Week of July 5, 2020
I have been discussing spiritual gifts during this Pentecost season. This week I would like to talk about the gift of Mercy. Simply put, those who possess this spiritual gift are drawn to caring for people who are experiencing physical or emotional needs. These are the people who are the first to ask how they can help when…
Week of June 28, 2020
For the last couple of weeks I have been talking about the gifts of the Spirit that we celebrate in the season of Pentecost. One of the most confounding gifts for Episcopalians I think is the gift of speaking in tongues, or glossolalia (literally a compound of the Greek words for “tongue” and “making noise”). Speaking in…
Week of June 21, 2020
Last week, I talked about the spiritual gifts that are given to us through the Holy Spirit to empower us to do the work of Jesus Christ in the world. There are many different places in Scripture where Christians have found lists of gifts (1 Corinthians 12: 8–10, Romans 12: 6–8, and 1 Peter 4:9–10 are…
Week of June 14, 2020
During the season of Pentecost, the focus of our readings in worship, our study and learning, shifts from what Easter means to us as humans to what it means to be a disciple of Christ. It is a natural transition: we are given the tremendous gift of grace in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and…
Week of June 7, 2020
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, our “patronal feast day” in the annual calendar. When Episcopal churches are created, their name designates which day is their personal “birthday.” An example would be the feast day of a particular saint for a church named after that saint, or Christ the King Sunday for Christ Churches, etc. So…
Week of May 31, 2020
I am taking a break from my survey of the history of the Church through the centuries to reflect for a moment about that topic and the celebration of Pentecost this Sunday. Pentecost is often considered the “birthday of the Church” because it is the day we celebrate the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus’ followers fifty…
Week of May 24, 2020
To try to sum up all of the factors that led to the Reformation in a Church newsletter article is quite impossible. It is easy to point to the abuses that were occurring in the Roman Catholic church politically, financially, and theologically as the instigators of Reformation supporters, but that would also ignore the changes that…
Week of May 17, 2020
I am continuing with my overview of Church history, architecture, music, and liturgy during this season of reflection and physical distance this week by embracing a fairly long period of time: 1073 to 1517 AD. The political and cultural changes in Europe during these centuries are too vast and various to sufficiently encapsulate here, but the…
Week of May 10, 2020
During this Easter season I’ve been exploring the history of Christianity with a focus on architecture, music, and liturgy as a way for us to enjoy and expand our own understanding of those elements of our own faith tradition that seem perhaps just a little farther away right now. This week my focus is the…
Week of May 3, 2020
I’m continuing with my survey of Church history, architecture, music, and liturgy this week with the period of the rise of the Roman Church (313-750 CE). It is during this time that secular authority took on a new and dramatic role in the life of the Christian faith. But first, some backstory. The emperor Diocletian divided the…