Brookline Interfaith Clergy Association

Rev. Richard Burden of All Saints' Parish in Brookline MA delivered this beautiful message at the annual Brookline Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, November 24, 2024. "Come with me in the WABAC Machine…back to May of 1980. That’s when the volcano in Washington State, the one the native tribes called “the Smoker” (because it was often venting steam) finally exploded sending a column of smoke and ash 80,000 feet into the air. The heat was so intense that glaciers which had been on the mountain for centuries melted in an instant and became massive mudslides that flattened everything within 230 square miles. Thousands of large mammals, millions of fish and aquatic life were wiped out. Remarkably only 57 humans died, but homes, highways, railways…everything within hundreds of miles…was gone…reduced to an absolute wasteland.. If you remember the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, or if you’ve seen pictures of the devastation, you would be sure that the are...