A Chicago banker who lost her job nearly a year ago was facing living on the streets with her 10 year old son. A man who’s been living on the street for seven years has been paying to keep her and her son in a hotel and off the streets. It’s a story of surprising reversal and grace.
Did you notice the trees at the royal wedding this month? Lots of people did. As Jonathan Jones puts it, “They opened our eyes to the grandeur of a medieval building that might otherwise have struck television viewers as just a dark, lofty old bulwark of church and state.”
Yesterday the Church of Ireland voted to “subscribe” to the Anglican Covenant. Earlier this week, as already noted, the Province of South East Asia acceded to the Covenant. Both seem to be taking to the Covenant on their on terms.
Whatsoever the Spirit can convey to the body of the church, we may expect from this sacrament; for as the Spirit is the instrument of life and action, so the blood of Christ is the conveyance of His Spirit.
As I’ve considered Frances’ life, it’s struck me that she addressed one of the questions that all of us must answer. To use Cain’s phrasing, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” To put the question in more religious terms: “Does God have intentions for our relationships as God’s people?” “Are we responsible before God for more than our own lives?”
This Lent, I suggested we banish the phrase “I want” from our conversations. The goal, I explained, was to spend less energy thinking about what we don’t have and more being grateful for what we do. I framed this as a family discipline, but really, I saw it as a way to get my kids to stop driving me crazy with their endless pleas for more, more, more.
O thou who this mysterious bread
didst in Emmaus break,
return, herewith our souls to feed,
and to thy followers speak.
If you feel no sense of God’s presence within you when you pray, why worry? There is no precise dividing-line between emptiness and fullness, any more than between doubt and faith, or fear and love.
UPDATED: According to reports on Twitter right now, the Twin Cities Synod of the Presbyterian Church has voted overwhelmingly to support an Amendment (10-A) that would effectively change existing policy and now allow partnered LGBT clergy to serve as ordained ministers.
With the Mississippi river reaching a near record crest today, and with the expectation that the flooding will remain severe through the end of May,