Focus. Attention. Wonder. Stillness. “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.” - Proverbs 4:25–27 I recently finished reading Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus. Hari reflects on a...
Executive Director Mark Ramsey speaks with Heather Brown and the Rev. Barrett Payne (James Island Presbyterian Church, South Carolina) about the centrality of forgiveness to Christian identity, the problem with a "checkbox" approach to faith, and what personal and communal crises reveal about the witness...
“Mystery is an embarrassment to the modern mind.” — Flannery O’Connor “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith lives in the quiet certainties of the heart. It is the ever-recurring assurance that reality does not ultimately mock our...
The movie Amadeus features a memorable scene in which Emperor Joseph II approaches Mozart after the premiere of his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail and awkwardly suggests that Mozart uses “too many notes.” A perplexed Mozart responds, “There are just as many notes as...
Pilgrimage Formation Curator Ryan Bonfiglio speaks with the Rev. Dr. Albert Russell (Grace Community Church, Millbrook, AL; Tuskegee University) and the Rev. Leon Bell, Jr. (St. Joseph Baptist, Mobile, AL; Hope for All Gulf Coast) about the tension between forced dislocation and the practice of spiritual dislocation, the...
“Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: ‘Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.’ This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them… The whole assembly became silent as...
In late March, people packed into the entry hall of a Macy’s Department Store in downtown Philadelphia. The store was closing, but the crowd had not come for the close-out sales. They were there for one last day (at least for now) with the famed...
Program Director Adam Borneman continues his conversation with Marthame Sanders (Mudeif Productions) and Terrence Smith (Kill Pride Club) about their current perspective as "lay people", the need to move away from seeing ministry through the lens of "return on investment", and why traditional and non-traditional...
Recently, my friend, Rev. Traci Blackmon, posted on Facebook: “Concerning matters of racial justice… ‘An institution or congregation moves only as fast as the most fragile white person in their midst.’ - Dr. Jemar Tisby” From what I’ve experienced and observed, there is a lot of...