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Good Friday: Let us embrace the Cross

A sermon preached on Good Friday 2014 at Church of the Ascension, Chicago. From the Passion according to St. John, “And again another scripture says, ‘They shall look on him whom they have pierced.’”...

Singing the Sarum blues

A few days ago, I posted a ridiculous photo on Facebook (on your right), making a joke about how Advent was finally getting some retail love — including Gaudete Sunday. See there? Purple hats...

The Sharknado Church

After my recent blog post on zombie churches, the Crusty Old Dean rightly pointed out over on Twitter (where I hope you’ll follow me) that zombies are so 2012. The COD challenged me, nay,...

The message of canceled church services

UPDATE in 2020: I see this 2013 post getting some attention today, in June 2020. This blog post was written in 2013 in response to issues with winter storms in New England. For those...

How to liven up your Annual Parish Meeting

It’s annual meeting season. Back when I was a rector, I liked them to go smoothly, like well-scripted legislative machines. Now that I merely attend the meetings, I prefer to see some fireworks. So,...

An Acts 8 moment?

For the last couple of weeks, I have been in much conversation with Susan Snook and Tom Ferguson (known for their blogs, A Good and Joyful Thing and Crusty Old Dean). We have been...

Angels: setting the record straight

Our culture has an angel problem. Lots of people talk about angels. Guardian angel this, Hallmark card that. Angels appear on TV shows. Angels are regular features in all manner of popular culture, high...

Practicing our slogan

“The Episcopal Church welcomes you!” That’s our deal, right? We’re welcoming. Or not so much. Now that I’m not serving in a parish, I have been visiting lots of Episcopal congregations. It’s been illuminating,...