The Archive

Year: 2008

Who pays for Polly?

May 13, 2008 2 Comments

The other day, I did the funeral of a woman I’ll call Polly. She lived alone, worked as a cashier in a gas-station/variety store 50 to 60 hours per week saving $5 here and $20 there to “pay off” the bills she carried after a being hospitalized for a seizure. As far as we can tell, her care was very good. Care was not the problem. The problem was that she was never going to pay her bills in anything like a normal lifetime.

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Opening day

May 13, 2008 No Comments

To understand Luke’s Pentecost it is necessary to understand that the gospel doesn’t just go to the ends of the earth; the ends of the earth are present from the very first day. There is no secondhand, third-hand or fourth-hand faith.

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New violence against Anglicans in Zimbabwe

May 13, 2008 2 Comments

State sponsored violence against members of the Anglican Church reached new levels over the weekend as police in different parts of Harare gatecrashed church services and beat up parishioners loyal to new bishop Sebastian Bakare.

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Rowan Williams’ Pentecost Letter

May 12, 2008 3 Comments

The Archbishop of Canterbury has written to the bishops of the Anglican Communion in a letter just posted to his web site. The letter describes in more detail what his hopes are for this summer’s Lambeth Conference and it lays out his desire that all the bishops who attend are willing in good conscience to participate in the Windsor Process.

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How and why we give

May 12, 2008 No Comments

An article in the Washington Post examines the reasons we are willing to give to charities and the reasons that we balk. Apparently there is evidence that large gifts are primarily motivated by the self-interest of the giver rather than the need of the recipient.

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African Bishops call for intervention

May 12, 2008 No Comments

A group of bishops from across the southern continent of Africa have issued a call for their governments to intervene in Zimbabwe. They have also asked the United Nations dispatch an envoy to help break the political impasse in that country.

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Culture, tradition and the Anglican Communion

May 12, 2008 2 Comments

About one-third of our students are married; all of them paid the traditional bride price for their tribe and clan. None of them can understand why we in the United States do not do this. When I tell them that paying for a bride in America is not only not part of our tradition, but also could be considered illegal – “We don’t pay for people in America; we outlawed that in the 1860s.” – the students here are appalled.

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Liturgy as proclamation

May 12, 2008 No Comments

The book of 1549 was a tremendous achievement and has earned for Thomas Cranmer, who as far aw know produced it almost single-handed, a place in the first rank of the liturgists of Christendom. In view of its excellence, it is astonishing that it was used in English churches for only three years.

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God and Dr. Seuss

May 11, 2008 1 Comment

So is The Cat in the Hat really the Christ who arrives with a “BUMP” and turns the world upside down for God’s children? Is the mother in the story a symbol of the old religious law? Are the fish in the bowl representative of churches that adhere to a restricting version of the Gospel? Did Dr. Seuss really intend for his stories to be interpreted this way?

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