Heidi Haverkamp

They’re in a plastic bag in my closet.

When unremitting human sin is something I expect, I can face evil without despair.

How Roger Owens walked his way through a midlife crisis of faith

James and John don’t want power; they want a special level of intimacy with Jesus.

We are worthy, loved, and enough. But so is everyone else.

Bumbling along in the footsteps of Melchizedek

What if Jesus is talking about humility rather than possessions?

We embrace uninitiated visitors, rowdy children, and blue jeans. Why not tears?

The bishop preached first and foremost to the royal couple themselves—about their marriage and the work and witness they have said they want to offer.

Ted Genoways overturns assumptions not only about industrial agriculture but also about the farmers who are part of it.

I'm an Episcopal priest. Why would I have a statue of the Blessed Virgin in my home?

Matt grew up in the Episcopal Church. One Sunday he appeared at the altar—with his arms crossed over his chest.

Whether we're dying or living with grief, there are faithful ways to do so. Marilyn Chandler McEntyre points us in the right direction.

On the radio last week, I heard a police officer being interviewed about the shootings in his town of Roseberg, Oregon. He said something like, “We’re just in shock. Things like this always happen somewhere else, not in a town like ours.” I was surprised to hear this. I take it for granted that, someday, a public shooting is going to happen in a town, school, or church near me, maybe at a time when I happen to be there.

Muslims have been in our town for a while, but the mosque is new. Last spring our church paid a call on our neighbors there.

I often think I hear colleagues asking, “How could we attract nuns to our church?” Actually they’re talking about “the nones,” of course. One of the clearest findings of the Pew Forum’s new religious landscape study is that fewer and fewer people have any religious affiliation at all. Catholics and mainline Protestants show the biggest drop.  I feel pretty conflicted about all of this.

When Jeanne Bishop learned of her sister's murder, she found herself saying aloud, "I don't want to hate anybody."

Three times a year, a worship service ends and I go back to the vesting room to change—and I feel as though I'm walking into a time warp.

The mainline has struggled to express an ethics or spirituality of sexuality. Verlee Copeland and Dale Rosenberger seek to fill that gap.

One way to approach the epistle text for this week is to talk about the spiritual discipline of saying yes and saying no, an idea I was first introduced to by M. Shawn Copeland. (I find The Message translation of this passage helpful here.) God created us with the freedom to say yes and say no. But as Paul reminds us, we don’t always know how to use this freedom very well.