A ‘perfect storm’ results from a combination of adverse factors. I keep tripping over such factors: I read of the relentless decline of The US Episcopal Church continuing. It is regularly contrasted with a (yet-to-be-verified-and-I-suspect-oversimplified) meme that “conservative churches are growing” (in fact cathedral worship is bucking the trend). The fragmenting tendency of Bible-alone protestantism… Continue Reading
UPDATE: Here is the 2017 NZ Lectionary to download as a PDF. Here is a review of New Zealand’s Lectionary Te Maramataka 2017. ORIGINAL POST CONTINUES: I am receiving requests from people planning 2017 who do not have a copy of a lectionary beyond this year. These people are asking for places to look for… Continue Reading
I want the internet to be a sacred space, and believe that together we can enhance this one pixel at a time. Hence, this website, and the digital Chapel. Recently I was challenged: @Liturgy Prayer request. Will you tweet 7 prayers in 7 days? See https://t.co/iuncFcPUqL We want to feature your prayers to inspire more.… Continue Reading
Let us pray (in silence) [that we may be open to God’s goodness] Pause Almighty everliving God, [or Compassionate God] you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we desire or deserve; pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our… Continue Reading
Jesus spoke Aramaic. And the word for ‘God’ in his language is ‘Allah’. We have an ancient version of the Bible, the Peshitta, written in an Eastern Aramaic dialect. To be clear, I cannot read these texts and so am reliant on the scholarship of others. The connections between words for ‘God’ are clear. The… Continue Reading
Lots of places are beginning to offer a year that is different for young people: combining contemplative practice, study, service, and community. I’m not concerned who is copying whom – or whether they are spontaneously springing up in different ways in different places. I like the concept of Humanitas (video above), where young people live… Continue Reading
UPDATED (scroll down) I was not going to put in a submission. The Archbishops of our church have called for submissions to a Working Group after not moving forward on blessing committed same-sex couples at this year’s meeting of General Synod Te Hinota Whanui. So much energy has been spent on this feud, I didn’t… Continue Reading
