Less than twenty-four hours ago, ten of us from this parish gathered with several hundred other people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, to witness and celebrate the ordination of John Dwyer and five more from the Diocese of New York as deacons in Christ's church.

Alabama native Dr. Louie Crew, Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, shares his experiences of growing up in a devout Baptist household, his reactions to the worldwide Anglican struggles and the challenges that exist even today with racism.

My name is Dustin Cole and I am the coordinator of Sacred Grounds. For the past year Sacred Grounds has created a space for people in their 20's and 30's to come together in worship and to socialize with people from around the diocese. It has helped to build-up relationships among young adults from different parishes which have given us a greater sense of community in the Episcopal Church.

We live in an age of violence. Even before on 9/11 terrorism reared its ugly head, Americans were on our way to being a society defined by violence - whether the ritualized murder of fictional terminator movies, or the equally ritualized but less benign reality TV shows giving us live feeds of very the real flesh and blood violence of police beatings and crimes in progress, all in the name of entertainment.