From Bishop Steve – Newsletter 10.14.26

Dear Ones,

I invite your prayers for the people of Erie, Pennsylvania, in the aftermath of the mass shooting. Please pray for the victims, their friends, families and community.

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Our 189th Annual Convention is just over a week away, and if you haven’t done so already, now is the time to prepare. The materials for our Convention may all be found on the diocesan convention website page (2026 Convention), and a recording of one of the two Pre-Convention meetings may be found there as well. The recording is just an hour and provides a lot of information in a short time.

I also want to remind you to bring a cell phone or other online device so we can practice electronic voting. We will use electronic voting in the election of our next bishop in May. If you have questions about electronic voting, you can find more information on the same 2026 Convention website page by scrolling down to A New Way to Vote at Convention. And you can always call the Diocesan Ministry Center (716) 881-0660.

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Last night, I went to The Little Theatre in Rochester and saw an award winning documentary by John Wilson called The History of Concrete. That scintillating title opens the door into a quirky, surprising, and poignant meditation on impermanence. There’s a lot of information about concrete and its uses, but the underlying theme is that nothing lasts forever, not even concrete. In fact, modern concrete has a life expectancy of about 40 years. The only constant in life is change. The history of concrete in construction is played against the drawing of a Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala.

Change is hard for everyone. We all desire security, predictability, steadfastness – perhaps above all else. Change causes anxiety, fear, rage and worse. We want the world today to be pretty much like the world yesterday. We want to know that we will still be secure, still be safe, today. The rate of change in the last couple of decades has stretched our capacity to cope – and some days we don’t cope very well.

For Christians, change is an interesting dilemma for, on the one hand, we have a God who is unchanging and eternal. The promises of God never change. God calls us endlessly to love, forgiveness and mercy as the way to eternal life. And yet, on the other hand, this same God is always making things new, always calling us to the new thing God is doing, always inviting us to renew and remake our world. For Christians, security and change are all rolled up together.

I hate looking at the headlines first thing in the morning because I’m afraid something awful has happened overnight. But I look at them because, as a pastor, I want to know what people are experiencing, what I need to address that day. The last time I didn’t look, the Marine Barracks were bombed in Lebanon in 1983. Looking produces anxiety, but, for me, not knowing is worse.

The Good News in all of this for us is that we know the end of the story. We know where history is going. We know that our destination is the New Jerusalem and life with God. And we know that God will not be deterred from God’s intentions. Amidst all of the change, all of the evil, poverty, and violence of our world, we can continue to face the world with compassion and love. We can be signs of the world that is coming. We’re not exempt from feeling the anxiety and pain of change, but we are empowered to meet it with hope.

Christ’s peace,
Bishop Steve