As we approach Holy Week, we share a hymn by James Montgomery (1771-1854), who was born in Scotland to Irish parents. When he was just five years old, James’ parents left him in care of a Moravian community in Ireland, while they answered a call...
The church is not asked to invent an identity; it is to live the life of Jesus Christ in the world. - Jurgen Moltmann How can you just leave me standing Alone in a world that's so cold? - Prince, When Doves Cry A recent feature article about Prince included the...
We received the following question from a colleague two weeks ago: Does this data point to a period of the church reintroducing ourselves to the public … or a period of being in the wilderness, while relearning why we are Christian before we reintroduce ourselves? Our colleague...
For Marty, the only real swear word was tribalism — watching out for my interest, my family, my town, my country, my tribe — at the expense of others…. Everyone, and he meant everyone, deserved a seat at the table of public discussion as long...
The sheer velocity of change in this season – touching everything from routine tasks to global alignments – is leaving people and institutions out of breath and rife with stress. We wonder if the writer of Philippians could have imagined the world that would receive...
Out of arguments with others, we make politics. Out of arguments with ourselves, we make art. - William Butler Yeats Is there any church board out there unacquainted with all those “arguments with others” that have saturated our society for the past several years? Almost every decision...
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with...
Last week, we approached the idea of curiosity as an essential resource for growth and depth. Curiosity can be a high challenge in times of anxiety, stress, division, and strife. It is understandable to see curiosity as a ‘nice option’ for normal times, dispensable in stormy times. Scripture,...
The poet Donald Hall once told the story of a New Hampshire hermit, a man who passed away leaving behind sheds full of stuff. His friends and neighbors helped sort through the avalanche of … well, everything under the sun … that had been accumulated...