Rev'd Gavin Dunbar

Vol. 57 No. 9   The Conversion of St. Paul (Epiphany 3)     January 25, 2026 In the season of Epiphany the Church celebrates the manifestations of God’s glory in Christ—manifestations not confined to Israel, but extended to the Gentile world. It is…

Vol. 57 No. 8   The Second Sunday after Epiphany   January 18, 2026 By the word Epiphany we refer both to a particular day (January 6th) and to the season that follows it. (This season varies in length – from two to…

Vol. 57 No. 7   The First Sunday after Epiphany   January 11, 2026 Epiphany means manifestation, or appearing— specifically the manifestation of deity. Scripture records many epiphanies: God descending upon Sinai in cloud and fire; even the created order itself is theophanic,…

Vol. 57 No. 6   The Second Sunday after Christmas   January 4, 2026 The fourth century was dominated by controversy over the deity and humanity of Christ. Was it God himself who came to save the world in Christ, or merely someone…

Vol. 57 No. 4   The Fourth Sunday in Advent    December 21, 2025 Christmas Communions: Baptized Christians admitted to Communion should receive the sacrament on Christmas (Dec. 24 at 5 p.m. or 11 p.m.; Dec. 25 at 11 a.m.) or on the…

Vol. 57 No. 3   The Third Sunday in Advent    December 14, 2025 The Nicene Creed begins with the confession of Israel’s faith in “one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible”. Pagan…

Vol. 57 No. 1   The First Sunday in Advent    November 30, 2025 An Annual Congregational Meeting is an opportunity to review the state of the parish, and much of this is necessarily concerned with reports on finances, buildings, attendance, and programming.…

One of our more agreeable habits at St John’s is an Annual Meeting that accomplishes necessary business in a businesslike fashion. This year was no exception. With Graham Sadler, the Senior Warden, in the chair, concise yet pithy reports were…

Reprinted from February 2018. The clergy, you know, can say some uncommonly foolish things. (I plead guilty). So I will not name the dignitary who, some years ago, opined at a clergy gathering that confession of sin made people judgmental.…

All Saints Day is past, but its themes linger in this final month of the church year. On the one side, there is what I would call its earthly aspect, all too familiar to us, of grief and loss, of…

Visiting the celebrated Uffizi galleries in Florence is an ordeal. They have been sucked into the dark hole of bucket-list-driven mass tourism, and the opportunity to contemplate their celebrated collections requires teeth-gritted determination. Yet even in the Uffizi there are…