How Images Shape Our Understanding of Justice

What images have challenged you to form new ideas of what it would mean to work for and live into a more just society? How did they shape you and call you to help make that world become real? This Sunday, Lent 2, we ask you to bring in an image — a photograph or copy of an artwork, or a still image from a film or live performance — that you remember having an impact on how you imagined the possibilities of what the world could be.

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Imaging Justice, Sunday, March 17

(Parish Hall after the 11:00 service)

We often think that the art of our times is a reflection of our culture — a way of taking the measure of what is happening in the world today. But Harvard professor Sarah Lewis writes and speaks frequently about how art actually shapes and creates the world we want to live in — that art is a catalyst and accelerant of change, not a response to change that has already happened. Images occupy a civic function, Lewis asserts, because they help us visualize what we would like to become. What images have challenged you to form new ideas of what it would mean to work for and live into a more just society? How did they shape you and call you to help make that world become real?

Join us at our Ascension Forum this Sunday, Lent 2, in the parish hall following the 11 a.m. service. We ask you to bring in an image — a photograph or copy of an artwork, or a still image from a film or live performance — that you remember having an impact on how you imagined the possibilities of what the world could be. We will gather all together at first, and then break into small groups to share those images and tell our stories about them to each other.


The Images that Form Us

Lenten series on Sundays at Ascension.

Please join us for a forum series exploring the power of images (including language) to shape our self-understanding, our faith and worship, our commitment to justice, our vision of wholeness, our relationship with God and more. The series will be led by the Ascension clergy, and guests.

  • Lent 2 (Sunday, March 17)- “Imaging justice” (Mtr. Posey)
  • Lent 3 (Sunday, March 24)- “The Language of Our Worship” (Mtr. Liz)
  • Lent 4 (Sunday, March 31)- “Looking Together” (guest presenter, Carolyn Halpin-Healy, Executive Director of Arts and Minds)
  • Lent 5 (Sunday, April 7)- “In God’s Image” (the clergy)

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Newsletter

Parish News: December 21

This week, the rector reflects on Advent’s invitation to hope when circumstances feel bleak or overwhelming. Drawing on Isaiah’s story of King Ahaz and Matthew’s account of Joseph, she explores the tension between realism and trust—between protecting ourselves from disappointment and daring to imagine what God might do. These texts challenge us to notice where cynicism or caution keeps us from hope, and to consider the risks of faithful dreaming. Advent asks whether we can trust that God is truly with us, even in the messiness and brokenness of our world.

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