I come to you this morning “fresh off the plane” from the 148th synod of the Diocese of Quincy. Due to weather conditions, our flight was delayed and we ended up taking an in-air detour through Michigan and Ohio to get safely home to Tennessee at around 10:30p last night. But, neither the airport, hours in a cramped plane, hoards of travelers, nor the stresses of travel could remove the joy, hope, and peace I received at our synod.
Read more...Welcome to the climax of the Christian year. This service, much like Holy Week itself, is all over the place. Highs. Lows. Joy. Suffering. Light. Darkness. Everything we talk about all year long, comes to a head in this holiest of times.
With such a long gospel reading today, there is much to preach on. In a hundred odd verses we have the entire ministry and person of Christ on display in high speed. On a Sunday such as this, there really isn’t a wrong way to go. This year, however, I’m going to focus on the verse that immediately stood out to me.
Read more...While 2024 was a year of great things in ministry1 and my personal health2, it was also a year of a lot of stress and change in all areas of my life.
Because of this — and, naturally, my deep sinful nature — many of my good morning habits fell to the way side. Though I had banished social media from my phone, set it to B&W, disabled recommended videos & shorts on YouTube, and quite a few other things, by the end of 2024 my mornings were rubish.
Read more...We started a pattern of family prayer back in Advent. Each night after dinner, I’d lead the family in prayer. Oliver (23 months) would listen(-ish) and join in the amens and Rosemary (~4) would chime in with the responses — “Hear our Prayer” — and lead the Lord’s Prayer. Having established a habit of prayer after dinner, I wanted to keep it moving forward even after the Advent calendars were empty and the wreath was put away.
Read more...For the last several years, I’ve been trying to find a short and simple Advent liturgy to do each night around the advent-wreath. The family form of Evening Prayer from the 2019 Prayer Book is good, but it is still a little long for my very young children and still requires me to find short readings for each night. I wanted a resource that was short and simple for my young family, but still retained the character of the daily offices. This Advent I have finally found the perfect resource, The Season of Light by Jay Cormier.
Read more...The English Church, her descendants, and her colonial heirs worship with a common book of prayer for a few historical and theological reasons. It might come as a surprise to many North American Christians, but liturgical worship is by far the norm in contemporary Christianity and, prior to the Reformation, was the universal form of worship in the Church. Before the upheaval of the Reformation, East, West, Ethiopian, Syriac, and more all worshiped God using liturgies attributed to the saints and apostles.
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