Matthew 5:3 says “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” For Anne Sutherland Howard this reveals a “third way” to approaching the questions of poverty and wealth, a way that does not make absolute the divide between rich and poor, nor in spiritualizing poverty. Instead, she says we can choose a spirituality of abundance in the face of a culture of scarcity.
The Primates of the Anglican Communion are meeting in Alexandria through February 5th. The Anglican Covenant is their primary agenda item. Please keep them in
Diana Butler Bass is the guest host at the USA Today forum on Faith and Reason today. Your can ask her questions about her research and what she is thinking about now. She says she will haunt the site and answer questions all day. She says her main topics are vital mainline churches and “beyond liberal and conservative” but people can ask about anything they want.
Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, TN, hopes to draw attention to the plight of millions of Iraqis who have fled their homes since 2003 and says that the Gospel compels us to welcome the refugee.
Church planter Gary Schokely suggests that weddings, funerals and baptisms may be an opportunity for congregations to welcome the unaffiliated when they come to us for a service.
Fifty years ago, Pope John XXIII called for a council. Christian of every tradition still feel the effects of Vatican II, even as the promise of those days appears to have faded. How does the Church move forward, when it is stuck in the constant battles between those who would preserve tradition and those hear the call to engage the world?
Craig A. Satterlee says that there is no distinction between worship and mission. He says that worship ismission.
Jenkins speaks honestly about his diagnosis of PTSD, and at the very same time he speaks of the spiritual transformation that has connected him to the poor and the forgotten and to cause him to cross both denominational and racial lines for their sake.
Updated. Bishop Gene Robinson’s prayer was passed over by HBO and MSNBC and even though one speaker tower broke down, the prayer was clearly heard
A group called The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing issued a report along with the Union Theological Seminary of New York calling on North American Theological Seminaries to offer more courses and programs to help prepare ministers, rabbis, priests, and other religious professionals to address issues of sexuality better than they now do.