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A Dream for Church
I’ve spent much of my life searching for more from church. More from the institution. More from myself. I want church to be important and to mean something and it doesn’t always feel like it does. When I first heard of Church of the Apostles years ago, I was certain from that moment that if…
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“God” is not God’s name | The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor
Check out this short excerpt: “God” is not God’s name | The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor. God language can tie people into knots, of course. In part, that is because “God” is not God’s name. Referring to the highest power we can imagine, “God” is our name for that which is greater than…
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I Can Label Myself, Thanks.
Some people don’t like labels. It’s common among members of my generation to reject them. However, it seem that when people say this, they are really trying to say that they don’t like being labeled by others. Or perhaps the problem isn’t the label, but the box in which we put those people we label.…
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Not Gatekeepers, but Gateopeners
There, squirming in such a comfortable chair, made to feel prickly by the moment and its intensity and not the leather or the cushion, it is not my ass, but my brain that is jittery. As a priest, interviews are a whole different beast. This moment, as I recall was the most agonizing for what…
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5 Years Ordained
Today is the fifth anniversary of my ordination as a presbyter. Of course, I’m celebrating appropriately–writing sermons for a funeral on Saturday and for Pentecost on Sunday. Rather than reflect on all that I have been a part of over the last five years, I am instead struck by this picture. It dawned on me…
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Choosing Sacraments
[This is the third of three posts about the sacraments. Click the links to read the first about the sacraments and the second about their messy history.] If you recall, a sacrament is the “outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive…
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The Messy History of the Sacraments in 6 Questions
[This is the second of three posts about the sacraments. Check out the first and the third.] As we explored yesterday, our Sacraments, primarily Holy Eucharist and Holy Baptism, are a physical and spiritual means of receiving grace. Today, we’ll have a small taste of the messiness around the living out of the Sacraments. There is…
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What is a Sacrament?
[This is the first of three posts about the sacraments. Check out the second and third.] What do we mean when we call something a Sacrament? According to the Book of Common Prayer (pp. 857-8): The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by…