A priest friend once confessed to me that he had been years out of seminary before he realized that, throughout his life, he had spent all of his time talking about God rather than to God. He had been excited by the idea of God, by all the accoutrements around worship, and by the call to justice. In all his excitement, it took some time before he realized that he had missed the central piece.
Agency and Lionesses: Thecla the Martyr
It happens often when we are in church: at the time of the children’s sermon, my daughter is nowhere to be found.
Constance and the Martyrs of Memphis
The words “Martyrs” and “Memphis” at first glance might seem to be an odd pairing. We think of martyrs as biblical, ancient, and abroad, and Memphis as relatively young from a world history standpoint—a place for good BBQ and Blues.
Søren Kierkegaard and Lived Experience
Teenagers often believe that they are the first humans ever to have discovered sex. The world-altering swells of feeling and emotion—or the seeming opposite of being let down by the whole experience—feels as revolutionary to each of us as any human walking on the moon.
The Purposeful Conviction of Florence Nightingale
The plague hit our family vacation hard this summer. It was a punishing stomach bug that took down young and old and came back for more.
Experiments in Minivan Christian Formation
Title: Experiments in Minivan Christian Formation, based on a true story
Celebrating Sisterhood with Mary and Martha
As a dad of two daughters, I have a lot of feelings about today’s feast day for Mary and Martha of Bethany.
Celebrating Adelaide Teague Case and Religious Education
Today, June 19, we remember Adelaide Teague Case, who died seventy-one years ago. “An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church” tells us that Dr. Case was “the first woman to be appointed to full professional rank in an Anglican seminary.” She was a theologian, librarian, professor, and writer, but she lived at a time before women could be ordained in the Episcopal Church.
Experiencing Transcendence at an Auto Show
This year I celebrated Easter at an auto show. In celebration of my godson’s 12th birthday, his parents surprised him with a trip to Washington’s annual car show and invited me to come along.
Faith, Science, and the Coolness of God
Listen, I’m not saying I once elevated a communion wafer with a robot arm. That would have been Inappropriate. People would be rightly concerned that such irreverence would cause Jesus to jump out of that wafer as fast as he jumped in.