The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, Bishop of Massachusetts, writes of helping a friend campaign for office:
At one point we approached a young man sitting on a bench. I gave him a card and my friend stood talking to him while I went after a group of women and children who had just turned the corner. After I told the women about my friend and why he was running for office, he called me back to the young man on the bench. The guy wanted me to pray with him. The three of us sat on the bench in the September sun, and prayed together. When I had finished the prayer, he thanked me, and off we went.
It felt good to be there praying with the man. It felt like I was where I belong, where God wanted me to be, out in the streets with people I had never met before, witnessing to God’s love and comfort. I think it’s where God probably wants all of us.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
