A conflict begins—disagreement, debate, dispute—a tinderbox of ideas and agendas generating sparks directly proportional to the force of the argument and the resistance encountered: Which side are you on? Who do they think they are? Can’t they see how wrong it is? Why do we even have to discuss a…
Earlier this year, just as spring was beginning, our good friend John came down from Philadelphia for a visit. I was in the midst of a sabbatical from teaching – a time granted to theological educators to pursue new lines of research and writing that bring fresh perspective and learning…
We were lying in bed. For days, she had been languishing with nearly unbearable pain. Most mornings, we were unsure if she would be able to get up out of bed, to eat, to drink, or to move downstairs. But this day she had spent a few hours in the…
In a 2021 conversation, Richard Lischer and Will Willimon reflected on observing Holy Week during the pandemic. Though the shadow of the pandemic has receded more this Holy Week, their observations still ring true. Lischer observes, “During Holy Week, church is a family telling its stories.” Beginning…
This is a continuation of our article from two weeks ago. Have mercy on me, oh God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy…
On Ash Wednesday in Anglican or Episcopal churches the congregation is invited, “…in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.” Growing up in the Christian…
The season of Lent “reminds us to live in God’s time and not the world’s time,” observes Katy Lines (ECS, ’98), pastor at Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis. It places our personal and communal stories within the larger narrative of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. In recent conversations with the…
Yaa Gyasi’s second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, opens with epigraphs from poets Gerard Manley Hopkins and Sharon Olds. The quotation from Hopkins, though over a century earlier than Olds’, is probably the less obscure: “the world is charged with the grandeur of God./It will flame out,…
NEW LIGHT ON OLD TEXTS: WOMEN IN MINISTRY IN PAUL’S TIME AND OURS Robert F. Hull, Jr., PhD, Professor Emeritus of New Testament, Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan More than forty years ago I was assigned to work on a committee with…
As we enter in the holy presence of God this week, we gather ourselves around the pink candle which marks what was traditionally known as “Gaudete Sunday,” literally, “Rejoice” Sunday. The rose-colored candle that stands in the cocoon of the Advent wreath is a symbol to remind us of the…
