The most common miracle that we experience is, I suppose, the weekly celebration of the Holy Eucharist. As we gather as a community around God’s table, the presider says the words that call to mind the night that Jesus shared his last meal with his disciples before he was crucified. The words we hear recall to us what Jesus said that night, but they also re-present the bread and the wine as he did, and […]
I’ve heard from people around the state of Rhode Island today that they’ve been contacted by text message by someone claiming to be me and asking them to buy gift cards and send them to me. That’s not me. Really. I wouldn’t ask you to do that. That scam has been going around for years using email. Generally the message misspells my last name or gets my title wrong, and it’s never from my @episcopalri.org […]
A bishop I once served with used to say to us, with a look of joy upon his face, that, because of the Ascension, there was a human heart beating beside the throne of God. I was more impressed back then with the look of joy than I was with the idea, as you don’t often see bishops with a look of joy upon their faces. It was years later, after I became a parent […]
Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as our Helper, our Advocate, the one he sends to be with us in his apparent absence. But what does that mean in a practical sense? At one level, people understand the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as the one who stands beside us in the moment of judgment and pleads for mercy and understanding. And that’s undoubtedly true. But there are ways the Holy Spirit is […]
Thank you again for your prayers and good wishes as I was recovering from my latest bout with Covid. Thanks to all of you and the wonders of science and medicine, I’m doing much better now. I’m impatiently waiting out the ten-day quarantine as I recover and looking forward to returning to my regular schedule. In this week’s gospel reading, Jesus tells us that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life… and the […]
From CNET: Loneliness Is an ‘Epidemic,’ Surgeon General Says. Here’s What to Know: There’s no getting around the fact that we are social beings at our core. If we’re removed from a sense of community or do not have a feeling of belonging, it’s a threat to public health and can cause myriad health effects for the individual, as outlined in a new advisory from the Office of the US Surgeon General. […]Persistent feelings of […]
Content moderation is the hard part of any online social platform. It was a big problem early on with email and email lists, with Usenet, and with any chatroom. It’s a problem on websites, particularly discussion sites and lately with social media. Each platform has its own challenges, but they all have the common issue of dealing with giving jerks a big megaphone to be jerks to others. (Human sinfulness, etc.) There have been all […]
A few months ago, I was part of a team that made a presentation to the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church about the intersection of the Science, Technology and Faith. It was, as is typical, a wide-ranging conversation. But during the Q&A session, one bishop asked me, “given what I know, what keeps me up at night with worry about the future?” My answer was “The misuse of Artificial Intelligence.” I stand by that. […]
My apologies. I’m home ill with COVID and not feeling well enough to get a sermon filmed and posted this week. God willing, we’ll get back next week. I do have a sermon to share that I preached on Easter 4 (Good Shepherd Sunday) in 2017 in Oklahoma. Easter 4A 2017 St Johns,Tulsa This is Good Shepherd Sunday – and here we are reading one part of the 10th Chapter of John. (We read […]
Turns out there are lot of parallels between ancient Athens and the modern Western societies. “In ancient Athens, as much as in the U.S. today, being perceived as right translated into money and power. The city-state’s culture was dominated by the Sophists, who taught rhetoric to nobles and politicians, and the Poets, ancient playwrights. Greek theater and epic poetry were closely related to religion, and their creators were treated as mouthpieces for aesthetic and moral […]
