99 Brattle

Angela, thank you for the invitation to acknowledg...

2013-04-26T15:05:53.758-04:00

Angela, thank you for the invitation to acknowledge and move beyond fear, fully present and living life. My response, "Yes ..."

Thank you Angela.

2013-04-22T16:46:45.675-04:00

Thank you Angela.

Thank you for your reflection and openness. And wi...

2013-04-22T16:03:23.398-04:00

Thank you for your reflection and openness. And wisdom. Locked down becomes a metaphor for all oppressions.

Robert Banks Foster, EDS '75

You might try a Passover feast from the book. The...

2013-03-08T15:29:58.368-05:00

You might try a Passover feast from the book. The celebration of Passover has changed significantly since the first century and the book includes a haggadah for your Seder.

This is awesome! I've been looking for such a...

2013-03-07T11:53:22.011-05:00

This is awesome! I've been looking for such an introduction to the cultural and theological context of food in the first century. Anyone up for an agape feast? Thank you for posting this.

Thank you, Carol, for sharing your experience. I,...

2013-02-20T14:12:38.804-05:00

Thank you, Carol, for sharing your experience. I, too, find that it is not always easy for me to say out loud in public, "I believe in God." I wonder if Jesus had to get used to proclaiming the Good News, or if it was always a natural thing for him. Maybe his voice wobbled a bit at first. Part of what comes from living our faith day-to-day, I believe, is the courage and the conviction of our connection to God. Think of what it is like for God to hear us proclaim it!

Hi Christy, recently I was in a discount store loo...

2013-02-19T20:41:13.236-05:00

Hi Christy, recently I was in a discount store looking for bowls to use in a church service at St James. As I was loading 8 salad bowls in my carriage a couple of ladies were watching me with curious looks on their faces. I ran into them again when I was putting 4 dozen candles in my cart and they just couldn't resist asking me what in the world I was going todo with 8 salad bowls and all those candles. Smiling I explained that I was head of our Altar Guild and they were for a service in my church. It happened again at checkout when people behind me just had to ask why anyone would need 8 salad bowls. I felt that God just might have been giving me a little nudge to talk about church. I never asked them anything about church but couldn't help but pray that I, maybe, had planted a seed that would bring them into, or back to, their church. I just love those moments when I feel free to say I BELIEVE IN GOD

Inspired in small part by the liturgical advances ...

2012-12-07T22:14:55.428-05:00

Inspired in small part by the liturgical advances at St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Francisco, and in large part by the creative imagination of an active and theologically informed laity, Grace Church Bainbridge Island has been doing same these things since 1995 (and more). Congratulations on turning out some divinity students who can roll with us. And Welcome Aboard!

"I felt fully engaged, moved, and impelled by...

2012-12-07T21:46:10.608-05:00

"I felt fully engaged, moved, and impelled by the liturgy. This was not a typical passive experience in a church. All senses were engaged; sight, sound, intellect, and emotions." Thanks for sharing!

We are fortunate at Grâce on Bainbridge Island (www.gracehere.org) to have this feeling and engagement at every service and activity. ~ Patricia Erskine

Dear Emily, to my favorite hooker. you are so rig...

2012-11-02T11:28:39.546-04:00

Dear Emily,
to my favorite hooker. you are so right...we love.love.love and count our blessings that we are loved.
love you
Donna Geiger '06

Dear Emily, My favorite hooker. This is an amazin...

2012-11-02T11:25:28.245-04:00

Dear Emily, My favorite hooker. This is an amazing article as is your work with your art. You are so right on...may we all love and love and love...
my love to you
Donna Geiger '06

Emily, First of all, I am sorry to hear of the lo...

2012-11-01T22:30:24.626-04:00

Emily,

First of all, I am sorry to hear of the loss of your sister and your brother. My condolences.

Thank you for your reflection. As I write this, my wife is out of town, helping to care for her father and to face some of these same questions along with him. I think of them, and of my mother who died five years ago, and of the people with whom I did AIDS ministry decades ago, and come to the same conclusion as you: the hardest thing to accept is the loss of options.

Does it matter to the Holy One, to the universe, whether or not we "die well?" Maybe not. Nevertheless, part of the love and kindness and caring that we give away to each other is the care we give others at the end of their lives -- helping them to maintain options, helping them to grieve the loss of possibilities. I do believe that living, and dying, well are part and parcel of our preparation for whatever awaits us in eternity.

I don't think it is possible for us to give away all of our love, because the act of loving replenishes our capacities. I think it more likely that love is like the 500 hats of Bartholomew Cubbins in the classic Dr. Seuss tale -- each hat he removes is replaced by another, and another.. Maybe, if we are lucky, the last things we have to give will be the most marvelous and precious of all.

Emily, You are an amazing woman and your art work ...

2012-11-01T21:00:05.109-04:00

Emily,
You are an amazing woman and your art work expresses who you are. You’re area able to share the joys and sorrows of your story with others. Thank you for being a great teacher and friend. I am so sorry to hear about the deaths of Mark and Sue.
Peace,
Val Miller

Thank you! I wasn't able to attend, so I am ve...

2012-09-10T21:03:19.933-04:00

Thank you! I wasn't able to attend, so I am very grateful for this detailed report on the Intersex and Transgender Theology panel. This is a rich subject for spiritual growth and reflection as well as a challenge to church traditions based on the binary concept of gender.

Thanks so very much, Pui Lan!! You have provided a...

2012-09-06T11:34:52.388-04:00

Thanks so very much, Pui Lan!! You have provided a succinct summary of the inadequacies of the "covenant." As you suggest, let's get on with finding the "new shape." And here is my expectation: that the "new shape," already being born, does not have many of the old labels (such as "anglican")and that as Anglicans bring many unique tools that are creative in service and celebration in the new circumstances, even the functions of "episkopos" will be shared in new ways, as is true of "presbuteros" and "diakonos"--all of us belonging to "laos." Peace, Ralph

I love the idea that TEC has been undergoing an &q...

2012-09-05T12:12:53.912-04:00

I love the idea that TEC has been undergoing an "experiment in change." Wonderfully written post. Hope to meet the author next week.

There are also pragmatic reasons to distrust the C...

2012-09-01T11:31:10.320-04:00

There are also pragmatic reasons to distrust the Covenant:
a) It wouldn't work. I.e. no church would simply give up a cherished programme / theology because other people didn't like it.
b) It would work. I.e. it would exclude from the community those churches (or groups within a church) which stepped outside the prevailing norm.

Either way the result would have been more divisions rather than resolutions to division.

And much else besides.

2012-08-01T23:06:57.126-04:00

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Thanks for this informative report. I am really t...

2012-07-28T17:38:42.685-04:00

Thanks for this informative report. I am really touched by the part about your mother.

Thank you for the blog, Patrick. I second all the...

2012-07-27T00:18:00.012-04:00

Thank you for the blog, Patrick. I second all the sentiments that Carol and Marsha expressed about your mom, Deanna. She is an amazing mother... and I thank you for all the work you do! No wonder she was very proud of her son!

Clara from NYC

Thank you Patrick for your heartfelt post. For a ...

2012-07-26T19:46:08.165-04:00

Thank you Patrick for your heartfelt post. For a mother whose son was asked to leave the church because of his gender identity, I feel so hopeful that spirituality will again become part of our lives because of courageous and compassionate religious leaders such as you and Jess Delegencia.

And as a side note . . . I absolutely adore your mom. She exudes love and acceptance with everyone, and of course, you do as well.

Meeting you and your mother, as well as attending ...

2012-07-26T14:34:36.582-04:00

Meeting you and your mother, as well as attending the NQAPIA workshop that you and Jess delivered, are one of the most unforgettable moments of my life! Thank you, Patrick and Deanna. Your post was very inspiring.

Great post, Patrick! Thank you so much for bringin...

2012-07-26T13:40:45.918-04:00

Great post, Patrick! Thank you so much for bringing your thoughtful words and kind presence everywhere you go.

The historical Jesus was an Orthodox Jew. I rest m...

2012-07-22T21:22:37.173-04:00

The historical Jesus was an Orthodox Jew. I rest my case.

A most interesting conference report, Pui Lan, and...

2012-07-22T00:50:55.734-04:00

A most interesting conference report, Pui Lan, and I was delighted to see there is hope of including Muslims in the conversation.