Independence Day!

Celebrating the Fourth of July Italian style. Here's our flag projected onto the Palazzo Vecchio (the town hall of Florence, Italy) on June 12 while we were there. The reason for posting it was sad (it was a show of solidarity in the wake of the slaughter of forty-nine people in Orlando) but it was gratifying to see our flag that night. Independence Day in 1776 may have been our version of the Brexit (hat tip to my colleague Weston Mathews who used this term in his sermon yesterday) but the truth is that we are are all still connected with bonds of affection around the world.

Happy Fourth of July to you, wherever you are.