Jess introduces our new teaching theme for the season ahead, ‘Being Rooted in Love Together’ and reflects on some of the ways she’s experienced this happening at SCC over the last year. She also shares some verses from Ephesians 3&4 that the Leadership Collective have spent time contemplating as we work on putting new language to our values, and nods to Epiphany and what it could mean for us today.
With an invitation to an Honest Advent, Jess shares some confessions that begin with her own reluctance to welcome advent this year. She reflects on how speaking the truth in this way can help clear the air, and perhaps even make a little room in our hearts to welcome a Saviour. Then she considers why advent begins with apocalyptic passages about the end of the world, and connects this to our current context and how we might stay awake in this season â as we watch  and wait for Christâs arrival today.
Jess Williams offers some reflections on her own journey of deconstruction that grappled with suffering/theodicy and conflicting views of God. She shares how letting one view break apart helped her discover and cling to a guiding principle that spans faith traditions: loving your neighbour as yourself.
Jess Williams reflects on home and the longings of the heart that led her to St. Stephen. She talks about loving her heart for leading her well, and how her (sometimes messy!) life, and belonging to this community is teaching her to let go of perfectionism (fear!) and trust that our belovedness has nothing to do with what we are able to achieve or perform.
Jess offered some personal reflections on accepting and blessing the truth of our lives. She connected this with Hagar’s experience of oppression and abuse in the home of Abraham and Sarah, and of encountering God in the desert. Then she considered how God is with us — even and especially when things are not okay
On the first Sunday of Pride month, Jess Williams reflects on the history of Pride and how it models a way of walking the path Jesus walked while highlighting the history of St. Croix Church and its decision to split paths with the Vineyard
On Ascension Sunday, Jess Williams reflects on the wisdom and courage of Thomas, and how honouring our questions can create a space and opportunity for true encounter.
In this Easter Homily, Jess Williams reflects on how a faith that centres on resurrection requires us to face the reality of death and all its anguish. Looking at Jesus’ teaching in John 12:25-27, she suggests that to walk in Jesus’ steps is to “let go of life as it is, reckless in your loveâ and willing to lose it all.
This Sunday, keeping in mind that it was recently International Women’s Day, Walter interviewed Jess about the ways in which our society, including churches, have not listened well to women, and how that is changing or could change.
Today, Jess continued to explore Charles Peguy’s poem titled “God’s Dream.” She encouraged us to consider how our own identities and God’s Dream are intrinsically intertwined, and reflected on how vulnerable it can be to carry a dream.