Some of you may know that I’m only at St. John’s part-time. Some of you may even wonder what I do with the rest of my time! This week was a typical one for me: a weekday spent working on a ‘virtual pilgrimage’ app for a church in Florida; an early-morning Zoom with a canon from the Anglican cathedral in Singapore about creating digital prayer resources for the Church of the Province of South East Asia (well, for him it was a late-night Zoom, given the 12-hour time difference!); and, most locally and, for the moment, most relevantly, joining the Life Together community as a Prayer Partner.

Life Together is the Episcopal Service Corps program in the Diocese of Massachusetts, a kind of “church AmeriCorps” in which young adult volunteers live together in an intentional community, serve in year-long placements at local parishes and non-profits, and receive training in prophetic leadership, contemplative practices, and community building. It’s a pretty awesome program—and one with which you’re all indirectly connected, since I was a Life Together fellow in 2013-14!

This is my first year as a “Prayer Partner.” Prayer Partners accompany the fellows for a year, meeting with them twice a month as a group to pray for and with them, listen to them, and support them in their life as a community and as individuals.  

It was a huge gift to me to spend Monday afternoon with the fellows at their home in the rectory of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Dorchester, to get to know them and to begin a relationship with them. They’ve dedicated a year or two of their lives to becoming more connected to God, one another, and themselves, and to serving the common good—and they are passionate about the work they are setting out to do.

You can click here to read more about this year’s Life Together fellows. (N.B.: “Micah Fellow” means first-year fellow, “Emmaus Fellow” means a second-year fellow.) I hope you’ll join me in praying for them and for their life together as they begin this new year.