Dear Church Family,
Traditionally Memorial Day marks the beginning of the summer season, marked by picnics and family gatherings.  Our grandchildren will be finishing school this week, and are making plans for vacation time.
But more to the point, Memorial Day provides an annual opportunity to remember those who died in service of their  country and reaffirm the values which have sustained us as a nation. The founding fathers believed democracy could only prevail in a land shaped by what they called, “civic virtue,” the capacity to transcend self interest for the promotion of the  common good. That capacity, they believed, needed to be stimulated  by authentic religious faith.
The highlight of the Salisbury’s Memorial Day observance for me is the recitation of the Gettysburg  address which reflects those values. In a time perhaps more fraught with conflict than our own, Lincoln celebrated a “nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Texts for this Sunday’s worship are Acts 16:9-15 and John 14:23-29.  The sermon is “The Peaceable Kingdom.”
See you in church. --
Rich