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The Church’s Missing Ingredient
I’m tired of the blame. The health and vitality of the The Episcopal Church and the Mainline generally is an oversimplified story of the 20th Century, too easily shouldered on the leadership of the 21st. It’s always the politics or the practice or the beliefs or the Bible or the liturgy or anything else ad nauseam, but…
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Making a church for all
My entire life, I’ve felt lesser. As if my opinion didn’t matter. In church, that is. In the world, it was a completely different story. I was a good student, Honor Society and all that. In high school, I co-chaired a youth initiative for the regional community foundation and served the state on its youth…
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Being Called Is Not Enough…to the church
A little while ago Deborah Bryan, a blogger friend who writes at The Monster in Your Closet invited contributions to a series she called “Oh, Yes I Did!” The series is an opportunity for people to tell a story of overcoming adversity, particularly when you’re told you can’t do it. You should read her own words on…
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Which is the real Easter: a day or a season?
In this week’s Question + Response for St. Paul’s, I explore the pressing question of what is Easter, really: that one Sunday, the season, or is it something way bigger than that? Easter is our favorite. Many of us like Christmas, too. But Easter takes the cake. A born Jesus is nothing compared with a…
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In the Wilds
a homily for Advent 2A Text: Matthew 3:1-12 In the wilderness, a hero As our story begins, it says John “appeared in the wilderness.” Other verbs would convey motion: John walked, wandered, or made his way. Our verb “appeared” lacks motion: he was not—then he was. John appeared, like an apparition, it seems from nothing.…
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Building for Mission
a homily for Proper 28C Text: Luke 21:5-19 Encountering Jesus’s Mission Jesus ends the teaching at the Temple and begins to leave with his closest followers by saying some pretty tough words. Listen: In the hearing of all the people he said to the disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in…
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One simple way the church can stop failing our daughters
The church is failing our daughters and one thing can change that: we make their well-being a priority. Because right now, we aren’t. We claim love, diversity, equality, faith, commitment, responsibility, duty, honor, respect and so much more are our values, and we do a lot of good things. But what is our greatest priority?…