Presence

Remember you are dust...

This year I’ve heard great stories from San Francisco, Chicago, Brooklyn and elsewhere of little bands of Episcopalians taking Ash Wednesday ashes to the streets. Sunday after Ash Wednesday, visiting at St. Lydia’s Dinner Church, I heard the writer of the blog, Bleak Theology, telling his story of first meeting the congregation a year ago Ash Wednesday and this year joining in imposing ashes at the Union/Pacific Subway Station in Brooklyn. Read more about Remember you are dust...

Part 1: Traveling across my life to Iona

Quite early this morning I boarded the train at Stonehaven (near Aberdeen) crossing Scotland East to West to Glasgow. In Glasgow I’ll catch another train to travel up the coast to Oban. From Oban, I’ll take the ferry to Mull, then board a bus for Fionnphort where the day’s last ferry to Iona will be waiting for us. Tonight it will be dinner, prayers, and sleep in Iona Abbey. Read more about Part 1: Traveling across my life to Iona

Part 2: Iona, martyrs on the beach and falling in love

After forty years of asking people to try and reflect on new ways of practicing church, I’m still loving helping our gathered communities discover fresh ways to do this, to be church, to gather openly in Jesus’ presence inviting all in, but this visit to Scotland, seeing how my daughter is making her life without church community, sensing how common that is among her friends and colleagues, seeing Britain’s empty or repurposed churches (a bar, a warehouse, an urban club, subdivided into housing), I sense an inkling of a future of loss; so much that we love and hope to hold on to is dying. Read more about Part 2: Iona, martyrs on the beach and falling in love

Just What is Church For?

If what we’re up to when we gather to do church matters to humanity and the world we live in, we should be able to tell people what we’re doing and make sense to them without coercing their agreement (or silence) by us invoking our belief system and grand theological language that even we can’t explain without using more grand theological language. Read more about Just What is Church For?

Improvisation & The Art of Becoming a Full Participant

Christmas Pageant Workshop participant Kirsten Snow Spalding shares her insights and experiences about All Saints Company's pedagogy in action. Read more about Improvisation & The Art of Becoming a Full Participant

The Practice of "Thank You"

I wanted to write about a practice of gratitude, a new daily routine that I’m hoping to make as habitual as flossing my teeth. No, more than wanted to, I guess I am beginning to write about it. I’ll get to the problem in a moment. Read more about The Practice of "Thank You"

Children In The Liturgy

The Red Chapel at Nashotah House (the Episcopal seminary in Wisconsin) was my major experience of including children in the liturgy, twelve years in a small chapel where there were no pews, or even seats except along the outer edge for parents with small children or elderly people. Read more about Children In The Liturgy

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