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When ignorance is bliss and knowledge a curse
A friend of mine said recently that disclosing a former pastor’s sexual misconduct with a woman in our parish did more harm than good; indeed, that it did more harm than the misconduct itself. Some...
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The Cutie case: Forgiveness, not restoration
I have a friend who was once a Roman Catholic priest, but he was removed from ordained ministry after having sexual relations with a married woman in his congregation. He’s now an Episcopal priest and...
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Christian health-care reform: Caring for all
Jesus was a healer of body and soul. Wholeness is at the core of the gospel (see Mt. 5:3-11 for starters) — wholeness and reconciliation with God in Christ’s name, which of all possible kinds of...
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Retrospective: A path from the center comes full circle
In journalism, the hardest words to write are the first 30. Every news writer knows what it means to say, “I don’t know where to begin.” Well, this isn’t journalism, but still I don’t know where to...
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Life without church
I told my pastor some months ago, “I’m just churched out.” “Fuck the church,” she said. My relationship with God, she said, was more important than being a member of the church. I couldn’t imagine what...
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An ‘after-pastor’ moves on
She was moved to tears the first time she walked into the sanctuary. You might say it was love at first sight. She was visiting a parish that would call her to be its rector. She was as pleased with...
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Soft landings: Getting what we want forever
She looked great last week. Relaxed, smiling and talkative as ever, a so-called after-pastor, soon to be on her way to a soft landing in California. You might even call it cushy – she can scarcely...
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Safeguarding God’s children
I once knew a man who was getting out of prison after serving years for sexually molesting a child. He wasn’t young then and it was more than 35 years ago, when I worked for a summer as a chaplain in a...
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Making excuses: The case of Bede Parry
Bede Parry lied to become an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Nevada. He tried to make it sound like the truth, but it wasn’t. It made him sound like a repentant child molester, and the diocese took...
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Philip Dean Parker: A remembrance
Our lives are filled with people who change us, some more than others. A dear friend of mine, Don Wertz, called from Austin last week to report that another long-ago friend, Philip Dean Parker, had...
View ArticlePhilip Dean Parker: A remembrance
Our lives are filled with people who change us, some more than others. A dear friend of mine, Don Wertz, called from Austin last week to report that another long-ago friend, Philip Dean Parker, had...
View ArticleLiberal Christianity: Don’t bet on it
One sunny morning in the fall of 1973, the Very Rev. O.C. Edwards, acting dean of Nashotah House Theological Seminary and professor of New Testament, expounded in class at some length on the topic,...
View ArticleHoming: Life and liturgy
I don’t recall the exact date, but it was 50 years ago in the fall that I first enjoyed Solemn High Mass at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, Texas. For some reason, earlier this week, my...
View ArticleSeventy years, day by day
The metaphor works because we live our lives one day at a time; and so, it’s a journey – of sorts. Actually, we live moment to moment but with remarkable capacities for recalling the past and...
View ArticleFinding Jesus in time and memory
Some years ago, I wondered aloud what de-theologized Christianity would look like. (That post is here.) Nowadays, I’m writing a memoir, trying to figure out what in the world happened to me over the...
View ArticleNon-theistic Christianity: Will it preach?
Propers for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (RCL) The Collect: Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief...
View ArticleRoad Trip II: Ron Hamm & Ross Calvin
In two relatively long strides from our home in Corpus Christi – via Fort Davis, Texas – Mary and I arrived in Silver City, N.M., to spend a couple of days with Ron and Peggy Hamm and their wonderful...
View ArticleResonance
I felt a little softer than usual this morning, less hardhearted, some would say. So, I took up the Daily Office, thinking about my late sister, Sue Utley, the anniversary of whose death was yesterday;...
View ArticleMillstones and the Burning Bush
The preacher told the story the way most of us remember it, with Charlton Heston starring as Moses in The Ten Commandments. It’s a good yarn, even if one sticks with the biblical text. It’s a favorite...
View ArticleMindful of power
Washington, D.C. – I wonder whether people who travel here for short stays contemplate their proximity to the national government of the most powerful nation on Earth. I was somewhat startled this...
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