Faithfulness In Our Time
Bearing the Image of God in Public Life:
A Pastoral Statement on Christian Faithfulness in Our Time
In recent weeks, many of us have felt the strain of a deeply unsettled moment in our common life. Conversations around immigration, refugees, enforcement, fear, and authority have grown sharper and more polarized. Some feel threatened. Others feel unheard. Many are simply weary.
As Christians, we are called first to think biblically and pray faithfully, and only then to respond. What follows is not a political statement, but an attempt, as your priest, to help us attend to the moral and spiritual questions before us—to be grounded in Scripture, shaped by the mind of Christ, and guided by the Holy Spirit as we seek to live faithfully in a fractured world.
Holy Scripture teaches us two truths that must be held together, not pulled apart.
First, the Bible affirms the legitimacy of civil authority. Governments are entrusted with maintaining order, establishing laws, and protecting the common good. Scripture does not dismiss borders, laws, or the responsibility of nations to govern themselves wisely and justly. Order is not opposed to faith; it is meant to serve human flourishing.
Second—and just as clearly—Scripture insists that every human being bears the image of God. Again and again, God calls His people to care for the vulnerable: the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. Our Lord Himself entered fully into the vulnerability of human life and taught that how we treat the least and the overlooked is inseparable from how we love Him.
These truths are not enemies. Justice and compassion are not rivals. Law and mercy are not opposites. When they are set against one another, something has gone wrong.
As Christians, we must resist the twin temptations of our age: fear and outrage. Fear hardens hearts and turns neighbors into threats. Outrage inflames language and erodes charity. Neither produces the peace of Christ.
At the same time, Christian faith does not call us to silence in the face of suffering. When people live in fear, when families are fractured, when rhetoric dehumanizes, or when sacred spaces meant for prayer and refuge are treated with contempt, the Church must speak—not with anger, but with moral clarity and love. Truth without love becomes cruelty; love without truth becomes sentimentality. The way of Christ holds both together.
This also means being clear about how we bear witness. Christians are never free to abandon restraint, charity, or reverence. Disorder cannot heal disorder. The sanctity of worship, the dignity of persons, and the call to peace matter deeply—not as strategies, but as expressions of who we are in Christ.
So what does faithfulness look like now?
It looks like persistent, humble prayer for those who fear, those who grieve, and those entrusted with authority.
It looks like refusing dehumanizing language, no matter who is speaking it.
It looks like caring for neighbors who are anxious or vulnerable, offering presence and compassion where God has placed us.
It looks like engaging public life thoughtfully and lawfully, with conscience shaped by Scripture rather than slogans.
And above all, it looks like hope—not naïve optimism, but the deep Christian hope rooted in the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Sin, injustice, and fear do not have the final word. Christ does.
As we continue to walk through this season together, my prayer is that All Saints would be known as a place where truth is spoken without contempt, disagreement does not become division, and the dignity of every person is honored as a gift from God.
May the Lord grant us wisdom, courage, restraint, and compassion—and make us faithful witnesses to His reconciling love in a troubled world.