What a challenging and encouraging discussion ..read more

Changes coming this fall....and TODAY'S conversation with Jen Harvey ..read more

Demands for gratitude, Christian nationalism, and MAGA ..read more

Today is the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost. Monday is the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene, a remembrance of her celebrated by Christians on July 22. The lectionary reading for this Sunday is posted below. It is a good story — about a time that Jesus tried to go on retreat and failed. My reflection is occasioned by the lectionary passage in Mark, but it winds up being about Mary Magdalene. She just keeps showing up. The Cottage is a reader-supported newsletter and online community to cultivate a more just and beautiful faith. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or pai ..read more

How did a filmmaker who is not an Episcopalian wind up making a documentary about a denominational struggle over the ordination of women priests in the 1970s? And what does The Philadelphia Eleven say to us some fifty years later? Listen to this fascinating conversation from The Cottage with producer Margo Guernsey about storytelling, history, and justic… Read more ..read more

This is the EXACT SAME link as yesterday. If you’ve signed up, you needn’t do so again. Just want to make sure everyone in the paid subscriber community sees the invitation and has an opportunity to register. It is available for viewing any time (on your own schedule) between July 16-19. I hope you’ll watch — you won’t be disappointed. This isn’t a “chu… Read more ..read more

A reflection about an unexpected place on a hard news day. At the beginning of July, I spent a couple of days on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. If you don’t know it, the place is known for its natural beauty and complicated history, intertwined in a complex story. Marked by tangled woods, unnumbered tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, and unnavigable swamps, this half-water, half-land place served as the stage of one of the greatest of all American evils and its tragic results — slavery. My ancestors settled there in the 1660s. That makes me what? A native of sorts? A daughter of that place? Wheneve ..read more

Dear friends, Given the terrible political violence this evening in the United States, a number of readers asked if I could send my Musing out tonight instead of waiting for tomorrow. Many people in this community are pastors - and they are struggling with how to preach in the morning. Please pray for them as they seek to guide their communities. Perhaps some of my words might help at this uneasy moment. This piece was finished early on Saturday morning. The lectionary text for this Sunday is shockingly relevant - it is an account of political violence. So, be prepared. You may have received t ..read more

Dear friends, Given the terrible political violence this evening in the United States, a number of readers asked if I could send my Musing out tonight instead of waiting for tomorrow. Many people in this community are pastors - and they are struggling with how to preach in the morning. Please pray for them as they seek to guide their communities. Perhaps some of my words might help at this uneasy moment. This piece was finished early on Saturday morning. The lectionary text for this Sunday is shockingly relevant - it is an account of political violence. So, be prepared. Pray for those wounded ..read more

Several months ago, I was talking with Tim Whitaker, the creator of The New Evangelicals, an online and social media community. We were chatting about faith and politics. He confessed he felt conflicted about his love for America and his deepening awareness of the nation’s long litany of moral failures. As he spoke of this tension, I heard echoes of a comment made long ago by Reinhold Niebuhr: “Our age is involved in irony because so many dreams of our nation have been so cruelly refuted by history.” And so, listening to my friend and inwardly ruminating on that classic book, I finally asked T ..read more