Article s About This Journey Of Life
The Language of the Space Between . . .
Over the twenty plus years of my life as a clergy person, I have learned to talk often and easily about sacrament and ritual, about liturgy, forgetting that these words which might be second nature in a church context, are not otherwise commonplace. I forget, too, that even as I entered seminary, I had no…
Read MoreHow Important Are We Really? Further Reflection on Human Privilege
This blog post was precipitated by a response to an earlier post defining the concept of anthropocentrism. I am always grateful for the invitation to write more about pretty much anything! Do you ever wonder how we humans have evolved into such a hard driven, over-scheduled, stressed out, anxious, addicted collection of souls who tend…
Read MoreA Vocabulary Lesson ~ Ecotone (Sometimes ecotome)
The ecological work we need to be doing isn’t really coming from people of churches or from those outside churches, at least not with the urgency it requires. Take churches, for example, especially Mainline churches. This is from a 2008 article in the Boston Globe. “(yet) Protestant denominations are leaving many of their small churches…
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Restoring the Earth Community ~ A New Perspective, Vol. One
It’s more difficult than I would have thought to make a YouTube video. Still, I think there were only ten takes involved, and not more than four or five late night editing sessions. sierra leone . Oh, and the computer crashes. . . I’ve decided to make a series of them for several reasons, figuring…
Read MoreSplashing with Whales
I want to introduce you to a friend and colleague who has recently returned from Baja. Megan LeBoutillier is an artist and naturalist, her work inspired by the sheer beauty of life of all kinds in its natural state, and, on this occasion, the lives of gray whales. These are her words: Recently I had…
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Toward a Deep Ecology: First Steps
Pat Hatfield, a naturalist and teacher in the Ohio state park system, conducts workshops for women who are wanting to reconnect to the natural world. She describes one workshop in particular with these words: “A creepy-crawly adventure in the grasses of the field. Bring journals, sketch pads, wear long pants.” Once the participants are gathered,…
Read MoreThe Sacred Elements: An Alternative Perspective
In her keynote speech, “Elements of Renewal: Fourfold Wisdom,” (as yet unpublished) given at the 2010 Epiphany West Conference, Dr. Marion Grau, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, cracked open the classic institutional forms of understanding of sacrament. “The sacrament is a deep life force around which a community gathers,” she said, “depending on it…
Read MoreTo Rediscover The Good News
The news around aging and shrinking mainline churches is neither new nor good. A 2008 article in the Boston Globe observes, “(yet) Protestant denominations are leaving many of their small churches open, allowing for a sizable number of struggling, even moribund, congregations with minimal programming and part-time clergy.” These (and other) congregations insist that it’s…
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A Vocabulary Lesson ~ Anamnesis
This is what I love to do. I love to borrow back words the Church has claimed for its own and re-introduce them into a more universal context. Anamnesis is such a word, a wonderful word. In the Church, it’s associated by the act of remembrance, with the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. The…
Read MoreA Vocabulary Lesson ~ Apophatic
Apophatic refers to the art of stripping away, the art of letting go. I used to teach freshman Writing at St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland. Each year in September, I would explain to the incoming students that if they wanted to learn to write, then they needed to let go of pretty much all…
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The Space Between . . .
“What do you mean by the space between . . .?” It’s a question I hear often; I consider the concept itself as the fruit of my reading and reflection on the works of John O’Donahue. In particular, the title of his last book before he died, To Bless the Space Between Us, and, in…
Read MoreA Vocabulary Lesson ~ Biocentric or Biotic
How did it happen – that’s my constant wondering – that humans separated ourselves out from the rest of the living (biotic) community? I have an idea about this, and I would love to be in conversation about it. I’m going to begin with an observation that will show up in other blog entries that…
Read MoreA Vocabulary Lesson ~ Anthropocentric
(from an article submitted and just as quickly rejected by Mother Jones magazine) We are an anthropocentric, or human centered, bunch. With few exceptions we believe that humans live outside the frame and laws of the natural world; that creation is the gift bestowed upon humans alone; and that said creation exists to serve humans…
Read MoreA Vocabulary Lesson ~ Environmentalism
Environmentalism . . . stewardship . . . going green . . . care taking . . . sustainability . . . these are good words, right? Well, yes and no. They carry a certain beneficence, I suppose. But often the beneficence they carry is illusory. The thread that links them is their human-centeredness; the…
Read MoreBeginnings
Troubled Waters and Waters in Trouble My newest book, featured on this website (link), began with a simple observation leading to an obvious question. We have all the science we need to provide in exquisite detail, not only the damage we have inflicted upon the ecosystem(s) of the planet, but also the consequences. My question,…
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