It would be natural to assume that, at almost 90 years old, the Rev. Malcolm Boyd has run out of steam. Yet here he is, still running. Running to fire up demonstrators demanding economic and social justice. Running to put together his latest column for national distribution. Running to deliver a major sermon at a packed church near downtown Los Angeles.
God’s love for us is not tied to fees or dues or down payments, or installment payments, nor does it come with threat of abandonment or repossession. But here’s the twist–it’s not even as much as our individual selves, as it is ourselves in community. We are alive in Christ together, which means we need each other.
The ancient Celts described Iona as a “thin place,” where the veil between heaven and earth is lifted, and where one might glimpse the divine. For centuries pilgrims have traveled to this small island off the West coast of Scotland, leaving behind their chaotic lives to rest, reflect and walk in the footsteps of St. Columba, the Irish missionary who founded a monastery on Iona in 563 AD.
The Rev Heidi Haverkamp wonders in essay on the
Conservative churches say liberal, mainline churches are dying. Studies show that conservative churches are in decline too. Perhaps churches that preach individualism sow the seeds of their own demise. Maybe people are just tired of churches picking on each other.
AM Psalm 87, 90 PM Psalm 136 Heb. 5:7-14 EfM Online groups and keeps the blog
While sitting through endless commencement exercises, both as a faculty member and as a dad, David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer
Andrew Brown wonders “whether things are going to change [in the Church of England], or whether the church will pootle along, like an exhausted cyclist, until it finally wobbles over and collapses.”
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Welby is the first tweeting AB of C, and likes to tell his followers (of whom he has a surprisingly small number – 29,000 to Pope Francis’s 2.5m) about the love of Christ but also about how he’s just been shoe shopping. Alas, today he isn’t in the new shoes I’d read about; when he lifts his foot to show me I see his old black brogues have holes in the soles.