Many of us are sitting in churches we cannot afford to maintain and listening to full-time priests we struggle to pay. In order to provide the props and actors for the traditional services, we call on a precious few to fill the roster of lay ministries. I don’t see as many people leaving the church because of doctrinal differences as from sheer fatigue.
Delaware’s first civil union was blessed at Trinity Episcopal Church in Wilmington. Some readers may recognize the Rev. Patricia Downing in the photograph accompanying this
When it comes to religious faith, Latinos seek symbols, religious language, expressions of popular piety, basic doctrines, biblical teachings and a practical understanding of their relationship with God. They want to understand church as a community they can belong to, not just as an “institution.”
We will understand with deeper urgency that if we don’t attract more people to the Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Church will wither and die. Or maybe we will just occupy ourselves in arguments. Because we are, at the moment, a church of more hat than cattle, and we didn’t get that way by accident.
There’s no question the worldview of most younger Christians already differs from previous generations regarding social justice, cultural engagement and politics. The next issue of probable divergence? The conflict in Israel and Palestine.
Vicki Garvey, Director of Spiritual Formation for the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, imagines Marys and Moseses who said no.
There is something especially renewing about the turning of the year. It is a time to let go of the past and to embrace the possibility of a new future. We make resolutions. Some create goals for the year. We reclaim our birthright to live a full and wholesome life.
So if you were a rector, or the leader of an Episcopal congregation, this is the kind of story you’d want written about you and your church. It appeared in the Newark Star Ledger. Of course, you need to have a ministry that justifies the story.