The Book of Common Prayer teaches that genuine hope is, by definition, “religious”. This word comes from the Latin “re-ligare”, to “bind back”. Hope binds us back to communities in and through which we live. This begins with tribes, which…
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In the late 1970s I worked for a Chicago agency that trained adults with developmental disabilities, then sought competitive employment opportunities for graduates. I was the job developer, tasked with reaching out to prospective employers. Late one summer I secured…
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It’s “Marathon Sunday” this weekend, reminding us that our journey toward God is itself a race that requires endurance. Even this Sunday’s prayer picks up the theme: “Grant, O God, that we may run without stumbling to obtain your promises”….
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Through trials and temptations, God holds our truest and highest self in trust for us. It abides in God’s safekeeping, against the day when we can claim it. God bears silent witness to who we are. God also calls each…
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Every now and then a copy of Scientific American appears in our house. I really enjoy reading it; the writing does (for the most part) explain discoveries, experiments, theories, hypotheses and more, in terms even I can begin to understand….
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The philosopher William Barrett writes that science in the ancient world was patient, waiting for nature to disclose its secrets, while modern science is invasive, extracting secrets regardless of whether nature is ready to reveal them or not. Duncan Haldane,…
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The Bible divides itself between two principal ways of approaching God. One might be called “kabod”, Hebrew for “glory”, and the other, “dabar”, Hebrew for “word”. “Kabod” derives from a Hebrew root meaning “weight”. Thus it implies an authoritative, even…
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As we celebrate Grace’s 150th anniversary we’re also marking the 10th anniversary of Grace’s Table. It began on a monthly basis in the summer of 2006. Grace’s Table is a ministry of outreach, but it’s also a congregation. Offered at…
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Sunday September 11, 2016, Grace Church Garden 6 p.m. To participate in Georgetown’s second ecumenical ‘Light the City’ walk, I spend thirty minutes filling fifteen luminaria bags with sand and small candles. I place them along the walkway between Wisconsin…
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President George W. Bush often spoke of “the soft tyranny of low expectations”. He was referring to a problem endemic, in his view, among schools with a high percentage of students from poor families. This problem seems to have spread….
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