Latest Articles
Zimbabwe churches warn country faces genocide: Time to stem the violence
Church leaders in Zimbabwe have called on the UN and African regional groups to step in to stem the violence that has been reported following disputed elections, and have warned that without interv...
Krister Stendahl hailed as scholar, church reformer and interfaith pioneer: In memoriam
Krister Stendahl, a biblical scholar, one-time Lutheran bishop of his native Stockholm and former dean of Harvard University Divinity School, is being remembered for his pathbreaking efforts in Chr...
Pope warns against 'prophetic actions' Remarks may have been aimed at mainline: Remarks may have been aimed at mainline
Pope Benedict XVI capped a six-day visit to the United States, his first as pontiff, with a public mass at New York’s Yankee Stadium in which he declared the need for U.S....
Seabury Seminary gives faculty notice, cuts staff: Board declares “financial exigency”
The entire faculty of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, have been notified that their jobs will end in a year, and nine staff jobs will be cut this month as the Episcopal-...
Gene Robinson takes on more risky ventures: Bishop publishes first book
The death threats have lessened over the five years since Episcopalians affirmed V. Gene Robinson’s election as their church’s first openly gay bishop....
McCain's faith, pastor hard to pigeonhole: Episcopalian and Baptist
John McCain has a deep and personal Christian commitment despite his reluctance to speak publicly about it, according to the man that the Arizona senator and presumed GOP presidential nominee claim...
Splitting up: Anglican angst
It takes a flow chart to keep straight all the Episcopal- Anglican divisions that have developed in the well-heeled suburbs of DuPage County, west of Chicago. Many assume that the key issue is homosexuality, but a closer look reveals that other factors are at work. For one thing, this story is about charismatic leaders coming and going, and about congregations growing in their presence or folding in their absence.
Horizons of hope: A critique of 'Spe salvi'
“In hope we were saved” (Spe salvi facti sumus)....
More power to you: The wise practice of Christian authority
“Speak truth to power.” The phrase resonates with the biblical prophets and the courage it takes to challenge those preoccupied with maintaining their power at the expense of truth. The phrase rings true in Robert Mugabe’s rule over Zimbabwe, or in the stonewalling silence of a church in the wake of a sexual abuse crisis.Yet in American culture, and especially in mainline Protestantism, the phrase has become hackneyed. Pastors invoke the phrase in sermons; seminary professors use it in classroom lectures; groups organize around it. One person even suggested that the phrase is the very heart of the pastoral vocation. Is it really?
Carter's Middle East mission: All parties required for Mideast peace
An editorial in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz (April 15) sharply criticized Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert for Israel’s “boycott” of Jimmy Carter during the former president’s recent tr...
Brand loyalty: Mainline persistence
On the way to the airport for my TWA flight to St. Louis, I gassed up at the Standard station....
Obama’s ex-pastor speaks out, defends black church: “A sideshow, and an unfortunate one”
After weeks of public silence, Jeremiah A. Wright Jr....
How to be Anglican: The proposal for an Anglican Covenant
Every ten years bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion assemble in England for the Lambeth Conference....
The key that unlocks the kingdom: Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31
In the South Side Chicago neighborhood where I grew up, if one of the men on the block found himself stymied by City Hall bureaucracy, he would talk to Louie....
The birds of the air: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34
My wife and I have found a great remedy for those times when life seems overwhelmingly stressful, our worries mount, and our inner resources seem depleted. We consider the birds of the air. ...
Heaven explained
Christians don’t go to heaven when we die—that’s the dramatic way to summarize N. T....
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
An ambitious young man leaves the provinces, hoping to make his fortune in the city....
Communion and Otherness: Further Studies in Personhood and the Church
Interest in Eastern Orthodoxy has been rising for several decades....