Valley and the nation’s largest jail.  But in the most important way, all three children are exactly alike. They are formed in deep love and will carry unending grace throughout their lives.

Easter and the resurrection's story of hope in God's Goodness

There’s a modern Christian worship song that I heard recently whose refrain proclaims “I sing of the goodness of God.” It’s not a usual........

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