This is the wilderness of fasting, prayer— a rugged landscape, marked by rocks and caves— and of the crying voice which will declare the coming of One mightier, who saves. Emaciated, clad in cloak and hide (the beast’s head visible), pale face, raw hand, the prophet waits at sunset, to abide until the time is…
In a world filled with the deafening clamor for justice and, purportedly, for righteousness, how do we distinguish between true virtue and its appearance? After all, everybody claims to be one of the good guys. As ever in matters of virtue, Jane Austen’s nearly inexhaustible riches may provide us some clarity in the matter, and…
Part I of this story reported on efforts of the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) to double its size, as part of its REC 100 initiative unveiled in 2017, and discussed the Covidtide experience of two new REC churches. Within Anglicanism, the REC has a similar theology and liturgy to the Continuing Anglican churches; Part II…
It is the second Sunday of Easter, April 22nd, 1694, in Water Stratford, Buckinghamshire. The enthusiastic and eccentric rector of St Giles’ parish church appears at a window of his house to an excitable assembly of parishioners and pilgrims drawn from the ranks of the 100-strong millenarian community encamped on the town’s southern approach.1 To…
Me once: slumped in a deckchair out the back, Reading a wholesome Reader’s Digest book Which told the story of Heinrich Schliemann Gazing upon the face of Agamemnon – Only, he hadn’t; his discovery Went further back than that. My own history Had its funeral mask – hardly gold, rather The skin over the cheekbones…
Christians love text. Inheriting the enthusiasm of their Jewish forebears for the written word, Christians have left a blazing trail of text in their wake at every turn: sermons, commentaries, philosophical treatises, and liturgical documentation all have their part in the library. Text is powerful because it comes with triple strengths. Text endures; writing our…
As the disruption of Covidtide begins to wane and possibly end, the Church must now reorient itself from survival back to the Great Commission. However, some churches have been hurt more than others. A nationwide study of offertory collections by The Pillar showed that giving was down dramatically during Lent and Easter in 2020, but…
Thomas Aquinas—known for centuries within the Roman Catholic Church as the “Angelic Doctor” and the “Universal Doctor,” among other titles—has received increased attention from Protestants in recent years. Some have explored the value of his thought as a whole,[1] while others have constructively engaged him as part of a larger treatment of a particular topic.[2]…
A few weeks ago I proposed to guide our readers, Virgil like, through an examination of several “secular stories,” with the hope that we might arrive at a new perspective from which to assess our rather confusing social/political moment as faithful Christians. I ended my introduction to this series with an outline of the major…
At the corner of Church and Fair, in rain she pauses, cool in the invisible and rainless room below her umbrella… The low, wide Japanese tree’s elegant. Its salmon maple leaves are rained to red, Its splay of spindles slicked to jet by rain… Its bonfire burns the rain, and all the world Seems thirsty-eyed…