Weekly essays inspired by Anglican themes and theology.
William Douglas, Organist & Choirmaster at St. John’s, contributed the essay this week. Why do church musicians all around the world spend hours each week preparing for services of worship? Why do choir members give so much of their time to rehearse on their own, together, and even just before services? For example, the musicians…
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. Naturally, we compare it with other ways that money could be used. Naturally, we want…
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 empress Helena (the mother of the first Christian emperor, Constantine) in 326 A.D., the portion…
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. And the Spirit strengthens them most of all when believers gather together — in prayer,…
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 the earth’s atmosphere, the collapse of the birth rate, the impending avalanche of public debt,…
Last Sunday, Bishop Lambert challenged parishioners to make a plan to support St John’s mission in future generations by participating in The 1841 Society. As Chairman Scott Howard noted last week, there is no minimal requirement, and there are many different ways to make a planned gift, according to one’s capacity and needs. This week, parishioner…
Scott Howard is a Financial Planner and serves in the Vestry of St. John’s as Chairman of the 1841 Society, about which he writes here. As Christians and members of St. John’s Church, we are blessed with a beautiful historic campus, a shared mission of serving our community through outreach, and spiritual education with leadership…
A 1993 essay by the late Fr. William Ralston, Rector of St. John’s from 1974 to 1999. There has always been a yearning among some Anglicans for the great Roman communion. The odor of sanctity, the weight and depth of her spiritual life, the richness of her monuments in art and music, the calm authority…
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 moved away from this tradition.) There are a number of good reasons why we have…
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 end of human willing, then any accomplishment of these hopes depends upon human efforts and…
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 in general. Screens have allowed us to substitute contact-free virtual relationships for in-person community, and…
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 teaching, and the ancient rule of faith. The creed recited at Holy Communion is usually…
