To paraphrase Jane Austen, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of a good education, must be in want of […]
Celebrating Christian Champions of Labor and Laborers
This is a true story from my days as a hospice chaplain: He flopped down in his dirty baseball hatAnd scuffed-up leather jacket. “Yes, I’ve paidMy funeral […]
The Gentle Genius of Saint Aidan
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. —James 3:1, NIV I’ve been […]
Irenaeus was having none of it
The Turkish city of Izmir, formerly known as the Greek city of Smyrna, has, due to its location, a crossroads of languages and cultures. Also, […]
The Journey of Evelyn Underhill
My parish has a spiritual growth program called Wellspring that, according to its mission statement, offers “programs and services (that) foster awareness of God’s presence […]
Allergies to Individualism
In the bookstore of the Ephrata Cloister in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, I found a slim volume called A Short, Easy, and Comprehensive Method of Prayer, by Johannes Kelpius—a botanist, astronomer, hymn-writer and Pietist mystic. […]
Radical Vulnerability: The Self-Threshing of God
I’ve been surprised at how difficult it is to get Episcopalians to understand my urgency about religious trauma.
Remembering George Herbert, priest and poet
Born in 1593, George Herbert, a cousin of the Earl of Pembroke, grew up amongst gifted and creative people.
Arising Out of the Dust and Shaking off Fear
Born into slavery in Delaware in 1746, Absalom Jones was taken to Philadelphia at sixteen by his enslaver, who sold his mother and siblings before the move.
Opening the Gate
Today we commemorate three men who accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys and shared in his hardships and sufferings for the sake of the gospel.