Reprinted from September 2019. Many Christians in North America worship in buildings that are intentionally “unchurchy” in character – anonymous, generic spaces similar in style (or lack of style) to stores, offices, and movie theatres. The idea is to eliminate…
Revised and reprinted from 2020. There is a small colony of ants near the rectory bathroom windowsill. When I leave a drop of toothpaste foam near the sink, they form a little column of anxious diligence, scurrying back and forth…
What comes to mind when you are asked to fill out a pledge card? For many of us, it feels like another bill to pay—a religious bill, perhaps, but still one more obligation to fit in alongside all the others.…
Holy Cross Day, which falls this Sunday, September 14th, is a feast that originated in the discovery and recovery of what was believed to be the True Cross on which Christ was crucified. Said to have been discovered by the…
The Christian life is about faith, hope, and love — faith in Christ, hope in his promises, and love for one another. These are not things we can stir up by sheer willpower; they are gifts of the Holy Spirit.…
We live in unsettling times. No doubt this is true of every age of history, but ours especially so. Back in the 1950’s, human beings began worrying about nuclear warfare. Since then, other existential threats have emerged: the warming of…
Worship at St. John’s is “old school”. Unlike most Episcopal and Anglican churches, we make use of the classical liturgy that originated in the church of England in the 16th century in its last American edition of 1928. (Later revisions…
At the heart of conventional worldly religion, God is conceived of as a metaphor or symbol of spirituality, a projection of human hopes and aspirations, a dream of what might or should be. But if God is just the other…
Since the 1960’s, we have been caught up in a far-reaching cultural revolution. One aspect of this revolution has been retreat from participation in the institutions of community life – notably marriage and church – but also from civic engagement…
The teaching of Scripture is the primary authority for what Christians know and believe; but under Scripture, Anglicans (and many other Christians) receive the three Creeds that have come down from the ancient catholic church, as reliable touchstones of Scripture’s…
Second of Two Parts In the first part of this essay, we explored the meaning of the term “Son of man”, used by Jesus to refer to himself, as the key to his understanding of the titles “Messiah” and “Son…
The church commemorates the martyrdom of St. Peter (and also St. Paul) on June 29th, a feast especially important to the church of Rome, which cherished its apostolic roots, and the tombs of the apostles, housed in magnificent basilicas built…
