If you want to know what’s about to happen in an Episcopal worship service, it’s a good idea to pay attention to the Collect of the Day. It gets that name because it “collects” the main idea of the day’s worship. Today, when we prayed for God to “increase in us true religion,” we were…

Comedienne Lily expressed the difficulty many of us have in trusting in our leaders when she said, “Ninety-nine percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. And it’s the other lousy one percent that gets all the publicity. But then, hey–we elected them.”(1) Or how about the message I saw written…

In Eucharist, as in Baptism, simple elements reveal to us important truths about things deeply important to life. Our life. Our life meaning a life that is lived together: in community. This is what the bread and wine, and water and oil, seek to express. That life is ours. Plural. Life by its very nature…

Food in the summer can be especially delightful. If you live in the country or have a garden in your yard, the ripeness of the summer crop enriches all the senses; nothing can be more wonderful than a sun-warmed tomato off the vine or plump berries picked from lush bushes. Even city dwellers can get…

Today’s lessons are important ones because they give us vivid insights into our relationship with God. In fact, they hold up the whole notion of relationship: Relationship — the elastic dynamic between living creatures in which we are engaged whether we like it or not, whether we choose to honor it or not. And while…

The Seventy-Second General Convention of the Episcopal Church has come and gone. When we meet again we will be in the next century and on the threshold of the new millennium. At the Convention there were an astronomical number of meals served: breakfasts for special interest and focus groups and legislative committees; lunches with former…

The General Convention of the Episcopal Church is ready to open in Philadelphia. Thousands of people will be traveling, taking with them thousands of pieces of luggage. If delegates, they will be there just short of two weeks. How much would you take if it were you? How many changes of clothes? For what occasions?…

In a few days the Seventy-second General Convention of the Episcopal Church will convene. This will be the last General Convention of this century even as it stands perched on the beginning of the new millennium. For our consideration, I have selected a passage from the sixth Chapter of the Book of Amos: “Woe to…