Rendering the Invisible Visible: Dr. Justin Shaun Coyle, Associate Professor of Theology, Church History, and Philosophy at Mount Angel Seminary, Oregon, has written this reflection on our Lenten Art show now on display in the arches of the mall, Man of Sorrows, by artist Sean Marnul. The passion is notoriously difficult to depict. On the […]
Plans and Chances (I): The course of true love never did run smooth, and tracing the course of God’s loving purpose in history has many bumps along the way, so many that one might well wonder if God knows what he is doing. As we trace his works in creation, in Israel, and in […]
Feed your body & soul! The Word At Work: Tools to Read the Bible with Confidence and Understanding Two Thursdays a month, 12:15-1:15 p.m. in St. John’s Parish Center, Cranmer Hall (27 W Charlton St) The upcoming sessions are on March 30; and April 13 & 27. We are offering a lunch series on how […]
Baptism In baptism, we go under the water, and in that action is recalled the Flood that washed the world clean of wicked men, and through which the ark bore Noah and his family into a new creation; Israel’s passage through the Red Sea, its deliverance from slavery into covenant with the Lord; its second […]
Count Down to the Cross: Last Sunday was Septuagesima, this Sunday is Sexagesima, and next we have Quinquagesima. These picturesque old Latin names mean, respectively, “seventieth”, “sixtieth”, and “fiftieth”. Obviously, we are on a countdown, in which the next number is “Quadragesima” – an old name for the forty days of Lent. Lent, of course, […]
Love and Wrath Last week some of us attended the “Mere Anglicanism” conference in Charleston, hosted by our neighbours in the Anglican diocese of Charleston. The topic was “Telling a More Beautiful Story: Lessons from C.S. Lewis on Reaching a Fractured World”. Lewis is one of the few Anglicans in the 20th century to find […]
Little Epiphanies: A testimony by Fr Patrick Hunt, Assisting Priest at St John’s Church On the Feast of the Epiphany, I especially wanted to attend the Holy Eucharist because I was feeling both anxious and afraid. Like many other people, for much of my life I have struggled at times with depression. This past year […]
Conversion of Paul “Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints”. On the feasts of the saints, the Church celebrates the witness to Christ that they completed by their death, and their entrance into supernal glory. There are three exceptions to this rule: the Nativity of John the Baptist, […]
Jubilate Deo Like a set of nesting Russian dolls, so Psalm 66 moves from the universal to the particular. In its summons to all nations to the Lord’s praise, it is a psalm of the Epiphany, Christ’s manifestation to the nations. Christ belongs to the world, and the world belongs to him: O Be […]
The Sacrifice of Gratitude: There is a restaurant in Los Angeles called Café Gratitude, and at this restaurant – unlike a New Jersey diner where one might be accosted by a seasoned waitress with a “whatcha want?” – the patron is greeted with a “question of the day,” something along the lines of “What are […]