Some years ago, publishers began demanding that authors have a media platform. So, for my sins, I have far more social media accounts than I ever planned to have. When we were living in Illinois, I made a passing observation about communion on Facebook. There was a lot of press around those little shrink-wrapped communion kits that include a shot glass of grape juice and chicklet-sized cracker. And I observed that as Episcopalians, our reaction was “No. Just No.”... Read more
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary has announced that it is selling its campus in Hamilton, Massachusetts. The administration describes the sale as “the latest in a long series of re-inventions” for the school”, but for those familiar with the academy this is happy-talk. A seminary without a library and a campus has to make steep compromises in the size of its faculty, the programs it offers, and the kind of community it can build. And such announcements are always the beginning of... Read more
I’ve been looking back over the work I’ve done in spirituality and spiritual formation. The programs I inherited. The reforms I’ve tried to put in place and the changing fortunes of formation programs that I have followed over the years. The Lily Foundation gave significant funding for those programs in the early 21st Century. The motives for such programs undoubtedly varied. Some seminaries had a spiritual formation program, but they yielded uneven results. Others had noted that the interest in... Read more
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving... Read more
“The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.’” I came back from Oxford in 1986 and served a small church that stood all on its own along side the parsonage, seven miles south of Kingsville Ohio. Gageville United Methodist Church is just south of Lake Erie in lake-effect snow country, and I lived so... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the final and seventh of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” With these words from the cross, Jesus dies... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the sixth of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. Eschatology is the study of the end, of final things. It is as old as any other part of... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the fifth of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. In over two thousand years of church history, the controversial heresy is the one that denies the divinity of... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the fourth of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. Then come what are, perhaps, the most troubling words of all from Jesus. “My God, my God, why have you... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the third of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. Among the crucial words from Jesus on the cross, why these? Are they a final gesture of filial affection... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In