Jesus, our Savior, be known to us in the community in which we live. Help us to trust that our true wealth is found in our relationship to you and to each other. Give us today the bread we need. Help us to trust that tomorrow will have enough for us. Calm our hearts so that we might be your people in a world that needs peace and a blessing. We ask this in your sacred and saving name. Amen.
The most intense insight I’ve had during the beginnings of the COVID-19 crisis is how profoundly connected we all are. I knew it intellectually, and I believed it theologically, but to see it being demonstrated so directly has made it real to me in a way I didn’t imagine. One person’s health depends on the people around them. One person becoming sick can start a chain reaction of misery for many. One person, physically distancing […]
Holy One, give us courage for this moment. Let us meet each day and its challenges as it comes. Give us a godly hope and then let us be a sign and a light for others. Protect all those who lives are in danger. Bless the dying and heal the sick. We ask this in the name of Jesus our Savior and our Redeemer. I’ve started rationing the news I read and watch. My habit […]
Here’s hoping that this helps real journalists find a way to make a living doing what we need them to do.
It is written in the Book of Proverbs (Chapter 16) that: The mind of the wise makes their speech judicious, and adds persuasiveness to their lips. Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. And a little further it is written that: Scoundrels concoct evil, and their speech is like a scorching fire. A perverse person spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. The violent entice their […]
Tuesday, June 19, 2018 The Trump administration’s new policy of separating children from their asylum-seeking parents is morally wrong, not in keeping with the teachings of Christianity or other world religions, and should stop. Jesus, reiterating the witness of Hebrew and Christian scriptures, calls on us to treat others as we would want to be treated. Jesus commands us to love our neighbor. Christians are called, with many others, to welcome the stranger in our […]
The Original Sin of the Internet is that it pays its bills by selling our attention to the highest bidder. We’ve been focusing on Facebook at the moment, but as Ethan Zuckerman points out in an essay on the Atlantic.com site, Facebook is a symptom, not the problem. I’ve referred to this bargain, in which people get content and services for free in exchange for having persuasive messages psychographically targeted to them, as the “original sin” […]
Well, it’s been obvious that this has been coming. We have congregations here in the Diocese of Rhode Island that already offer this option. It’s been warmly received here particularly at festival events with many visitors attending like a Solemn Evensong or Christmas Eve. Churchgoers will no longer have to fumble in their pockets and purses for loose change or notes as the Church of England introduces contactless payment terminals in more than 16,000 churches, […]
Clergy and young people from the Diocese of Rhode Island are joining others from New England in traveling to the event this weekend in Washington DC. Others, including Bishop Knisely, will be attending the simultaneous event held in Providence on Saturday (March 24th) at 1:00 PM. If you are interested in walking to the event together, a number of Episcopalians from across the state, both lay and clergy, are planning on meeting at the Cathedral […]
I woke up to the news this morning that Prof. Hawking had died. It’s hard to express the deep admiration people had for his work and the way he surmounted challenges in a way that few others have managed. There will be plenty of articles written about his scientific legacy. But I found this quote at the end of an article by Robert Barr to be the most evocative: Lucy Hawking said her father had […]
