Singing Along the Journey

General

A room for things that just don’t fit in other categories.

Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
Read More

Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
Read More

A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
Read More

And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
Read More

A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
Read More

Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
Read More

On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
Read More

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
Read More

Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
Read More

What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
Read More

Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
Read More

Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
Read More

A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
Read More

And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
Read More

A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
Read More

Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
Read More

On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
Read More

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
Read More

Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
Read More

What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
Read More

Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
Read More

Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
Read More

A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
Read More

And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
Read More

A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
Read More

Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
Read More

On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
Read More

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
Read More

Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
Read More

What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
Read More

Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
Read More

Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
Read More

A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
Read More

And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
Read More

A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
Read More

Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
Read More

On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
Read More

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
Read More

Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
Read More

What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
Read More

Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
Read More

Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
Read More

A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
Read More

And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
Read More

A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
Read More

Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
Read More

On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
Read More

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
Read More

Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
Read More

What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
Read More

Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
Read More

Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
Read More

A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
Read More

And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
Read More

A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
Read More

Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
Read More

On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
Read More

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
Read More

Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
Read More

What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
Read More

Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
Read More

Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
Read More

A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
Read More

And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
Read More

A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
Read More

Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
Read More

On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
Read More

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
Read More

Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
Read More

What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
Read More

Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
Read More

Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
Read More

A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
Read More

And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
Read More

A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
Read More

Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
Read More

On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
Read More

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
Read More

Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
Read More

What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
Read More

Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
Read More

Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
Read More

A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
Read More

And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
Read More

A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
Read More

Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
Read More

On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
Read More

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
Read More

Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
Read More

What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
Read More

Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
Read More

Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
Read More

A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
Read More

And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
Read More

A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
Read More

Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
Read More

On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
Read More

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
Read More

Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
Read More

What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
Read More