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Fundamentalism and the Fear of Being Wrong
We keep hearing about how divided we are. That we’re more polarized and uncivil than ever. That we hate each other more. But this isn’t the whole truth. Our division doesn’t come from a common rejection of the common ground. It stems from fundamentalism, which is a fundamentally divisive ideology. Because fundamentalism has to be…
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If We’re All Into One Church, How Can There Be Denominations?
Every Sunday we declare our belief in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. And every Sunday I wonder if we really do. We were in a heated conversation on Facebook. The sort which was shifting wildly from the substance of the original post. So I wanted to ground us in something real. I wanted to…
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Belong
Belong (Day 5 of A Simple Lent) Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth is one of my favorite pieces of Scripture. It is hasty and imperfect. It is often obnoxious, and divorced from its context, can sound pretty tough. But given who he is talking to, it makes a bunch of sense. When…
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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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Gathered by the Spirit
Finding and reclaiming our common purpose in Terre Haute a Homily for a special evensong | Text: 1 Peter 2:1-9 [Last night St. Stephen’s gathered for evensong with our neighbors from St. George’s in West Terre Haute. It was a wonderful gathering of mutual celebration and commitment that marks a big anniversary for the Episcopal Church’s…
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Becoming One
a Sermon for Lent 2C Text: Luke 13:31-35 Jerusalem, Jerusalem A friend asked my Dad for a recommendation years ago. He was hoping to go to Jerusalem with a school exchange program. My Mom, in learning of this plan, wondered aloud “Why?” It sounded pretty awesome to me, so I couldn’t understand what her problem…