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What I like most about being here is the energy and enthusiasm of our people.  It is an exciting place to be.  Saint Paul’s has a heritage of openness to racial diversity.  A former rector George Trowbridge was president of the Philadelphia Fellowship Commission that fought racism and worked for fair housing.  That same openness to diversity remains our challenge and our goal today.

Cliff dwelling:  “Cliff-Dwellers liked wide canyons, where the great cliffs caught the sun…out of the stream of meaningless activity and undirected effort.” – Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark

On Sunday we celebrate the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  On the eighth day after birth Jesus was circumcised and given his name (Luke 2: 21).  In the New Testament the Name of Jesus is used as a synonym for Jesus himself, denoting his character and authority.  The figure IHS found on our processional cross is a reference to the Holy Name (IHS are the first three letters in Greek of the name JESus).  The Litany of the Holy Name possibly originated with Giovanni Capistrano, a Franciscan friar in the 15^th century.  A more recent story has a little girl coming to her parents and asking them “What are we?”  The parents with a quizzical look asked what she meant.  She answered many of her classmates were Roman Catholic, what are we?  She wanted to know her name, what she could identify with, to whom did she belong?  Her parents went on a spiritual search that led them to Saint Paul’s.  Then she knew what she was – Christian, Episcopalian, Child of God.  She had an identity.  She had a (holy) name.

-Cliff

Twitter Reading the Bible each day according to the Prayer Book recommendations yields marvelous passages which I like to share on twitter.

Blog Occasionally, I explore ideas, questions and thoughts on my blog.  I call it “Praise Be!” because practicing Praise is the act of partnering with God to create a world unblemished by injustice and diminishment. I like to think of Praise as an antidote to cynicism and violence.

Book If you are really interested in what I think, I am the author of the book By Night: Sermons and Meditations in a Third Millennium. Stephanie Guerilus of The Philadelphia Tribune wrote: “Cutler offers sermons and other insights as encouragement… Cutler further detailed that it was important for him, a pastor, to actually listen to what was told to him.  ‘I think it’s one of the important challenges of the church right now.  When people are afraid, when they don’t know what the next step will look like, to be able to assert a trust in God, that God’s going to be there for them,” he said.”  The book can be purchased from the parish office or by calling toll-free at 1-(800) 795-4274, or sending an email to orders@xlibris.com.