Dear friends in Christ,

I suspect that most Forward Today readers are living in the United States of America. Today is a big day in our national life. If you are living outside the USA, we could still use your prayers.

We normally celebrate the peaceful transfer of power, but this month has been anything but peaceful. Certainly, I hope you will join me in praying for a peaceful inauguration ceremony today, but we have more praying and working to do once the ceremony is over. Some things change with a new president, but most of our national challenges continue.

As Christians, I hope our view is always toward the well-being of all people, especially those at the margins. We can work and pray for righteousness and peace among all people. We can pray and work for a spirit of mercy and truth.

Please join me in praying for the United States government and for all people. This prayer is “For the Nation” and it’s found on page 207 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Lord God Almighty, who hast made all the peoples of the earth for thy glory, to serve thee in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with thy gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

As we move into a new chapter in our national life, I invite you to stay connected with the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations for suggestions about engagement with our government. In this time of division, you might also want to check out Make Me an Instrument: A Guide to Civil Discourse, a free course from ChurchNext.

Let us pray for President Trump and President Biden and for all who hold authority. And let us never cease to work and pray for the good and well-being of all people.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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Dear friends in Christ,

I love several lines in Phillips Brooks’ beloved Christmas carol, “O little town of Bethlehem.” The last phrase in the first verse is especially poignant to me this year, “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

Our God came to dwell among us, and in so doing, our hopes and fears met their redeemer. Ancient people had hopes and fears, and Jesus knew them. Today, we too have hopes and fears, and Jesus knows us and our hearts.

The year that is past certainly brought out many fears. If you’re like me, you are looking ahead in hope right about now. Of course, it’s never that easy. Hope and fear often come together.

At Forward Movement, it’s been a challenging year. We have tried valiantly to offer signs and words of hope. We created new materials to support Christians finding their way at home. We continued to send tens of thousands of copies of Forward Day by Day to people in prison, to nursing homes, to hospitals, and to military bases. We completely shifted how we work so that our ministry could carry on and we could be there when you call or write for help or to place an order.

I haven’t been afraid for Forward Movement’s long-term survival. We will be here for you and the church for decades to come. I’m sure of that. My fears have been simpler: are we really shifting in the best way possible? Are we providing what people need? Can we continue to innovate and create free podcasts and websites during a time of reduced income?

My hopes are much larger than my fears. I hope for a vibrant future for the church, and in some ways this challenging time is pushing all of us in ways we needed to be pushed. I hope the pandemic helps us be more aware of our interconnectedness. I hope when this strange time ends, we live in gratitude for things we might have taken for granted. Of course, I hope suffering is minimal and healing for people and nations comes quickly.

This time of year, you’ll be hearing from a lot of organizations asking for your financial support. At Forward Movement, we always hope you support your local church first and foremost. I also know you might not be in a position to make a financial gift now, and if that’s the case, I’ll ask for your prayers.

If you are able to make a gift to support the ministry of Forward Movement in sharing the love of Jesus Christ who knows all our hopes and fears, I would be most grateful. Your online gift will help us continue to offer what the church needs, even when those needs require us to make something free of charge. Your gift will help us stay strong now, so that we emerge from this pandemic time in good health.

If you have hopes or fears that Forward Movement can address, please let me know. Meanwhile, I wish you every blessing in the year to come.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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Tune in!

Listen to today’s Forward Day by Day reflection on the Forward Day by Day podcast. Find morning prayer on the Morning at the Office podcast and end your day with the Evening at Prayer podcast. Available anywhere you listen!

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Dear friends,

I’m here to say it’s not too late to enter into the fullness of Advent! Maybe because of the strange Thanksgiving holiday or just the general weirdness of this year, the start of our liturgical year snuck up on you.

As I wrote before, I’m especially grateful for Advent this year. In a year that has seemed chaotic and which has often not pushed me toward my better self, I look forward to this season devoted to repentance and preparation—getting my life and my heart ready to worship Jesus.

There are lots of ways to observe the season. Your church may have suggestions or resources or programs. If not, I have a few suggestions.

• Get yourself four candles and make an Advent wreath. The candles don’t have to be any certain color, but many people like to get candles that match the vestment colors of the four Sundays (some combination of purpose, rose, and blue). Light your wreath in the evening, perhaps as you say grace and eat dinner.
• Take on an extra prayer practice. You can pray evening prayer or compline or maybe just spend a few minutes each day telling God what’s on your heart.
• Savor some silence! It’s a rarity in our culture. Take a few minutes each day. Turn off your electronics. Ignore the phone. Just listen. Listen for the still, small voice of God.
• Read some scripture. You might want to read the daily lessons. Or ready a book of the Bible such as Isaiah or maybe one of the Gospels.
• In the opposite of silence, fill your ears with Advent song! My friend Kristen Fout made a fantastic playlist of Advent hymns, and they’re not all organ and choir. Enjoy the variety of musical styles with traditional Advent texts from The Hymnal 1982. Her Advent list is on Spotify. Because I’m an Apple person, I recreated (with a few adjustments because of availability) her Advent list on Apple Music.
• Take part in Advent Word. Each day of Advent, ponder the assigned word. Share a thought or an image on social media with hashtag #adventword.

So much of our world pulls us away from Jesus. I hope you’ll join me this Advent in letting the season pull us toward Jesus, who is our way, our truth, and our life.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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Photo by Scott Gunn

Tune in!

Listen to today’s Forward Day by Day reflection on the Forward Day by Day podcast. Find morning prayer on the Morning at the Office podcast and end your day with the Evening at Prayer podcast. Available anywhere you listen!

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Dear friends in Christ,

Thank you. In fact, thanks a million. I recently learned that in the last ten years, Forward Movement has given away 1,050,016 copies of Forward Day by Day. That’s more than a million dollars’ worth of free, inspirational material that we’ve sent to prisons, hospitals, nursing homes, and military bases.

Most of our free materials are sent to prisons, and we get letters of gratitude from chaplains and incarcerated people all the time. Especially during the pandemic when visits are curtailed, words of hope matter more than ever.

Every one of those million free copies of Forward Day by Day was made possible by your gifts. We simply could not send this material out for free without donor support.

Thank you. And I am joined in my thanks by hundreds of thousands of people around the world who have been blessed with a message of compassion, hope, mercy, and grace. People are receiving reminders that Jesus loves them, and you made it happen.

The pandemic has brought plenty of challenges, but it has also brought us many blessings at Forward Movement. We know that many of you pray for us and our work regularly. We hear from you about how Christ’s love has been made real to you by Grow Christians, or Forward Day by Day, or courses, or videos, or books, or apps, or any of the other ways we reach people.

Today I have given our whole staff an extra day off to rest, to savor a nice, long Thanksgiving weekend. So you won’t find us answering the phone or processing orders today. You’ll find us all saying prayers of gratitude though, for our work, for donor support, for prayers, and for all the blessings of this life, even in tough times.

If you are grateful for Forward Movement’s ministry, I invite you to do two things. First, offer to God a word of thanksgiving. Second, if you are able to do so, consider making a financial gift to support our ongoing work. The work we are doing is needed now more than ever, and that means your gifts are critical at this moment. If you can’t make a financial gift, it’s OK. I know that people of all circumstances read Forward Today, and I am grateful for each and every one of you.

Let us know if we can do anything for you. And, above all, over this weekend, give thanks for whatever blessings you have received in this earthly life, filled as it is with delights and difficulties.

Blessings to you. And thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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Photo by Courtney Hedger on Unsplash

Tune in!

Listen to today’s Forward Day by Day reflection on the Forward Day by Day podcast. Find morning prayer on the Morning at the Office podcast and end your day with the Evening at Prayer podcast. Available anywhere you listen!

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Dear friends in Christ,

This coming Sunday we celebrate the kingship of Christ, as we always do on the Last Sunday after Pentecost. But what does that mean for us modern Christians?

To celebrate Jesus as our king and our Lord is to reject all others who might try to lay claim on us as our Lord. Many of the earliest Christians died for professing, “Jesus is Lord” rather than saying that Caesar was Lord. This is perhaps a poignant and necessary reminder for us coming in a time of intense political wrangling.

Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump has claim on us, ultimately. We belong to Jesus. We are not first Republicans or Democrats, but people who worship a savior who asks us to take up our cross and follow him, turning away from all others who might beckon us to follow.

And what kind of king is Jesus, anyway? The Gospel reading for this Sunday brings us the parable of the sheep and the goats. In the parable, the king tells us what is important and what matters in the end.

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Jesus shows us the way. He is a king of compassion, mercy, grace, and sacrifice. His most kingly act is his free offering of himself for our salvation on the cross.

I don’t know about you, but after listening to blustery politicians, I need to listen to another voice proclaiming a message of mercy and grace. Coming up on a pre-Christmas season when consumer spending will run amok, I need to be reminded that sacrifice rather than possessions is where we find our meaning. When our allegiance is demanded by political parties, nations, and corporations, I need to be reminded that my first and most precious allegiance is to Jesus Christ.

May we all profess Jesus as Lord, and may our lives show forth what we profess with our lips.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

Tune in!

Listen to today’s Forward Day by Day reflection on the Forward Day by Day podcast. Find morning prayer on the Morning at the Office podcast and end your day with the Evening at Prayer podcast. Available anywhere you listen!

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