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How to Observe a Holy Lent
Lent is the most notorious season of the church year. It has a reputation . It’s rebellious and different. The kind of season parents worry will keep their daughters and sons out late. The kind that could have an influence on them. In the Episcopal Church, we observe the season of the 40 days (not counting…
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Find Love, Make Love
“Make love” is a great phrase. I’m really captivated by this simple phrase: make love. Beyond the childish euphemism to sex, there is a potent mix of fascination and intimacy. We are pulled into each other’s orbits, physically present with someone, and it is in that place love is made. [bctt tweet=”Making love is the most dangerous…
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It May Have Happened Sort of Like This
Trying to Explain the Nature of the Anglican Communion to Someone Who Should Know Better As most of you already know, the primates of the Anglican Communion met last week in Canterbury. Now, it was kind of a — What’s a primate? It is the bishop chosen to represent the Anglican Church of a given…
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Some Further Thoughts on Politics, Primates, and Problems
Everybody thinks it is complicated. On Sunday when I announced that we would cover some of the recent primates’ meeting in our Basic Anglicanism class, one of our parishioners leaned over and said: There’s nothing basic about that. That’s Advanced Anglicanism. I couldn’t agree more! The problem is that it is splashed all over the papers…
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Unchristlike – how retaliation stains the Anglican Communion
Word has come tonight of sanctions on the Episcopal Church. This week, primates are gathered for a highly irregular meeting. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby is trying to hold together a divided church. He is failing. And before it began, many knew it was already lost. Lost, not because it is actually over. It isn’t. Far from…
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The World’s Most Secret Theology
So what do we actually believe? Most Christians are taught specific things to believe. We find them in our prayers and creeds. We find them preached on Sunday and revealed in Bible studies on Wednesdays. And when we try to fit into a group, we want to find out what they believe. All that stuff is…
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Fear and Loathing in San Francisco
The Christmas story is an immigrant’s story San Francisco’s Chinatown was designed to look older than the oldest parts of China. Why? Fear of immigrants. [bctt tweet=”We are always immigrants. All of us. Forever.” nofollow=”yes”] More than a century ago, blatant, nefarious racism against the Chinese was normal. But disaster made the racism even worse.…
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Casting the Second Stone
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” That’s how we remember the line. The passage from John actually says: “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Close, right? Still totally recognizable. So easy to turn into an aphorism, a saying. Jesus is trying…