Many years ago when I was working in New York I found myself on a bus with a friend, arguing about religion.  We had known each other since we were children in Hawaii; she was an atheist, or maybe an agnostic (I was never really sure), I was Roman Catholic, and religion had always been a strange area of silence and even strain between us, one of the few things we rarely talked about during slumber parties or after-school walks to the ice cream store.  And now here we were in our twenties, living in New York, starting our adult lives, and she wanted to know why I still went to church every Sunday.  I felt curiously shy and inarticulate, trying to talk about my faith in front of this person I had known for most of my life.

Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk/radio4

But she continued to push, asking me to explain…

Photo of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, courtesy of Episcopal News Service

I got that question a lot this summer from friends and family who aren’t Episcopalians and who are bemused by the stuff they read about my church in the national press.  So here is my brief, idiosyncratic, and much too general take on “what’s happening.”

Every three years the Episcopal Church gathers for General Convention.  General Convention is our governing body; we don’t have an archbishop or pope who decides things for us, but instead work in a complicated, messy, democratic way to get the business of the church done, and even to decide what our business really is.  Our bicameral legislative body is noticeably similar in structure to the U.S. Congress, which is no surprise because it developed alongside it, under the guidance of some of the same “founding fathers.”  It’s big, though, with over 800 people (lay and…

Julian icon courtesy of the Order of Julian

Julian of Norwich is one of the most famous and popular medieval mystics, as a quick Google search will attest, and today is her feast day on the Episcopal church calendar.  I often wonder how many of the people who express an interest in this fascinating woman have actually read the complete text of her work, Revelations of Divine Love (also known simply as Shewings, which is what she called it).

If you haven’t actually read her, but have only read about her, you should definitely check out a recent book entitled Love’s Trinity: A Companion to Julian of Norwich.  It includes a modern English translation by Father John-Julian and an extensive, illuminating commentary by Frederick S. Roden.  I believe that both are associated with the Order of Julian, a “monastic order of contemplative monks and nuns in the Episcopal Church” (yes, we have monks and nuns, too!).

Full…

Photo of Bishop Robinson courtesy of the BBC

I received an email about this and went onto Episcopal Cafe to check it out, where I learned it’s all over the Internet. The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, will give the invocation at the opening event of the Inaugural Week activities on Sunday, January 18, at the Lincoln Memorial. Part of an email reportedly sent out by Bishop Robinson states:

It will be an enormous honor to offer prayers for the country and the new president, standing on the holy ground where the “I have a dream speech” was delivered by Dr. King, surrounded by the inspiring and reconciling words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. It is also an indication of the new president’s commitment to being the President of ALL the people. I am humbled and overjoyed at this invitation, and it will be my great honor to be there…

“We’re at a moment when there are no guarantees as to the Earth’s future. It’s a question of our own critical choices. And I think what we’re deeply in need of is a transforming vision…A vision that opens the future up to hope.”–Miriam MacGillis, OP, co-founder of Genesis Farm, from “Fate of the Earth”

Trinity Conference, Jan. 21-23

Environmental sustainability. Liberation theology. Ecology and spirituality. Where do these ideas coincide and how do they create and sustain an ongoing conversation among different disciplines and individuals? These topics will be front and center at the Trinity Institute 39th National Theological Conference, “Radical Abundance: A Theology of Sustainability.” While the conference itself will take place at Trinity Wall Street, an Episcopal parish in New York City, from January 21st through 23rd, there will also be a live webcast happening right here in our area. Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Webster Groves (yes, my home parish) is…

Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori in Gaza in March, courtesy of Episcopal Life Online

When something has been a “crisis” for longer than one has been alive, it can be hard to maintain focus and energy around it. We’re all familiar with the idea of compassion fatigue. But the crisis in the Middle East, and at the moment particularly in Gaza, has reached a new boiling point. Rather than try to figure out the historical origins of the conflict, or God forbid get into a shouting match about victimization and blame, it seems the most important thing is to focus on the people being hurt by the situation, and not close our eyes to the ongoing and worsening humanitarian crisis.

“Innocent lives are being lost throughout the land we all call Holy, and as Christians remember the coming of the Prince of Peace, we ache for the absence of peace in the land…

AIDS ribbon at the White House in 2007. Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Do you remember the first time you learned about the disease we now call AIDS? I was barely a teenager at the time, but I remember it well. And I remember, too, the moment years later when I learned that a member of my own family had died from the disease. Today, on World AIDS Day, I remember that I am not alone in that loss.

Looking at the timeline on the Gay Men’s Health Crisis website, I found myself moved by their very brief postings and pictures depicting key moments in the chronicle of this disease over the last 27 years. Certain names contain such resonance that merely intoning them calls to mind a kind of abbreviated cultural history of AIDS in this country: Rock Hudson, C. Everett Koop, Jesse Helms, Magic Johnson, Ryan White. They remind me of…

Photo of early voter courtesy of AP

I woke up this morning, got my kids off to school, and then did the single most important thing I would do all day.

I went to church and led Morning Prayer with a small handful of other parishioners.

After that, I voted.

Our little group that gathers for Morning Prayer every Tuesday had discussed canceling the service today because it fell on Election Day morning. We’re all politically aware enough so that we were planning to vote, and many of us have other daily obligations. We’d heard all the stories predicting unusually long lines and waits. In the end, we chose to hold the service, and not to worry about how many people might turn up.

Interestingly, my precinct’s polling place is in a church auditorium. Someone had placed a sign near the line of waiting voters that read (I’m quoting from memory so this might not…

Image courtesy of Time online

Most of us lead overly busy lives.  We cram errands and chores and “quality time” with our kids into the same few hours that we’re not at work or school or doing other equally necessary things.  Many of us accomplish all that we need to do in 24 hours by multitasking, or doing more than one thing at a time.

But while I was driving around doing errands and playing chauffeur to my kids the other day, I happened to hear an NPR story about multitasking that suggests that (a) it’s not nearly as efficient or effective as we think it is and (b) it is simply not something our brains are wired to do.  When we think we’re doing two things simultaneously, we’re really switching quickly back and forth between them, leading to lost time (while our brains make the to-and-fro adjustments) and increased stress.

Leaving aside the…

From the Episcopal Public Policy Network: “In order to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), United Nations General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have called a meeting of world leaders, civil society and the private sector in New York this week…. Halfway towards the [MDGs] target date of 2015, the meeting is intended to review progress to date, identify gaps and next steps, and translate existing commitments into concrete plans and action on the ground to ensure that all countries can achieve the Goals. The meeting takes place during the UN General Assembly’s annual debate.

Anglicans, along with people of faith from diverse traditions and many others, will be gathering in New York to pray for the leaders meeting at the UN and to advocate for their governments to live into the promises that have been made.”

Christians believe themselves to be members of…

“God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.” –Dag Hammarskjold

Sometimes I use an online resource, the Mission of St. Clare, as my guide in praying the Daily Office. (As a rule I don’t think that expedience and efficiency are good criteria to bring to one’s prayer time, but when you’re having “one of those mornings” and then you finally get the kids out the door and have a moment to yourself and fully intend to settle down to prayer, only to have it hit you that you left your Prayer Book and Bible in the trunk of your husband’s car–long story, don’t ask–having a place to turn online is a wonderful thing!)

Anyway,…

If you ever feel like spirituality  (the lived experience of faith) and theology (the study or knowledge of God, especially as articulated by scholars and intellectuals) inhabit two entirely separate worlds, you might be interested in an upcoming conference.

The Episcopal School for Ministry and the Diocese of Missouri will hold the third annual Making Disciples conference on Saturday, September 13, at Christ Church Cathedral. The conference will feature the Rev. Mark A. McIntosh, Ph.D., on the theme of “Discerning God’s Delight: A Theological Life of Spiritual Discernment.” More information, including registration details, fees, and deadlines, is available on the Dicoese’s website.

The Rev. Dr. McIntosh is an Episcopal priest, scholar, and a longtime theology professor at Loyola University. His numerous books and articles include Christology from Within and Mystical Theology: The Integrity of Spirituality and Theology. As that subtitle indicates,bringing the spheres of spirituality and theology back into contact with one another is…

The Irish Times is reporting that “a conciliatory statement is expected at the end of the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury,”which concludes today. Others are predicting that the whole endeavor will have been a waste or even a sham, a kind of desperate stall for time. The British paper the Telegraph has a particularly depressing article out today, found here, about bishops pressuring “the Archbishop of Canterbury to declare a split in the Anglican Communion for the sake of orthodox Christianity.”

For my own part, I am sure only that it will take time, perhaps a very long time, to understand with any clarity the actual results of the Lambeth Conference. It is almost unAmerican to spend two weeks following an event and not have some definite sense of resolution or closure when it is over. Who won? Who lost? What was the score? Can we give it “two thumbs up”? Our usual…

We’re falling apart at the seams. That would be the general impression I get of the Anglican Communion in most media reports of the last several years.

Not that I’m blaming the media, mind you. The conflicts within the Anglican Communion are real, painful, and profound. And of course priests and bishops and lay people who are all storming around and slamming doors behind them like one big dysfunctional family make good press. So be it.

The war drums (or death knells, depending upon whom you read) seemed to get louder and louder in the weeks leading up to the Lambeth Conference. Lambeth is a once-a-decade gathering of Anglican leaders (archbishops, bishops, and presiding bishops from around the globe), and the conference received oodles of press attention from the moment it was announced. The stories that streamed forth about the fractious, potentially schismatic state of the third largest Christian group in the world…

“How can you pray for someone you don’t know?”

The question was asked candidly, without rancor, and with genuine interest. The person asking the question was seriously ill and I was the chaplain assigned to the floor of the hospital where she was being treated. I had not even offered prayer; I had simply introduced myself and explained that I was a chaplain. Her question brought me up short.

The recent Pew religion poll found that more than half of all Americans report praying regularly. The number is impressive, but it leaves me wanting to know so much more. I wonder what and for whom people pray, what they even mean by prayer, what they understand to be happening when they pray, how it feels to them. Religion in America is a little like sex: media portrayals of other people’s spiritual practices can seem calculated to shock or offend (preachers damning our country from…

According to the Episcopal News Service, “Traces of the Trade” will air on the PBS show POV tonight.  I have been hearing good “buzz” about this documentary ever since it was previewed at the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2006, but I have not had an opportunity to see it myself.  I believe it will air tonight at 9:00.  I hope to post more on the topic after seeing it and would encourage readers to respond to it here (in the comments section) if they so desire.  Here’s part of the ENS story for those who haven’t heard about the documentary:

“Traces” [...] tells the story of the DeWolf family, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history and also a prominent part of the Episcopal Church in Rhode Island. James DeWolf Perry was the 18th Presiding Bishop.

In the film, Katrina Browne, a DeWolf descendant and the documentary’s producer and director,…

I was listening to a piece on NPR’s Morning Edition about the wedding of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon when the following lines caught my attention:

Outside City Hall, hundreds of supporters and some opponents of gay marriage gathered. Those protesting carried signs that said “Re-criminalize Sodomy” and “God Hates Lying Sinners.”

Ugh. I hardly know what to do with such language. “God hates lying sinners.” Really? Even if I could accept that all gay couples who choose to marry in a legal ceremony are “lying sinners” (and, let me be clear, I find that assertion scandalous), how does one justify saying that God hates anyone? Where is the charity, not to mention the humility and compassion, that Christians claim as the hallmarks of their faith?

I recognize that that protester and his sign are not a fair representation of all or even most people who oppose gay marriage. The sad truth is…

I’ve tried two or three times to write about women’s ordination, but I keep deleting my efforts rather than posting them. Too much baggage, too complicated a topic to address in a blog. The last thing I want is to play “dueling denominations.” I decided that in the spirit of ecumenism and keeping things “civil” I would refrain.

And then something happened that I just had to write about in order to begin to make sense of it. I don’t know how helpful personal anecdotes are in addressing a topic like this one; perhaps instead I should write about the Episcopal Church’s history of ordaining women. But for the moment this is what I have to offer.

My grandmother died last month. She was one of those matriarchs whose passing can shake a family to its foundation. When I was little I called her my “double mother” because she was more like a…

When I became a postulant for the priesthood, my bishop reminded me that I would need to be in contact with him on Ember Days. “Do you want me to write a real letter?” I asked, miming a hand moving across paper. He laughed and replied that e-mail would work just fine.

I promptly went home and began researching everything I could about Ember Days and the letters that accompany them, since I wasn’t terribly sure what was expected of me. Clergy friends offered everything from “oh, it’s not that big a deal” to “yes, you should take this very seriously.” Okey-dokey, then. My favorite comment was the advice not to write a “having-a-good-time, wish-you-were-here, postcard-from-summer-camp kind of letter.” At least that began to give me the hint of a direction.

The Prayer Book, usually the first place I turn for the inside scoop, told me when Ember Days were (more on that below)…

Have you ever seen a movie or read a book or eaten a meal that was so fantastic that you couldn’t help but talk about it? Your spouse, your friends, your coworkers, your hairdresser–anyone and everyone seems like the perfect person to talk to about that spine-tingling film or life-changing novel or mouth-watering grilled salmon. If you’re like me, an enthusiastic sort, you can even drive people a little crazy with the topic, at least until the Next Big Thing comes along to capture your fancy.

So then why are so many of us so hesitant to talk about our faith? Why is it that when I hear an energizing and insightful sermon or am delighted by a soaringly beautiful hymn, or for that matter when I witness an inspiring act of sacrificial service to others–all of which happen with astonishing frequency in my parish–I rarely think to chat about it with…