On Columbia Road in DC’s Adam’s Morgan neighborhood, a couple of homeless men sit on park benches in front of a building marked “Christ House.” They are at home here outside a four-storey building named for the Christ who said the birds of the air had nests, but he didn’t have a place to lay his head. When the homeless in DC get cancer or break a bone, they know they have a home here. Christ House is a ministry... Read more
The Rutba House community was on retreat in Washington, DC, over the MLK weekend. We got up early Monday morning to take the kids to the new MLK Memorial on the National Mall. The long walk in sub-freezing winds nearly did us in, but we made it. Coming through the literal depiction of the “mountain of despair” that King named and called us all to face, we could feel the sense of accomplishment as we gazed upon the “stone of... Read more
Over the past year, since the release of Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, I’ve heard hundreds of stories from people who’ve shared how the rhythms of the ancient liturgy are sustaining them in community and igniting imagination for collective action in the places where they are. In her new study, Living into Community, Christine Pohl names gratitude as a foundational practice for sustaining community in a culture of individualism. I’m grateful for this testimony from Shannon about how... Read more
Over breakfast this week, a young friend from the neighborhood—a guy who’s worked hard to overcome the odds against him—told me he gave his day’s pay to another guy on the corner. He did it in frustration, angry at his peer who was peddling dope to a grade school kid. “Hey, I gotta make my money,” the dealer told him. “I gotta make mine, too,” he said, walking home from a ten hour shift. “But it ain’t worth that.” He... Read more
By Emily Guzman Last Christmas I looked into the eyes of my son Logan and told him for the second year in a row that Daddy would not be coming home. Some people might think that would have made me hate God, but for me it is how my relationship with God began. My husband Pedro and I met at a bus stop in 2000. He covered his watch and asked me the time in English; I answered in Spanish.... Read more
I’m excited to introduce The Everyday Awakening—a blog about the revival that’s happening where you are. My first job at twenty-one was as a journalist. I learned to write for others by writing stories about faith and politics for an early webzine. I’ve never stopped writing stories about how faith inspires people to engage the world in creative ways. But my main writing for the past six years has been in books and the occasional commentary for magazines and blogs.... Read more
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
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