It is perhaps not surprising that the summer of this annus horribilis has brought with it a bitter and bumper crop of hopelessness. It’s somehow in vogue to speak and write of hopelessness—not as you might imagine, but instead as the needed catalyst for change, perhaps a...
We are headed into a stretch of parables this month, all of which Jesus tells as an effort to help people understand what the kingdom of heaven is like. It is not always a comforting picture. “Parables are not parallels,” my old preaching professor used to...
Tomorrow at the cathedral in Paris we will ordain two new priests in the Convocation—Stéphanie Burette and Jean Dumond Chavanne. Each of them, in their own ways, are stories very different from the usual account of a person who senses a vocation to ministry and follows...
When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. Pentecost, the great feast of the church’s founding, comes on Sunday. It is always a liminal sort of festival; it comes in near proximity to the end of the school year, and at the threshold of the...
Q. Is God’s activity limited to these rites? A. God [is not limited] to these rites; they are patterns of countless ways by which God uses material things to reach out to us. An Outline of the Faith [“The Catechism”], BCP, p. 861 We are going back to...
Sunday’s reading from John’s gospel brings around the sixth of seven “I am” statements by which Jesus discloses to his followers who he is and why he has come: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Taken as a whole, however, the reading itself contains a...
This Sunday brings around the familiar image of the Good Shepherd. We hear the comforting words of the twenty-third psalm again; we hear Jesus describe himself in John’s gospel as the “gate for the sheep.” And he tells us something more about what it means to be a good...
“Will we have to wear masks?” The time is nearing that our churches will be able to open for worship. It will not happen everywhere at once; it will happen at different times in different places. But even when it happens, one thing is already clear: We are not going back to...
I think we can all agree that the novelty has now entirely worn off “novel Coronavirus.” A little unexpected time at home is almost always a gift; but it is hard to find any silver lining at all in weeks of disruption, shattered economies, and the unabated fear of infection by a...
An Easter Message from the Bishop The police in the neighborhood called the Cathedral this week. It wasn’t a courtesy call; they were calling to make certain it was clear no services are permitted in the building, not for Easter or any other purpose. They were given...