Dear Friends in Christ,

I do not know about you, but the morning paper and the evening news have become a drug.  Consuming the news heightens my emotions:  anger, resignation, resolve to shout my opinions from the roof tops all jostle against each other leaving me depressed and unsure about who I am and what I am doing.

Here are some words that were written by Adam Michnick when he was in prison for protesting the Soviet presence in Czechoslovakia: 

Start doing the things you think should be done – start being what you think society should become. Do you believe in the freedom of speech?  Then speak freely.  Do you love truth?  Then tell it.  Do you believe in an open society?  Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society?  Then behave decently and humanely.

These are wise words that give each one of us a way forward:  a little less news, a lot more rational behavior.  A way forward toward a more civil society.

Faithfully yours,

Rebecca

Sunday is All Saints Sunday.  Members of St Anne’s are invited to bring pictures of loved ones who have gone on before us so that we can decorate our church with our memories.  At Zion, we will toll a bell for those who died last year and place  names of those we have lost on our memory tree.