I ascend my little ladder in the morning before sunrise. Going up is easy, as it was, I expect, in the Transfiguration story. But coming down…that is harder (as it was in the Transfiguration story also, I expect.)
Faith isn’t about blind acceptance of doctrine but an invitation to see and respond to the world anew.
“When I think of things that are going on right now, the shootings, the stabbings, the deaths of children, the painful and fatal diseases, the traumas of losing children and parents, it makes me wonder how anyone can say that a loving God wills things like this to happen. All those scenarios seem to be huge mountains, and we don’t seem to have enough faith to move it, even if we were able.”
ELCA Churchwide Assembly, sex-worker advocacy, stolen statues and more; it’s our weekly roundup of stories you don’t want to miss
For a bit of whimsy on a Friday afternoon, we have two reports from England of unusually creative ways to highlight the space of cathedrals.
![Srl [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]](https://episcopal.cafe/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1024px-Raised_bed-300x210.jpg)
“Some of these veggies are probably more familiar to the Hmong or African-American gardening interns, but learning to cook them is a small realignment of my attention towards my neighbors and their families. It is a reminder that what I like is not normative for being a Minnesotan or American, wringing that prized individualism right out of me in a patriotic way.”
“I like to imagine that Dominic’s evangelism was not of the badgering sort, that he was not confrontational but curious. I like to imagine that he listened deeply to the Cather innkeeper, that he found places where there was a connection, maybe even an agreement about something, some common ground, perhaps in their commitment to a simple life, to authentically lived beliefs. I see Dominic as completely present and engaged, first listening and then passionately and articulately sharing his own story.”
“Faith enables us to move forward and live our lives without certainty. Trust is an act of will and of hope, a decision we make to account someone or something trustworthy even in the face of uncertainty.”
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry invites Episcopal churches to join a nationwide bell-ringing to remember and honor those Africans first brought to the country as enslaved people 400 years ago this August.
“Now it’s August and we’ve picked an abundance of cherry tomatoes from the volunteer plant. We’ve delighted in the sun-ripened tomatoes and given thanks for their bounty, not from the work of our hands, but from the work that happens when we open our eyes to God’s abundance in our midst.”