Dear Church Family, Last week, someone lamenting the tragic situation in Ukraine, commented “I’m so upset. I don’t even know what to pray for.” I can relate. It is hard to know what to pray for. For an end to the fighting? For compassion and comfort for those who have lost loved ones? For sanity to reign in the mind of Vladimir Putin? For a return to an independent Ukraine? For our nation’s leaders to respond wisely? For an ability to avoid being drawn into a world war? Perhaps we pray for all those things. We know God is a God of peace and desires that love rather than warfare prevail. But God is also a God of justice who desires that wrongs be rectified and righteousness reign. So above all we pray for God’s will to be done, however that might happen and in whatever time frame. I keep returning in my prayers to the benediction attributed to the recently deceased Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Go in peace of God, confident that goodness is stronger than evil, that light is stronger than darkness, that love is stronger than hate, that life is stronger than death.” May it be so. The lectionary readings for the 3rd Sunday in Lent are Isaiah 55:1-9 and Luke 13:1-9. The sermon is “Urgent Matters.” See you in church. Peace and Joy, Rich