It was a kind of parable of our time- a young man, isolated and bullied, hides his anger until it bursts forth as he takes his father’s gun and commits the horrendous act of trying to kill the former President.  Not so dramatically, but rather at a cotidian level, we can discern an uptick in anger around us. I recently listened to a presentation by Raskin and Harris of the Center for Humane Technology, who laid much of the blame at the feet of social media (which, they believe, will be made exponentially worse by AI). They spoke of what they called the ‘down the brainstem’ factor. They po ..read more

The missionary movement of the last two centuries comes in for lots of criticism nowadays, for imposing their cultural assumptions, being lackeys to the colonialists, etc. And they did make mistakes (though they were, as often as not, a pain in the neck to the imperialists). Since they were ready to die for their faith (often from malaria), we should not be too quick in our censure. But none of this is what is the most interesting. That is the surprise, that the Gospel came to be heard when, where, by whom could not be predicted, that churches of great vitality and courage rose up, that those ..read more

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Greetings in Christ. I am writing you this report about General Convention 2024.  As with all conventions, some of its best moments were the koinonia of seeing old friends and colleagues on the street or the hotel lobby- the blog posts about meeting with Anthony Poggo, General Secretary of the Anglican Communion, and dinner with our old friends from Navajoland (who became a ‘missionary diocese’) are vivid examples of this ‘convention in the corridor.’  But what of the official part of the meeting?  GC81 had some surprisingly encouraging theological asp ..read more

As the successful recent curriculum at Camp All Saints, based on ‘the Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ will attest, the ideas of C.S. Lewis, the Oxford don turned apologist, continue to have power and appeal.  I want to think together about another of his influential ideas, that of ‘mere Christianity,’ found in the book by that name. It was actually a set of radio broadcasts to wartime England which aimed to make the faith comprehensible to moderns in that traumatized moment. In particular, Lewis aimed to defend the fundaments of the faith, the core that different traditions share, ‘mere ..read more

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about Eucharist on the Lord’s Day, in part related to the coming shortage of clergy, smaller congregations may face. After an helpful conversation in the Executive Council, I want to share some practical strategies we discussed, to which congregations may turn increasingly to in the coming years- there are surely others we did not think of. In each case, openness to new forms is required even as we rely on the consistency of the Gospel itself. Yoking and Catechists - Here congregations share a single priest; in the other congregations on a particular Sunda ..read more

We in the diocese have made a concerted effort, led especially by Bishop Michael, in the post-pandemic era, to offer ministries of contemplation and spiritual direction (and most recently healing). We can readily associate these with our Benedictine history, which obviously we share with the wider catholic inheritance. But there was in a late medieval England also a Franciscan tradition. They were, upon their arrival in the 13th century, mendicants, itinerant preachers, and healers, though they soon developed a rich philosophical-theological tradition, for example at Greyfriars, Oxford. I want ..read more

Let me begin with a confession- Mary Shelley wasn’t much of a Christian. But she expressed a deeply Christian idea, one that was against the grain of the culture on the day. And she is a kind of secular prophet yet more urgently now than even in her time. What do I mean? Mary was a young writer, a literary bohemian, in the early 19th century. Her husband Percy Bysse Shelley, and their friend Lord Byron, are now called ‘romantic poets.’ By this is meant not simply the erotic, but, more widely, a rebellion against the norms of society, as well as the inhumane conditions of early industrial soci ..read more

What does it mean that something is ‘normative’? It could mean that the alternative is therefore problematic. But it could also mean something less dire, namely that the ‘normative’ thing makes more sense, and so casts light on the more atypical. Take for example adult baptism. Liturgical theologians have called it the ‘normative practice,’ since makes the most immediate sense of the service, not least when we ask questions of the baptizand! But we most certainly recognize infant baptism, and bring reasons and practices to bear to defend it, e.g. original sin and confirmation. One premise of t ..read more

  The question we want to begin with here is feeling- what role does it play in the Christian life? In the 18th century, at the dawn of the modern West, the ‘pietists’ in Europe, forerunners of the evangelicals, were critical of what they saw as a dry-as-dust orthodoxy, all head and no heart. They wanted a conjunction of the two. But by the beginning of the next century, elite society had its own version of today’s ‘nones.’ A famous German theologian named Schleiermacher called them ‘the cultured despisers.’ You can still find them a-plenty today! He wanted to defend the Christian faith ..read more

Our politics and culture churn with conflict at numerous levels. The ecclesial demographic arrows are downward, not only by aging but also by ‘dechurching.’ The definition of Anglicanism is ‘in play.’ Even what it means to be human seem to wobble. How did we get here? I want to answer this question by succinctly introducing ten modern Christians (with one exception), with a lesson affixed to each. I hope you’ll take them together.  John Locke -  This 18th Century British philosopher, an Anglican, was a major influence on the American Revolution. But he also wrote a treatise called ..read more