Every 4th Sunday of the month, we honor our commitment to the diocese’s (and St. John’s) priority of Justice by celebrating a Racial Healing Eucharist. This liturgy includes collects and reflections celebrating saints who worked for Racial Justice in the Episcopal calendar of Saints. Each liturgy begins with an Acknowledgment of Indigenous Peoples’ Land and includes a Litany for Racial Reconciliation.
This Sunday, July 26 at 8am and 10am, we will be honoring we will be honoring The Philadelphia Eleven, with guest preacher the Rev. Clara Sanders.
Clara Sanders (she/her) was ordained as a priest in February 2026 and currently serves as volunteer curate at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis. She focuses on supporting the lay-led teams for partnership ministries, equipping Saint Markans for social witness, and deepening Saint Marks’ connections with our neighborhood and with other faith groups.
Born and raised in Oklahoma, Clara holds degrees in piano performance and intercultural studies from Houghton College, as well as a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School and a Master of Social Work from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She has worked full-time in membership and communications at the Land Stewardship Project since 2017 and began discerning a call to the priesthood in late 2020. Clara is passionate about connecting—connecting people with each other, humans with the land, communities with care, and the story of our life together with the story of God’s love in Jesus Christ.
Clara lives in south Minneapolis with her three children and a menagerie of pets, many of whom make it into her sermons. Clara also maintains a regular writing practice that includes daily Advent and Lenten meditations; you can follow along with these reflections here.
