“Does the Eucharist setup your chairs?” Brainstorming about sacraments and mission in Southern California, a friend of mine asked me this rather cheeky question. We were exploring what it meant to plant churches sacramentally. That is, not just starting new churches that celebrate sacraments, but what it means to start new churches in a sacramental […]
Worship with four songs and a sermon (and a short a pastoral prayer) that varies little over the fifty-two weeks of the year is inadequate. Throwing in the occasional video, drama, or surprising stage prop doesn’t really change that reality.
Songs are good. Sermons are essential. Videos, dramas, and occasional visual aids can be helpful. I’ve been to many worship services […]
The most political thing I’ve done this week is baptize children. Seven children actually, including one infant.
I love the image of burial and resurrection with Christ that we witness in our one hundred and fifty gallon stock tank we place at the entrance of the church. It’s one of my favorite celebrations to lead as a priest. It’s a funeral and birth […]
A surprise baptism at the original site of the Lord’s baptism (Mark 1) created an international incident yesterday…and a glimpse of the age to come. Here is what happened.
I am leading a tour of 30 adults through the Holy Land. Our bus pulled up to the newly renovated site commemorating the Lord’s baptism by John. It is also the place where Joshua […]
I cannot remember the last All Saints Sunday I sat in the pew instead of the chancel. But this All Saints Day I wasn’t collared and vested, leading the liturgy in the parish I serve. I was seated in a pew in another parish because I’m taking a sabbatical this autumn. Where does an Anglican priest on sabbatical attend worship […]
The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender’s inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for everyone else the proper pleasure of the rite (C. S. Lewis).
One of the greatest of the abundant joys of celebrating the […]
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Baptism of young Children is in any wise to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ (Article XXVII).
For several reasons — Clara and James prominent among them — I’ve been thinking much about baptism lately. These two beautiful children recently became my […]
Is it dangerous, as some claim, to believe that God would mediate his grace to us through his creation? Would God touch us through the hands of another person, or feed us his very presence in bread, or cleanse our souls through water? Will it lead to “magical thinking” or idolatry? Yes, it is dangerous.
There is a great mystery as […]
Recently we were told that the Christian Church in America “hemorrhaging members” and that the church is shrinking. It is true that the number of Americans who claim to be Christian is shrinking. But as usual, Ed Stetzer provides some real clarity in his interpretation of statistics. Turns out that people are not so much “leaving church” as they are “leaving the mainline” and […]
So we do not lose heart. Though the outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16, ESV).
In several of his books, Henri Nouwen recounts how the severely physically and mentally disabled residents of Daybreak, a L’Arche community founded by Jean Vanier, became his spiritual mentors. Nouwen saw, with the eyes of […]
We found ourselves in an Anglican church plant, and soon thereafter the church called its first Rector, and we moved into a museum auditorium.
Museum Auditorium Turned Worship Space
Its funny that my initial experience of […]
Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are the two sacraments instituted by Christ for his Church to perpetually celebrate. We call these the Sacraments of the Lord.
(To learn more about what Anglicans believe about the sacraments, go here.)
There are five other rites of the Church that are sacramental in nature. We call these the sacraments of the Church. They […]
