The Ash Wednesday order ends with a long Litany expressing penitence and then asks the presider to read a statement which is not an absolution. It says the clergy are empowered to pronounce absolution – but doesn’t do it. Instead it offers a prayer for true repentance and renewal of life which is certainly appropriate, but wouldn’t Ash Wednesday be a good time for a real absolution?
We do church this way because people are hungry. People in New York have hungry bellies that may be filled with home cooked food. They have hungry souls that may be filled with holy text, holy conversation. And these hungers are sated when we sit down together to eat.
If my homiletical foot has slipped out of place, or if I have broken a boundary on the way to making some point, I take great comfort that the Creed is there to suggest what is normative. In that moment, the Creed is the remembering of a grace-giving Law.
Being stranded by winter weather does not mean you must pray in isolation.
If left to our own devices, the Yule season would continue at least until Groundhog’s Day. But alas, this Christmas holiday went up in smoke last night . . .
400 candles representing the light of Christ “makes us feel a part of something larger,” said the Rev. Joseph Hensley
Entangled States blog reports on a joyfilled Advent 4 service held in 4 languages in Phoenix: Members of the Sudanese congregation lead the processional with
We believe that the love of God in Christ has sanctified and transformed our whole life—not just the happy bits. Christ was like us in all things except sin and walked the same paths of pain and sorrow that we tread. If every Sunday is a festival of the resurrection (and it is), then it is only fitting that each Friday (except during our high-party seasons) be likewise a remembrance of the cross.
Fears about swine flu churn up remembrances of a time when the common cup was passed over for reasons well beyond the public health.
September and October have become traditional months for blessing of animals services. The proximity to the