Grace Cathedral

Dear Friends,

“A place where lives are changed” was the old motto for the Bishop’s Ranch retreat center up in Healdsburg, California. My life was changed over and over in that place.

I remember talking about Ovid by the fireplace with Stanford and Berkeley students in 1986. As a newly ordained priest, I met David Forbes and Mark Stanger there. In those days I always listened closely to what Grace Cathedral Dean Alan Jones said about the life of faith. I remember leading my first retreat there; my topic was “American Literary Transcendentalism.” Our daughter was learning to walk one spring and I can picture her toddling along the stone wall in front of the Ranch House as if it were yesterday. Our choristers spend a week there every summer, and I treasure their last weekend when I join them.

This year our Congregation retreat will be taking place at the Bishop’s Ranch from May 25-27 (Memorial Day weekend). I can’t wait to be there myself with Mary Carter Greene and I strongly urge you to register right away to save your space.

On Saturday at 11 am, we will be having the first ordination of a bishop since Bishop Bill Swing was ordained here on September 29, 1979. Bishop Marc Andrus had already been ordained to the Episcopate in Alabama when he was installed here in 2006. There will be about 35 bishops and guests from around the world in attendance for the Rev. Austin Keith Rios’ consecration. Old friends of the cathedral are in town like Mark Stanger (who will be preaching at 11 am on Sunday) and Charles Shipley (who delivered a beautiful red cope for me to wear in the service). Sarah Ogilvie will be here for the 9:30 am Forum (on her book The Dictionary People). I’m sure we will see many other familiar visitors.

We have plans in case it is raining and expect to provide communion to anyone who is here on the cathedral campus, whether or not they have a space in the Nave during the service.

Grace Cathedral is also a place where lives are changed. Every week, hundreds of people visit us. We open a door to them so that they may step inside and experience a new wholeness and holiness. As we get close to the end of our fiscal year in June, I encourage you to find a way to support the cathedral either through a financial gift or by volunteering.

I look forward to seeing you here!

Love,
Malcolm