Memorial Garden stewardship

Please don your gardening clothes and grab your to rake to honor and respect those who have gone before by being a good steward of our Garden. You can lend a hand to clean up the the leaves in and around our Memorial Garden by raking for a bit after either service on Sunday, June 14.

Our former Warden, Wendy Fedderson, will be leading us. This is an important first step as we bring our space to a place of beauty. By respectfully cleaning up the area we can see what we already have and then build upon that. Please help us put our prayers of stewardship into faith-filled action next Sunday.

The Rev. Janie Donahue

2026-05-31 Gospel & Sermon, Rev. Janie Donahue

The Rev. Robert Davidson

2026-05-24 Gospel & Sermon, Rev. Robert Davidson

The Rev. Robert Davidson

2026-05-17 Gospel & Sermon, Rev. Robert Davidson

Good Shepherd parishioners attend "One Sun One Earth One People” at St. Paul’s Cathedral

Five Good Shepherd parishioners attended an Earth Day event “One Sun One Earth One People” at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston on Sunday April 19. Bishop Julia Wentworth opened with a beautiful prayer for creation.

Author and activist Bill McKibben was the main speaker. He acknowledged that the US faces some serious challenges from climate change which is creating natural disasters. In addition, the fossil fuel industry has become more powerful than ever. 

However, Bill gave us hope in the increasing production of cheap solar panels in Asia that are making it possible for many nations to convert to renewable energy more quickly than expected. He encouraged us to petition our legislators to remove legal barriers to balcony solar panels that can be hung from railings or out of apartment windows to generate power.

Bill pointed out that power from the sun is free and not subject to being captured and sold. As a result, he believes it will eventually become the fuel of choice. It was an inspiring talk.

Bill McKibben’s presentation starts at 41:16.

The Rev. Robert Davidson

Gospel and Sermon for Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2026

The Rev. Eleanor Applewhite Terry

Gospel and Sermon for Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 26, 2026

One Sun, One Earth, One People: Sacred Celebration

Members of Good Shepherd will be joining Boston Interfaith Climate Allies on April 19 at 1:30 at the Embrace Memorial on Boston Common. The group will process to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul for this celebration with honored guest speaker, climate activist, author, and Sunday School teacher Bill McKibben. Please join us! Learn more and register online.

Flyer for the One Sun, One Earth, One People event.

Announcing Creation Justice

Earth Day is April 22, and many are calling April Earth Month. One of the ways we are celebrating Earth Month is the announcement that Creation Care Ministry is transitioning to Creation Justice Ministry. What exactly does this mean? 

Our Creation Care Ministry has focused mainly on stewardship of God’s earth both in our church building and our homes grounded in four areas we are already familiar with: pray, learn, act, and advocate …Our Creation Justice Ministry will continue this work with a broader emphasis on advocacy for fairness and equity for vulnerable populations, both human and other species: animals, plants, insects all bearing the heaviest burden of environmental pollution or degradation. There’s a lot of NOT FAIR around climate change.

We will be offering a menu of advocacy opportunities for climate justice such as post-carding for the environment, writing or calling our legislators, and joining with other groups standing out for the environment wearing our t-shirts “This is what faith looks like.” 

We will be working hand in hand with Mission Outreach around environmental injustice. Two examples are Rise for Hunger and Esperanza Academy. 

The food we pack in a few weeks for Rise for Hunger frequently goes to locations where environmental hazards like drought, floods and fires cause food shortages, starvation and migration. 

The second example, currently under discussion, is participating with the Esperanza Academy community in a tree planting project for the new Esperanza school and campus that will open next year in the heart of downtown Lawrence. The tuition-free school will serve girls from K through 8th grade. Why trees? Trees are partners in the work of creation justice. Among many things, they cool cities, support psychological wellbeing, create diverse habitats for species, all while pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere mitigating some of the effects of climate change. Interestingly, trees appear more often in Scripture than any member of creation except humans.

Join us at coffee hour to see our resources and learn more about what we can do to promote creation justice. 

To end with a quote from Bishop Julia,

“Let us continue to engage this moment with deep mutual care as we courageously carry God’s love into a world that hungers for God’s justice.”

The Rev. Ken Schmidt

2026-04-12 Gospel & Sermon, Rev. Ken Schmidt, Deacon