St. Stephen’s priest to rejoice 50th ordination anniversary

Life is superb, even if it has dealt us some heavy blows this year.

Who could have imagined that a 7 days ahead of Xmas we would be in the middle of a pandemic that has now taken the life of over 300,000 People in america? Or that thousands and thousands of Us citizens would have to stand in foodstuff lines to feed their spouse and children? Or that many companies would be shut down, causing hundreds of thousands to be jobless?

Or that law enforcement brutality against African Us residents would be so blatant — and repeated? And who could have imagined the hatred that looks to have overtaken our beloved The us, pitting close friend versus good friend, neighbor towards neighbor, point out versus state?

Still, for all the turmoil, the tricky-hitting blows, the setbacks, the deaths that nonetheless go away our state in mourning, I see a flicker of gentle at the end of the tunnel of 2020. And appear January, many Us citizens will choose up the broken pieces of 2020 and commence afresh.

I am certain there will be the regular New Year’s resolutions. As gyms open up, there will be new memberships. A lot of will assure to be improved human beings, to be gentler, kinder.

2021 will welcome a new president and vice president to lead our country. The simple fact that Individuals picked a president who chose a female of color to be his vice president has specified me and a ton of others a renewed self-confidence in our country.

And there is extra: Thanks to the new vaccines, there is hope on the horizon that 2021 is the 12 months we will win the war towards COVID-19. Meanwhile, we brace ourselves for the lives nevertheless to be lost even though we mourn the buddies and loved ones customers whose lives have presently been snuffed out.

These musings of mine come at a time when those of us who are Christian get ready our hearts and houses to celebrate the light of Christmas. And our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrate the lights of Hanukkah. These fantastic traditions nonetheless provide us pleasure and will guide us through the darkness, the damage and soreness of 2020.

As The united states looks ahead to new management in Washington, we must also try to remember that President-elect Joe Biden is just a single human being. When I imagine he will be a excellent president, he will only be as great as the senators and reps on both of those sides of the aisle permit him be.

These are the gentlemen and gals we have entrusted our flexibility to and they need to arrive jointly for the fantastic of our nation. Even a non-politician like me can see that partisanship ought to be abolished if we are to endure.

In the course of this previous 12 months, I have found so several functions of kindness, of folks serving to men and women. I have found these functions even when the pandemic, the in-property battling, and the hideous racism that poked its head up caught us off guard and knocked us down once more.

But we don’t have to stay down. We can get again up, brush off the dust and arrive again much better than at any time. How do I know this?

This is who we are we are all in this wash together. Christmas is a great time to scrub out all the stains that separate us. This is the time of peace and goodwill, a time for us to lay aside our dissimilarities — not for just the holiday seasons but from now on.

Merry Xmas and Satisfied Hanukkah to all!

St. Stephen’s priest celebrates 50th anniversary

Warm congratulations to the Rev. Howard Stowe, who is celebrating the golden 12 months of his ordination as an Episcopal priest at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 2750 McFarlane Street in Coconut Grove.

Stowe was ordained in 1970 in New York City at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, in which he served as the bishop’s assistant for two years ahead of getting to be rector of Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church in Manhattan.

Stowe moved to South Florida in 1995, and has served at The Church of the Fisherman in Islamorada, Holy Spouse and children Episcopal Church in Miami Gardens, Saint Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Critical Biscayne and Christ Episcopal Church in Coconut Grove.

It was when Stowe served at Christ Episcopal that he became the chaplain at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Day University in Coconut Grove, where he served as both equally Working day School Chaplain and as Priest-in-Demand of the parish though a lookup for a new rector was being carried out.

Bishop Leo Frade, who has considering the fact that retired, requested Stowe to be the mentoring priest to assistance the Rev. Albert Cutie when he built the changeover into the Episcopal priesthood. Cutie, a former Roman Catholic priest, later turned the rector at the Church of the Resurrection in Biscayne Park, and Stowe stayed on to assistance him right before returning to Saint Stephen’s.

Stowe will celebrate the Holy Eucharist at 10: 30 a.m. Due to the fact of the pandemic, the celebration services will be outdoor and deal with masks and social distancing will be needed for these attending.