Author: Episcopal Cafe

Before Rolling Thunder, there’s Motorcycle Mass

In preparation for this year’s Rolling Thunder event, where hundreds of thousands of bikers descend on the nation’s capital in honor of fallen and missing heroes, several thousand strong showed up in New Jersey for the Motorcycle Mass, led by a Catholic priest, Father Mark Giordani. He’s actually been doing this since long before Rolling Thunder, now in its 21st year, began: Giordani, himself a biker, started the tradition 39 years ago.

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The power of prayer

On Speaking of Faith (whose site won the Religion and Spirituality Webby award, it should be noted) this week, Krista Tippett has repurposed some interviews from 2003, before the program was syndicated nationally through Public Radio International, and used them to create a program that examines prayer as a global phenomenon that takes place in many religious and even nonreligious traditions.

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Flow diagram needed to trace church fragmentation

Jason Byassee, writing for the Christian Century, makes a wry observation about the complexity of Anglican fragmentation. Even at the local level, he writes, “it takes a long memory or a flow chart to keep straight all the Episcopal-Anglican divisions and acronyms that have developed in the well-heeled suburbs of DuPage County, just west of Chicago.” Part of the problem is that most people tuning into the situation are under the impression that homosexuality is the most important issue, but Byassee notes other factors.

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Reclaiming the Sabbath

One of the greatest challenges to us as church is to go against the culture’s use of time as a commodity, its business model of program evaluation, and its focus on production and consumption. God loves us. God saves us and makes us whole. God rests on the seventh day. If we decide to embody this as church, what will the shape of our time look like? How will we operate differently from the culture around us?

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How pure is your altruism?

It may be that the only kind of altruism that truly exists is what economists like to call “impure altruism.” Does this mean that human beings are shallow and selfish — that they only give to a cause when it is attractive to them on some level? Will the future produce some sort of “disaster marketing” movement in which aid agencies learn to appeal to potential contributors?

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Martin Marty on when to leave your church

This spring a certain Christian layperson has been criticized for not exiting his local church when he disagreed with something his pastor preached. With tongue firming in his cheek, Martin Marty offers some useful tips on when you should leave your church.

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Prince Caspian

“Prince Caspian,” which is based on Lewis’ “Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia,” published in 1951, features a few inspired touches, and the four principal child and young-adult actors of the earlier picture — just a little older now — reprise their roles here. Yet the human characters come off as afterthoughts, figures that are moved around clumsily in the thicket of the movie’s sprawling narrative.

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Values and teen violence

Aaolescents who valued power (trying to attain social status by controlling and dominating others) reported more violent behavior than their peers. Teenagers who valued universalism (promoting understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protecting the welfare of all people and nature) and those who valued conformity (limiting actions and urges that might violate social expectations and norms) reported less violent behavior than their peers.

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A rare bible returns to historic Canadian church

Sometimes, things become valuable and historic because they were mistakes: the Inverted Jenny, for instance, is a postage stamp that’s legendary because the airplane in its center pane is upside down. Similarly, the Vinegar Bible is so named because of numerous typographical errors in its print run that include referring to the “Parable of the Vineyard” as the “Parable of the Vinegar.”

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Robinson on endorsing a candidate

Bishop Gene Robinson has taken plenty of flak during the past five years, but according to what he says in a new video post on the Religion and Ethics Newsweekly blog–probably an extra take from last week’s feature on him–he’s gotten the most grief for endorsing a candidate during the primary season earlier this year.

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