My spiritual lineage has is a pretty straight line back to the earliest days of the Anabaptist peace movement… often referred to as the “radical reformation” within Christianity. The older I grow the more I appreciate aspects of my heritage.
The Guest House by Rumi This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein Happy Earth Day! You and I live somewhere. Faithful presence invites us to discover a way of living in harmony with all of life… people, animals, ourselves, and the earth. The acceleration
Thanks be to God, an American police officer was held accountable for murdering an African American man… George Floyd. The officer was found guilty of all three charges. May this nation not turn back from the much overdue reform of
Blessed Maundy Thursday… …God’s invitation to, “wash up before dinner!” Imagine a God who doesn’t demand your worship, mindless obedience, or tithes but actually serves you out of love, simply because that’s who God is… Imagine a God, so located
How sad it is that we give up on people who are just like us. Fred Rogers Growing up in Canada when I did, I watched and loved the Mr. Dressup show. I’ve come to learn that Mr. Dressup was
The Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC) is working with local churches and organizations to stand against Asian American & Pacific Islanders (AAPI) hate and to mourn the loss of the 8 precious image bearers who were massacred. Marches are already
Declaring The Sanctity Of Life & The Dignity Of All We come together as senior religious leaders, academics, and lay leaders from around the world to affirm the sanctity of life and dignity of all. We affirm that all human
A documentary looking at the life of Abraham Joshua Heschel was released at the end of last month… I can’t wait to see it. I’ve been rereading Heschel’s The Sabbath in preparation for a spring course I’ll be teaching at
“The Spirit teaches us how to participate with God in the restoration of all things; maybe the more common term for this would be mission…[I]t’s a mission which connects our unique desires to the work of the Spirit to keep
March is Women’s History Month. Women’s History Month is an annual declared month set aside to highlight the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. What we now know as the month long observation in the USA, began
Today The Parliament of the World’s Religions is joining organizers and community leaders in Chicago as part of the City’s Together We Heal initiative by hosting a series of virtual programs to foster conversation and share tools on healing and
I’ve been reading, rereading, and listening to others’ reading many of Meister Eckhart’s works over the past year. I have come to sense that reading – especially out loud – is itself a great hermeneutical act. I love hearing other
Today is Ash Wednesday; the first day of Lent. My school’s Scared Space, Office of Students & Alumni, and my Life Together class sent out Lenten observation kits to any current students, staff or faculty who wanted one. Today’s chapel
My love of jazz began when I was in junior high. My older sister often let me hang out with her and her high school friends… one of her many generosities. One of her friends played trumpet in a jazz
“This is the story and song our ancestors bequeathed to us, and it comes at a time in our country when the very things they struggled and died for — faith and freedom, justice and equality, democracy and grace —
I’m getting ready to teach a new class: “Spirituality & Sabbath.” I’m having a blast reading, mediating, praying, sketching, and thinking in preparation. As you may know, I’ve spent the better part of my adult life opening to faithful presence
God is _______! As a child I heard many responses meant to fill in this blank . . . just, holy, righteous, perfect, omnipresent, omnipotent, savior, love, and the list went on. I heard many names for God, mostly rooted
I received an email from a dear friend who is an executive director of a Latin American mission collective. As I responded to the email I thought I’d take some of what I offered, modify it slightly, and post it
The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman Mr. President, Dr. Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans and the world. When day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry asea
This message from Michael Curry, the current Presiding Bishop and Primate of the The Episcopal Church, feels like an important one to attend to at this time in America. Exactly a week ago today the Capitol Building was under a
Maya Angelou is a wise and beautiful woman. Today I needed to hear her voice. Google led me to this video. I don’t know much about this clip… is she just talking, being interviewed, reading some of her prose ,
Here is the City of Bellevue’s recently approved (December 14th, 2020) plan for learning to live in relationship with creation. I wish it had a more clearly linked connection to the UN’s 17’s “Sustainable Development Goals” especially given the relative
The New Urban Agenda Illustrated handbook (at the bottom of this post) serves as the base for the New Urban Agenda online crash course. This course is offered through the United Nations Habitat. The self-paced course in two parts is available
Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation by Natalie Diaz Angels don’t come to the reservation. Bats, maybe, or owls, boxy mottled things. Coyotes, too. They all mean the same thing— death. And death
I was in a Wabash funded Zoom meeting last week facilitated by Dr. Shelly Rambo of Boston University and Dr. Trace Haythorn from the ACPE and they ended our meeting with “The Keep Going Song” by the Bengsons. I hadn’t
Sunday we light the third candle of Advent… its the pink or rose colored Gaudete candle; from the Latin word meaning, “rejoice.” Advent is a season of anticipation. Anticipation can be imagined as the necessary, if not complex blending of
This 10 minute video put together by the Thriving Communities Group is a beautiful introduction to our vital need for a renewed Shalomic imagination for faithful presence within the ecosystem of relations that sustain life. The video is really good!
“For unless love becomes tenderness—the connective tissue of love—it never becomes transformational. The tender doesn’t happen tomorrow . . . only now.” Gregory Boyle The Tacoma Catholic Worker newsletter which graced my mailbox yesterday referred back to some of the
Unlike Canada’s Thanksgiving practice, which is more of a harvest celebration, the American observation is couched in a subjugating narrative. Wisdom is invited of you as you navigate this holiday. The particularity of your bodied, cultured, and located self will
