After climbing over the ruins of the diocese’s Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral), the presiding bishop turned to Duracin and said “You should skip Lent this year; you have already had your Good Friday.” “Yes, we can all sing Alleluias together,” Duracin replied, according to the Rev. Lauren Stanley, who accompanied Jefferts Schori on her five-hour visit.
Be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that prayer is an education. Remember too every day, and whenever you can, repeat to yourself: “Lord, have mercy on all who appear before Thee today.”
Lent is one of the seasons I look forward to each year. It’s a time of preparation and introspection that sets time aside for us to take stock of who and what we are. When we look closely, honestly, we find that—among other things—we are mortal, fallible, and frail. Our liturgies are part of this process of discovery and assessment, leading us to contemplate these truths more deeply.
Here’s a poem offered as the closing prayer this past weekend for the Diocese of Iowa’s meeting of the Commission on Ministry. May it warm us all.
At the Alban Institute, we believe the time has come to lift up the power of these narrative traditions and the art of story crafting and performance as primary resources for congregational leadership and renewal. For two years, the Alban Institute engaged in the Narrative Leadership project, research made possible by the Luce Foundation, which involved pastors, lay leaders, seminary educators, and several congregations in an exploration of the narrative resources and activities of ministry.
Doug Coe is the publicity-shy head of The Family, which has mounted the Prayer Breakfast since its inception over half a century ago. The day before last Thursday’s breakfast, Coe met with Warren Throckmorton and gave what counts as the official Family thumbs-down to the bill–which Throckmorton posted on his blog Thursday morning.
Scott Gunn reminds us all of just how peculiar an institution the Anglican Church in North America is, the odd things its leaders have said, and the chippy tactics they have used in their drive to punish the Episcopal Church for treating LGBT Christians as baptized members of the Body of Christ.
Love. Treat others as you would have them treat you. If you feel you are a child of God, then honor your common and equal status with others as children of God. Except … if they are women and therefore not qualified to perform the holiest sacraments of the church. Except if two members of the same sex engage in long, committed and faithful love; God may be love, but this love is ungodly.
Small, inconspicuous signs of love are important in all those places where people live in close proximity with each other and depend on each other. Huerre calls [the 32nd chapter of the Rule of St. Benedict, on the tools of the monastery] a “chapter of good mood” because concrete elements such as order, cleanliness, and attentiveness contribute much to a cheerful atmosphere.