Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. BCP Read more

Another year of Meanderings, usually close to 52 times a year, comes to its last post. I hope you had a good 2018 and a blessing on your 2019. Goodreads and Reading in 2019: This suggests to me that this reading challenge thing isn’t working for quite a number of people. I would propose, instead, thinking about the number of minutes a day you want to read and figuring out where you will set aside that time in your day…. Read more

By Mike Glenn As any parliamentarian can tell you, resolutions have no binding authority on the body. That is, a group can vote on any number of resolutions — you know, “Be it now resolved”, — but that doesn’t mean anything is going to happen. Resolutions have no authority. They’re a symbolic statement of a body’s mood at a particular time and place, but no real action is going take place. None is expected. Nothing is going to change. Resolutions… Read more

Evolution is not random. Chance is a harnessed tool rather than a metaphysical conundrum. This is Denis Alexander’s well supported claim in chapter 4 of Is There Purpose in Biology. The claim that evolution undermines Purpose, metaphysical capital P purpose, is ridiculous. So too is the claim that constraints and convergence in evolutionary biology demonstrate such Purpose. Darwinian evolution is not a theory of chance. We can look at this in a little more detail, following Denis’s argument. Genetic variation happens…. Read more

We turn in our reading of the patristics to Ignatius, who evidently wrote these letters on his march to Rome to be martyred — sometime during Trajan’s reign. We don’t know much about Ignatius until these letters and in the middle of his trip — somewhere around Philippi — the story of his life is lost. The tradition is that he died in Rome. In our series on the patristic writings, we use the text Michael Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers…. Read more

Begin by reading this amazing passage in Philippians 2:6-11, considered by many to be an early Christian hymn. Phil. 2:6    Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit. 7 But he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and by becoming like human beings. When he found himself in the form of a human, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,… Read more

The first Christmas was a Magnificat kind of Christmas. It wasn’t a Dickens kind of Christmas, and it wasn’t a Midwestern kind of Christmas, and it wasn’t a tender Tennessee kind of Christmas. It was a Mary kind of Magnificat kind of Christmas that turns our kinds of Christmases on their head. Christmas is about God. Mary was poor. Mary was oppressed. And Mary was yearning, with the rest of the poor in Galilee and Israel, for the Day God… Read more

First we light the candle for HOPE because Jesus is our hope. Second, we light the candle for PEACE because Jesus is our hope and peace. Third, we light the candle for JOY because Jesus brings joy. Fourth, we light the candle for LOVE because Jesus is love. Finally we light the center candle. This is the CHRIST candle. Jesus is born. Jesus has come. Jesus is our salvation. Let us pray: Great God of love and light, we thank… Read more

O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. or this O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have… Read more

Reuters: VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The traditional nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square won’t be so traditional this year. For the first time, it is made of sand – 720 tons of it. For the past two weeks, Rich Varano, a professional sand artist, has been guiding three sculptors from the Netherlands, Russia and the Czech Republic, to craft the work, which measures about 5.5 meters high by 16 meters wide (18 feet high by 52 feet wide). Varano, 60,… Read more