It is not necessary to withdraw from the world in order to be holy. In fact, it may be more difficult to make a spiritual case for withdrawal than it is to understand creative immersion in the world around us.
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What would it take for us in the Episcopal Church to stop producing millions of pages of bulletins and service booklets every Sunday? We all know how costly it is for our environment to keep producing paper, to say nothing of the cost of making and maintaining computers, printers, copiers, sorters, and duplicators.
Francis’ famous embrace of the leper he met on the road was not merely a response to human suffering but, in medieval terms, an encounter with the excluded “other.” Lepers were not simply infected with a fearful disease.
The Bishop of Pennsylvania has been deposed. Details are still coming out, but there are news reports describing the decision of the special court that
An amazing phenomenon is occurring in America, and the excitement is palpable. Have you noticed the increasing number of young people awakening to their responsibilities and rights as members of a democracy? The good news in this presidential election is the 18- to 29-year-olds stepping up to help heal our troubled country.
Let all humankind tremble,
let the whole world shake
and the heavens rejoice
when Christ, the Son of the living God,
is on the altar
From nostalgia touring we went to the Island of Iona, home of Columba and Celtic Christianity. More smashing of icons of the mind as we learned that Columba banished all the women to the Isle of Women – nearby but off “his” island. So much for inclusion in that branch of Christianity!
For Francis, poverty was the key to the loving, Christ-like life. He looked upon money as a kind of drug, addictive and lethal, to be shunned. Even minimal private property was repulsive to him.
Steven Waldman: Inspired by the Twelve Tribes of Biblical Israel and based on the new National Survey of Religion and Politics conducted by the University