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Online Communion: A Lutheran Perspective
Covid-19 has sent all of society into crisis mode, but the church has felt most acutely the effects of the pandemic. Worship services have been cancelled, hospital visitation curtailed or eliminated, and bible studies have been put on hiatus. Clergy, not knowing the right response, have sought to care for souls in the most readily…
Fourth of July
The streetlights flicker, set to hummingLike mosquitoes in the amber nightOf tree frogs and fireworks, unforked lightning,Spine-tickling rivulets of sweat. This is the stuff, I think, this the life I recall from my youth by the ocean, Days of marsh grass and the sun’s gold-leaf,Heinekens, Merits, the soulful motion Of lights across the bay. A couple thereSits…
Godric of Finchale as a Thorn Tree
Homage to Frederick Buechner The thorn was bronze and wonderful to see,Though no one’s safe around such scimitars That escalade against the very sky. Yet scimitar by scimitar it rose,And being made so barbed and barbarous, Perhaps it meant no harm but harmed by chance. Woodcutters could have axed and hacked the treeTo toss a greenwood crackle…
Am I a Soul or a Body?
An Excerpt from An Introduction to Theological Anthropology: Humans, Both Creaturely and Divine There exists a growing trend in theological anthropology toward what has been called Christian materialism. By Christian materialism, I am referring to the position that we are strictly identical to our bodies—albeit sophisticated bodies, our brains, or our animal (i.e., a biological…
In the Footsteps of the Warden: Reflections on The Rev’d Septimus Harding
A few days ago I finished The Chronicles of Barsetshire, a six-book series by Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, for the second time in as many years. An immediate personal favorite, I was introduced to the series by Anne Kennedy’s blog and podcast, Preventing Grace. For those unfamiliar with the series, all six books take place in…
The Virginia Bishops and Classical American Anglicanism
In January of 1800 Rev. Dr. James Madison, Bishop of Virginia, wrote his cousin, James Madison Jr. The former hailed the congressman and “Father of the Constitution” for his past work on the basic law of the still-new American republic. “You have really swept the Augean Stable; at least, you have cleansed the Constitution from…
Anglican Orders of Ministry Part I
During the Reformation the Church of England, along with a minority of other Protestant churches[1] maintained its pre-Reformation episcopalian polity, with its three orders of deacon, presbyter, and bishop. In this two-part essay, I explore the Anglican orders of ministry. In this first part, I begin by discussing episcopalian polity generally; in the subsequent piece…
Afternoon
The sparrow that can fly against such windDeserves a spot in memory’s museum. Likewise the sunbeams on the bedroom blind,Slanted just so, a light preserved from autumn,Intruding its chill upon mid-June.As school lets out for good, I hear the cheeringOver rooftops of the kids at noonSet loose through double doors and spinningLike struck marbles, and…
Singing of the Baptist Every June 24
One of the potential (but now rarely realized) delights of the Anglican lectionary is the number of saints and other holy days during the year, and the opportunities it presents for the choir or even the congregation to sing the faith. If you’re an English cathedral musician running a tourist service — or a medieval…
“No Other Wealth: The Prayers of a Modern Day Saint, Bishop Charles Henry Brent”
I. Introduction and Meditation Why do we pray? What do we expect to communicate to God? How should we shape our heart toward God? The first place we look for instruction in prayer is the Holy Scriptures, as our words to God should reflect His words to us. The second place we look should be…
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