Author: Nicholas Knisely

You must choose. Even when you’d really rather not.

September 26, 2020
by Nicholas Knisely
Sermons and audio

There are moments when we are confronted with making a choice. Sometimes those happen in a moment of overwhelming crisis with massive consequences. Sometimes the choices seem small and inconsequential but it turns out that the choice transforms your life. In this week’s Gospel reading, the religious authorities are confronted with a choice. They reject the choice. And in so doing they turn away from the truth. Sometimes we have to choose. And God’s grace […]

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

September 19, 2020
by Nicholas Knisely
Sermons and audio

God transforms us in the wilderness as we journey from being in bondage to being the people of the promised land. But the transformation comes with pain and parts of the journey are filled with fear and anxious longing. Out of that fear and pain we look backward, longing for the certainty we had even though we were not free or fully yet the people of God. It feels like our national journey towards a […]

Crusty Old Dean: The Episcopal Church’s Lost Causism

September 18, 2020
by Nicholas Knisely
Reconciliation / Rhode Island

A friend, Episcopal priest, seminary professor and writer, The Rev. Thomas Ferguson, has a searing essay posted about the historical denial of our denomination’s participation in the evil of White Supremacy: Crusty Old Dean: The Episcopal Church’s Lost Causism: Thankfully, there have been a number of really great histories written in the past 25 years, efforts to correct the systemic racism in how we have told our history:  Prichard’s “History of the Episcopal Church,” Hein […]

Good nutrition can contribute to keeping COVID-19 and other diseases away

September 17, 2020
by Nicholas Knisely
Current Affairs

There are many reasons why there are racial disparities are observed in COVID-19 morbidity. I’ve not heard people talk about the implications of living in a “food desert” as one of them. Grayson Jaggers, USC Asst. Professor has laid out a case of why the worst expression of the western diet is directly causing deaths among people who can’t get health food: Good nutrition can contribute to keeping COVID-19 and other diseases away: Scientists know […]

Political rage is no way to run a democracy

September 15, 2020
by Nicholas Knisely
Current Affairs

There likely a whole bunch of reasons we’re all about explode with rage at any provocation, but Steven Webster, a Political Science faculty member at Indiana State University says the way we run political campaigns is a big part of the problem: Angry Americans: How political rage helps campaigns but hurts democracy: Anger-filled political rhetoric is nothing new. From Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon to Newt Gingrich, politicians have long known that angry voters are […]

Holy Cross Day 2020

September 14, 2020
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change / Current Affairs

Lord Jesus hear us; the earth is crying in torment, the west is in flames, storms threaten the southern coasts and our communities are separated by pandemic. Our leaders seem absent and uncaring while our communities are turned against each other. By the power of your Holy Cross, overcome our woundedness and bring us hope and a new dawn. Protect those in danger and turn the hearts of those intent on harm. Let us find […]

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive the sins done against us

September 12, 2020
by Nicholas Knisely
Sermons and audio

Refusing to forgive other people for the things that they did to you is like you taking poison as way of hurting them. There is one way out of the nightmare of violence, anger and revenge. It is to forgive others – even if they haven’t asked for your forgiveness. Jesus makes this point again and again. I don’t know that I’ve yet to fully act in the way he asks me to act. But […]

Fannie Sellins, the labor union martyr | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

September 7, 2020
by Nicholas Knisely
Current Affairs

The first parish I led as a priest was in Brackenridge PA. The community it served included Natrona Heights and Tarentum, the neighboring towns. Labor Day there was remembered differently than it has been anywhere else I’ve lived, in part because there were still people who remember the “Hunky Strike” of 1919.  People told stories of the Pinkertons and other para-military, para-police groups that were brought in to stop the strike, and people still remembered […]