I’ve not blogged much this week — lots going on at work — but one news story keeps rolling in my mind: the beheading of twenty-one Egyptian Coptic Christians fishermen by ISIL militants in Libya. They were targeted because they were Christian, in the context of wider persecution of Copts. That puts them among the… Continue reading Prayer for the Coptic martrys
Category: Christian Church
Formerly “Church Universal”.
Ash Wednesday resources
I was talking to a friend about Ash Wednesday services. They’re not my favorite — the ashes can be ostentatious, and it reflects a particular Western Christian piety that I don’t care for — but the service has become more widely observed in the last couple of generations, so I’d like to revisit three blog… Continue reading Ash Wednesday resources
A mind to Free Catholicism, and choices
For many years — thirty? — I’ve been trying to find my place within Unitarian Universalism. It has been my most constant companion, and it has lead me to strange places. Today, I am happy as a Universalist Christian, and content to labor thus. Even if it means being orthodox among the heterodox. and thus… Continue reading A mind to Free Catholicism, and choices
Your church options in the Antarctic
We had a bit of unexpected warm weather yesterday afternoon in Washington, D.C. but fear not for the cold weather is returning! Which made me think of very cold weather. As in polar. More than a decade ago, I wrote about the churches of remote northern Greenland, so it’s only fair to go south. Fortunately,… Continue reading Your church options in the Antarctic
“This week we pray for…”
You may have noticed that there’s a widget on the right-hand column called “This week we pray for” that has a date, a list of nations and a picture. This links to a prayer resource from the World Council of Churches, focusing on a different region of the world each year. Each resource page features… Continue reading “This week we pray for…”
A source of daily readings
I’ve shortened my morning prayers and vespers to make them more appropriate for use alone, and brief enough to read before and after work. I’ve take out the provision for readings and all but the fixed psalms (and after looking for a portable New Testament and Psalter!) so I can use the one book. But… Continue reading A source of daily readings
R&E Newsweekly: Expulsion of Iraqi Christians
It’s been a hard week in the news. Central American children in the borderlands. The deaths in Gaza. The Malaysian flight downing. Frightening news — let’s hope not all true — from ISIS/ISIL. You’d be forgiven for being overwhelmed. But please spare a prayer for the Christian minority of Iraq, and particularly of Mosul, an… Continue reading R&E Newsweekly: Expulsion of Iraqi Christians
A review of the daily office in 500 words
So many thoughtful and talented people have written so well about the development of the daily office, or the Christian duty of daily prayer, that it’s folly for me to do so in brief. Indeed, you may want to stop here and get a copy of George Guiver’s 2001 Company of Voices: Daily Prayer and… Continue reading A review of the daily office in 500 words
Let’s review: the British Orthodox Church
Certain churches (as in denominations) attract my attention as an observer. What I suppose each of them has in common in marginality: being on the edge of culture, the edge of a theological spectrum, the edge of extinction or the like. But that’s not to treat them like playthings. Something can be learned from people… Continue reading Let’s review: the British Orthodox Church
NACCC yearbooks online
Here’s one way to end the year: to review yearbooks of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, deposited at the Internet Archives. Why the NACCC, or “continuing Congregationalists,” here? Like the Unitarian Universalists, they are part of the New England Way of churches. Two UUA-member churches (First Parish, Plymouth and Universalist National Memorial Church)… Continue reading NACCC yearbooks online