First Sunday in Lent (Year 3, NL)

It's up to pastors to remind each other to talk to people instead of about them.

Past efforts at "character education" have operated with a shallow understanding of character. The Expeditionary Learning model goes deeper.

Betsy had always worked across interfaith lines. She didn’t expect there would be any problems with her message in the congregation.

It's easy to love Mr. C. It's not as easy to love Mrs. M., and it’s stone-cold not easy to love that guy down the street.

My grandmother died in 2005, on the eve of the feast of Saints Mary and Martha of Bethany. The next day I went to the weekday eucharist at St. James Cathedral in Chicago, and the story of Martha and her sister brought me instantly to tears. Like so many women of her generation (and not only hers), my grandmother was deeply identified with her hospitality and service. She was a lot like Martha, and I loved her for it.

I am more troubled now than I was then at the way this story is gendered in our reading.

Multitasking is marked by a sustained sense of urgency in a world mediated by communication devices. Puttering is something different.

How do we move from Jesus' core ethical mandate to the complex issues we face in the modern world?

"Mary has chosen the better part," says Jesus, "and it will not be taken away from her." This is not what Jesus is supposed to say.

Members from more than 500 congregations marched in Charlotte, North Carolina, last October as part of the “10 Percent Is Enough” campaign. While conceding that careless spending is the chief cause of consumer debt and needs to be addressed, march organizers object to credit companies' enticing offers of easy credit, their increased interest rates and their profitable penalties. The "10 percent" campaign proposes a cap on interest rates.