The gift-giving season of Christmas is right around the corner. Here are a few ideas to steer you away from big-box gadgets and toward creative choices that will convey your thoughtfulness and build up our community of faith.
Icons Over Idols: Heroes in an Age of Disillusionment
There is an overwhelming lack of trust in leadership and institutions, including religious leaders, in our day. I’ve had young men approach me privately within my parish, lamenting that they believe they cannot trust the actions or teachings of any religious leader or denomination. A perceived absence of trustworthy shepherds—dare I say heroes—plagues the Christian…
Rosemarie Adcock: An Artist Finds Her Mission Field
The polar bear was too eye-catching. It drew attention away from the painting’s intended focal point. But Rosemarie Adcock, thanks to years of training and experience as a fine artist, knew what to do. With her eye for color, depth, and composition, she deftly added hints of lavender and apricot to soften the polar bear’s…
Hymn Guide: For All The Saints
Long before I thought about its lyrics, I loved to sing “For All the Saints.” The marching rhythm, the majestic tune, the repeated Alleluias: these would stir in my heart and inspire devotion to God. How wonderful, then, to discover that the hymn is also deeply theological, offering a profound reflection on the meaning of…
Veni Creator Spiritus: The Ancient Ordination Hymn
The silence of the ordination service is heavy with expectation, especially when the ordinand lowers his body to the ground. He has been examined by the bishop, and soon he will kneel under the bishop’s hands. Though he has just made lofty vows, he knows, like Isaiah, that he is a man of unclean lips….
Hymn Guide: Ye Holy Angels Bright
“Ye Holy Angels Bright” is a majestic exhortation to the everlasting praise of God, even in the midst of persecution or trial. Inspired by Psalm 148, it addresses multiple categories of creation: angels, saints in heaven, saints on earth, and finally the singer’s individual soul. Richard Baxter, a 17th-century Anglican of the Puritan party, composed the…
The Lindisfarne Gospels and the Anglican Ethos of Translation
The Lindisfarne Gospels are an illuminated Gospel book first created around 700 AD on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. Now held by the British Library, it is one of the great surviving treasures of the early English Church, broadly appreciated for its precise calligraphy, elegant Celtic designs, jeweled colors, and symbolic art. The manuscript also…
Taizé: Brother Roger’s Vision of Christian Unity
Taizé is the name of a small village in France, which is home to a monastic community of ecumenical Christian brothers and hosts many thousands of pilgrims from all denominations who visit each year. When these pilgrims return to their homes, they carry with them the spirit of Taizé, expressed in song, silence, and a…
Today’s Anglican Poets
Among all the Christian traditions, and especially those in the Protestant sphere, Anglicanism stands out for its rich and beautiful language. From the creation of the Book of Common Prayer forward, we have been a tradition of prayer through cadence, rhythm… poetry. This tradition may flow naturally from the emphasis on beauty in the Prayer…
Hymn Guide: America the Beautiful
“America the Beautiful” is one of our popular patriotic hymns, sung often at civic celebrations and even before sporting events. But in the church, this hymn is a victim of its own success. Because we associate it with secular gatherings and only remember its first verse, we are often reluctant to sing it in church….
Green is for Growth: The Color of Ordinary Time
In most Anglican churches, you will see the color green during the season of Ordinary Time. It appears in green clergy vestments, in green fabrics on the altar and pulpit, and sometimes in green hangings or other adornments. You might even choose to wear green on occasion (no obligation to do so!). This green represents…
We Believe: For Us and For Our Salvation, He Came Down from Heaven
The Purpose of Incarnation The Nicene Creed states with characteristic precision that the Lord Jesus Christ “came down from heaven… and was made man” and that he did so “for us and for our salvation.” This classic theological affirmation captures the central purpose of the incarnation: Christ became human to save sinners. This simple clause…
