We need prayers. As the dismantling of an America I know and love continues to move at a rapid rate, I pray every night one of my traditional prayers, like a plea, as I imagine all of us connected, pod by pod, like a string of baroque pearls.
My Invitation to Read the Qur’an
After 9/11, when as a teacher of world religions and as an Episcopal priest…
Ash Wednesday/Ramadan
Signifies a time of reflection, repentance, and recognition of human mortality.
Contact The Rev. Jamie L. Hamilton
The Rev. Jamie L. Hamilton
Reflections
Believe in Miracles
“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God.” From Torah, Deuteronomy 30:19-20. Jesus said (to Mary Magdalene), “Don’t cling to me, for I haven’t yet ascended to the...
Eid Mubarak, Blessed Festival
Eid Mubarak, Blessed Festival Peace Be Upon You Thank you so much for praying and reading with me during these holy days of Ramadan and Lent. Like a gift, your presence has helped to sustain me during these troubling times. Today is Eid-al-Fitr, which means Festival...
Day 30: By Time, Passing
In the Name of God, the All Merciful, Ever Merciful By time, passing, humankind is in a state of loss, except those who believe, and do good deeds, urging one another toward truth, and urging one another, towards patience. Surah 103 We are invited to consider time...
Creation . Redemption . Restoration .
As we pray together, may we say Alhamdulillah, Praise be to God, Halleluyah.
My Invitation to Read the Qur’an
After 9/11, when as a teacher of world religions and as an Episcopal priest, I was struggling to understand what had just befallen America, I experienced a call to read the Qur’an, a call that overpowered my unconscious fear of Islam and its holy scripture. When I read, “We have made you into tribes and nations so that you may know each other,” I experienced a spiritual awakening: the Qur’an is not just holy scripture for Muslims, but scripture that invites all people, those of different faith traditions and those without, to live into the human journey of “knowing each other” so that we may support our “near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and the beggars, and for the freeing of human beings from bondage.”
The beauty of the Qur’an’s universal call to care for each other reveals a pathway to embracing a pluralistic monotheism that leads to a spiritual humanism, by crossing boundaries into a new land. Readers are invited to leave the exclusivity of competing religions and philosophies to journey to a place of inclusivity that invites all to live within the depths of our soul where joy, insight, and dignity reside.
By guarding the dignity of all hearts, we care for one another beyond differences, boundaries, and limitations.
Our Mission & Vision
The Niche, Light upon Light
Today, as a Christian, as an Episcopal priest, I am reflecting on 30 prayers I started to write during Ramadan 2020. As Rector, alone in my study, trying to do the best to keep my church community together in the midst of so much COVID-19 death, isolation and fear, I read Qur’an, Torah, Psalms, Gospels, and poetry and I wrote prayerful responses to these holy texts.
During this time, in prayer, I was reminded of walking with my mother one warm afternoon in the San Francisco Zoo. She took my hand and said, “You know, giving birth to you was the most creative thing I didn’t do.”…
