I accepted a call to serve Holy Trinity’s children during a global crisis, a pandemic no-less – COVID-19 if we’re going to be technical. Why on earth would I do this? Sometimes I wonder myself. However, if I’m being honest, it’s because I believed the Lord nudged me and called me to this place at…
With Thanksgiving here and the season of Advent approaching to bring 2020 to a close, I am reminded more than ever why the season is so significant. In it we remember the Advent, the coming of God himself incarnate into our broken world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth 2,000 or so years ago.…
Conversations with Jesus seemed to leave people not only awestruck but also exposed. Jesus brilliantly asked questions that pierced through surface matters and probed heart longings, desires and motivations. Jesus cared and still cares about the heart because he knows that good and evil emanate from it (Matt. 15:11). Words and behaviors originate from the…
This summer challenged us in many ways. Aside from the ongoing worry and adjustments due to a global pandemic, every corner of our nation echoed with protests, calls for justice and confused sorrow in response to George Floyd’s murder. The subsequent media coverage of other black and brown Americans like Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery…
It has been several months since I last wrote to you with a few reflections on race and the importance of “double listening.” I have been doing a lot of listening since then: reading, watching, praying and meeting for one-on-one discussion. I have delved into Scripture, history and the personal stories of friends and strangers. It has been…
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” St. John’s Gospel (1:14 NRSV) A central message of the Christian faith is that God saves what God assumes. Or, rather, God makes holy that which…
The Episcopal Church in the United States was in crisis. Its leadership had strayed from the traditional and historic teachings of the Church, particularly those dealing with the authority of scripture. Simply put, it was a controversy about the Bible. At issue was not just a few individual passages, as is often alleged, but the…
The plan was for Gil and me to travel to Great Britain and spend several weeks of vacation visiting as many museums and used bookstores in London as possible, followed by a tour of the countryside and concluding with a forage into northwest England in search of Greggs family records (as far as we can…
It was nearly six weeks ago that George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer over the course of nearly nine horrifying minutes. The video of Floyd’s death led to weeks of peaceful protest and periodic violent looting that gripped the headlines and tore at our hearts. It also led our nation into a…
Morning is the worst time of day for those in the grip of suffering. The nauseating jolt back into consciousness is accompanied by acute sensation: the foul odor and tinny taste of a too-parched mouth is complemented by the needling pain of dry eyelids on dryer eyes. Your body seems to want to participate in…