This week: Happy Mother’s Day! And a special prayer for all sorts and conditions of motherhood.

This week, the rector asks: “When have you experienced love, and when have you practiced it? When has it been easy, and when very difficult? What have you learned about the work of love? What helps you to persist in loving?” Also, this Thursday: We are delighted to welcome The Rt. Rev. Mary Glasspool, Assisting Bishop of New York, to preach, celebrate, and confirm and receive new members on our special feast day, Ascension Thursday, May 9, at 7 pm! The service will be followed by a joyful reception in honor of the bishop, the confirmands and receptees, and all the people of Ascension. Join us!

This week: An update from the rector and wardens with some good news and some not-so-good news (but still, overall, good news!) about repairs to the Fifth Avenue Bell Tower brownstone. As is often the case with old national landmarks in a landmarked district, further repair needs were discovered and that work will require more time and more money. But we’re getting there! And the repairs can be feasible and finished with your help! Also in this newsletter: Mark your calendars for our Ascension Day celebration with Bishop Mary Glasspool, Thursday, May 9th at 7pm!

This week, the rector invites you to attend the Sunday Forum following the 11 am service: “This Sunday, April 21, our forum will focus on how we care for ‘this fragile earth, our island home.’ How can we remember earth, our fellow creatures and those who work for environmental justice in our liturgy? What prayer practices deepen your sense of connection with creation, perhaps especially with a particular place you love and care for?”

In this week’s newsletter, the rector offers thanks to those who made our Holy Week and Easter celebrations possible, and says: “Easter is 50 days long — longer than Lent. That’s because resurrection is harder to grasp than disciplines, mortality and loss. May the joy of this season continue to work on you, and may you meet the risen Christ in the most unexpected places.”