Matt Gunter, reflecting on the image of a Soviet sub’s nuclear powerplant gone critical, reflects on the parallels between the contamination caused by the leaking radiation and the way our sinful natures contaminate our relationships with the people who surround us in our lives. “We are contaminated. What’s even harder for us to admit is that many of our actions and thoughts contribute to the contamination.”
Why is it that there is such a difference in the way the secular world celebrates the two major Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas? Christmas is so universally observed among people that preachers frequently worry about the secular elements creeping into the celebration. The Triduum (and Easter in particular) have resisted this secular appropriation. Why?
As evening fell, Paul Fromberg, our priest, was setting up for services. A long-haired homeless guy, kind of sweaty and intense, strolled in looking for groceries, and Paul explained to him that the food pantry was closed for Good Friday. “But don’t you have anything to eat?” the stranger asked.
In Jesus’ time, crucifixion was not against the law. It was carried out by the law. It was an exceptionally gruesome method of torturing a person to death, carried out by the government not in secret dungeons but in public.
Clergy representing Catholics, Protestants, and Jews gathered in Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco yesterday to offer prayers on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Throughout the week, people from churches and synagogues throughout the Bay Area brought hundreds of pairs of boots and shoes to honor American and Iraqi casualties of the war.
Saint Thomas’ Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City is Web casting audio files of its Holy Week services.
Reflecting on the Obama-Wright controversy, the Right Rev. Greg Rickel, Episcopal Bishop of Olympia, noted that the “tragic past” remains personal for many. “We’re going to bring all the baggage of our lives into the conversation,” Rickel said. “A preacher brings life experiences to the pulpit. If we don’t deepen the dialogue, and be honest with each other, we’ll never get anywhere.”
Bishops in England are getting down on their knees this Maundy Thursday to shine the shoes of office workers and shoppers in towns and cities across the country. The free act is inspired by the night of the Last Supper when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet before his trial and crucifixion on Good Friday.
The word maundy is an English corruption of the Latin mandatum, from the ‘new commandment’ that Jesus gives his disciples after washing their feet.
“Take, eat, this is my body,” Jesus said. Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”