Episcopal Church Announces Special Outreach to Roman Catholics

“All of the pageantry—none of the guilt!”
— Robin Williams
Dear Catholic Friends,
You may have heard recently that the Pope has announced a new “ordinariate” that allows Anglicans and Episcopalians to become Catholics while keeping their Prayer Books, hymns and married priests.
(Is there a special office at the Vatican that comes up with words like “ordinariate”? [...]

Glad About Glads

The gladiolus I planted in June are just starting to blossom. So far I have a blue and a yellow one, and another bud-stalk has formed, seemingly overnight.
I bought mixed bulbs at the local grocery, 20 for $4. That’s 20¢ apiece, for late summer flowers – to me, a huge bargain. But I’ve never [...]

Summer Vacation: Nice to Be Home

I’m home alone, after a great week in the Smoky Mountains with Peter from Amsterdam. I have a lot to clean up from his three-week visit, but the timetable is mine alone, to do as I feel like. It’s good to be home and in control of my life again, without any pressure to get [...]

Triumph of the “Ritualists”

Rood screen and balcony at St. Etienne du Mont, France. The English Reformation destroyed all such ornaments, but now the tide has turned.
The Episcopal Church has changed so much in my lifetime it’s really hard to fathom. We all know about women priests and bishops, the gradual integration of LGBT people into parish life and [...]

My Church Wants $250,000

I love my parish. I got to attend the Great Vigil of Easter Saturday night and it was great. The dean celebrated, the rector preached, we had three baptisms and the service was everything one could want. Christ is risen!
However, we’re going through a money crunch, and now we’ve decided we need to raise a [...]

Materialism Goes Bankrupt

Bargain hunters at Saks Fifth Avenue (Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times)
Like everyone else I’m concerned about the recession—or worldwide depression, which I think is more likely, even if it’s not as bad as the Great one.
But unlike others, I haven’t changed my spending habits much. It’s never cost that much to sustain [...]

My house is clean. Am I okay?

Ellen doing her Donna Reed impression
If cleanliness is next to godliness, I must be halfway to heaven by now.
I don’t know what’s come over me. I don’t even have laundry to do. Is that disgusting or what?
I say my prayers every day. There must be a virus going around.
For months I’ve been resisting God every [...]

Gene, Barack & Springsteen at the Lincoln

Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire. (AP photo)
Friends know that I’ve been very down on the upcoming inauguration, after I worked my keister off to elect Barack Obama. I did not want Jerry Falwell Lite giving the invocation in the person of Rick Warren.
When howls were raised at his selection, Obama blew them [...]

A Prayer Before Sex, a Song of Songs

For Those About to Make Love
Immortal One, now we’re getting naked, as you made us in deep affection, so that we can make holy love to one another: We praise you for the gift of this relationship; nothing reveals you more clearly to our souls than the face and body and spirit of our loved [...]

The Green Church

Solar panel at St. Anselm’s, Lafayette, California is just one of the Episcopal Church’s responses to global warming and the energy crisis. We are quietly refitting our buildings all over the country, from cathedrals and seminaries to high schools and church camps. Now it’s time to be less quiet about it.
The Episcopal Church needs to [...]