Bishop John Stephens' September 2023 Video Message

"The Cross, the empty Cross is a symbol of all we believe about God."

Bishop John Stephens's video message to the Diocese of New Westminster posted on YouTube marking the return to September activities, the Season of Creation and Holy Cross Day. 

In the video, Bishop Stephens also reports on a recent trip to visit the Kanaka Bar Band in British Columbia's Fraser Canyon.

He also shared this blessing, written by Jan Richardson:

This blessing could pound on your door in the middle of the night. This blessing could bang on your window, could tap dance in your hall, could set a dog loose in your room. It could hire a brass band to play outside your house.

But what this blessing really wants is not merely your waking, but your company. This blessing wants to site alongside you and keep vigil with you. This blessing wishes to wait with you.

And so, though it is capable of causing a cacophony that could raise the dead, this blessing will simply lean towards you and sing quietly in your ear a song to lull you not into sleep but into waking. It will tell you stories that will hold you breathless till the end. It will ask you questions you never considered, and have you tell it what you saw in your dreaming. This blessing will do all within its power to entice you into awareness.

Video filmed by Cliff Caprani, September 11, 2023