Reflections

As Episcopalians in the Diocese of Massachusetts, we gave thanks last weekend as we elected a new bishop to lead us – the Rev. Alan Gates of St. Paul’s Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.  We will eagerly await his arrival as we look forward to his consecration on Sept. 13. We may have great…

On Saturday, April 5, somewhere in the sea of electing delegates and prayerful observers from across the diocese, there will be a few of us non-Episcopalians.  The Massachusetts Council of Churches will send an ecumenical delegation to watch and pray with you.  Our intention is that our…

Rowan Williams, scholar, theologian, poet and former archbishop of Canterbury has a wonderful collection of sermons entitled "Open to Judgment." Anyone who has encountered Williams's theology will be familiar with his understanding of this concept; in his work he places the Christian into a posture…

Something that so often inspires my prayer is the fact that nothing in New Testament Scripture was actually written by anyone who knew Jesus of Nazareth.  We have stories of Jesus that were passed down from generation to generation because those stories spoke to specific issues in Christian…

La realidad es que el tiempo de Cuaresma, que los cristianos han practicado por muchos siglos, es sobre el mismo anhelo de tener una mayor luz en el mundo, ya sea que usted vive en el hemisferio norte o el hemisferio sur. La palabra "Cuaresma" significa el periodo de 40 días que ahora constituye la…

At a meeting last week of the Church Pension Group, a senior trustee who knows a good bit about the Episcopal Church and her congregations introduced me to somebody by saying, "Thomas is the rector of a parish in Boston, a broad church."  It's not a description I hear much--broad church-…

This year we are blessed with a long green season between Epiphany and Lent. Unlike other years, we have time to wait, to wonder and to plan. We have time to await God's revelation of himself before plunging headlong into all the things we are supposed to do and feel during Lent. The light of…

I want to walk as a child of the Light, I want to follow Jesus.God set the stars to give light to the world. The star of my life is Jesus.      --The Hymnal 1982, 490 / words by Kathleen ThomersonLight.  Necessary for life.  It brings definition, clarity, opens…

Magi are star readers, folks believed to have special powers to manipulate the fate that the stars foretell, and were highly valued in ancient times as prophets and advisors to rulers and counsels. Of course, the so-called birth narratives of Matthew and Luke are add-ons to the basic Gospel…

I grew up in a family that bought the Christmas tree, brought out the Christmas decorations, and whipped the house into holiday splendor on Christmas Eve. Our trees often looked like Charlie Brown trees because the good ones had already found homes by the time we shopped; sometimes we even got the…