Latin Mass has fallen out of use since the 1960s. But some traditionalists have been calling for its revival, and according to the New York Times, Pope Benedict XIV has signed a document that would allow churches to adopt the liturgy, known as the Tridentine Mass. While it's not in high demand, some parishes are attracted to the liturgy, which previously required a priest to get his bishop's permission before using the rite.

Now, priests no longer need to get that permission, and it's stirring up a bit of controversy among Catholics. Some feel that this action may be a sign that Pope Benedict is not wholly committed to Vatican II reforms. Others are pleased that they can participate in a liturgy that brings about a feeling of connection to church history which they find "more moving, contemplative and historically authentic than the modern Mass."

Read the whole story here.

St. Gregory the Great told his missionary to the English people, St. Augustine of Canterbury, to "purify rather than destroy pagan temples and customs; let pagan rites and festivals be taken over into Christian feasts; retain local customs as far as possible." [1]

The Anglican Church in Jamaica is following in this tradition according to an article in the Jamaica Observer:

The Anglican church in Jamaica will include the lyrics of songs rendered by two of the country's most famed reggae artistes - Bob Marley and Peter Tosh - in the next publication of its church hymnal due by the end of the year.

Rector of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Rev Canon Ernle Gordon, made the announcement yesterday at the 2007 Michael Manley awards function for community self-reliance at the Little Theatre in Kingston.

Gordon, speaking with the Observer after the awards, said the songs will be Tosh's version of Psalm 27 and Marley's internationally acclaimed One Love, but he said the use of reggae rhythms in the Anglican Church was nothing new.'We've been having reggae and mento masses for 25 years,' he said, noting that One Love was used in an ordination service at the St Andrew Parish Church two years ago.

The reason behind incorporating what is generally referred to in Christendom as secular music into the church book of hymns, said Rev Gordon, was the need to establish a Caribbean interpretation of theology.

'I don't live in England; I live here, so my theology and how I think must reflect my cultural morals. The theology has to be Caribbean-oriented. You have to interpret the Bible according to where you are,' he said. 'The church in Jamaica is out of date,' he added.

At the same time, Gordon said the use of the reggae rhythms was not secular, since Anglican theology does not separate the sacred and the secular.

Read the rest here.

Read more »

Writing in the August 5 edition of The Living Church, The Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean and president of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary writes of the role of seminaries and responds to a Guest Column, "Careless Communion" [The Living Church, July 8], by the Rev. Ian Montgomery who described a commencement he attended at "one of our seminaries” where, from his point of view, everything seemed to go wrong. The eucharistic bread crumbled and fell to the floor, the presider made an open invitation to communion, and the preacher seemed to endorse what the article called the “new Episcopal religion." In his response, Hall writes:

Nobody who knows Seabury and its liturgical traditions well could seriously think that we are intentionally lax in our treatment of the sacrament. What Fr. Montgomery experienced was the unfortunate consequence of our new policy of using gluten-free bread at all celebrations of the Eucharist. The Seabury community now has several members with Celiac disease (gluten intolerance), and so we have started using only gluten-free bread as an expression of our inclusive hospitality. If you have ever tried to bake gluten-free bread, you know how tricky it can be. I regret that the recipe used at commencement produced friable bread, and we will work to make sure that the experience is not repeated.

While crumbly bread might seem an apt metaphor for Anglicanism, in reality it’s an expression of a community trying to react pastorally to a new situation — which, in a sense, is what so much of the current conflicts over sexuality, open communion, and inclusive language is about in the first place.

As ordinary of the chapel, I have articulated this policy in full awareness that it does not comply with the canonical provision about communion and baptism. One reason seminary chapels are traditionally “ecclesiastical peculiars” is so that they will have the freedom to push the edges of liturgical practice in the direction of the church’s emerging theology. There is a serious theological argument abroad these days about the relationship of baptism and Eucharist. To characterize the open invitation as “liturgical universalism” misconstrues the state of the argument. Those of us who favor open communion do so knowing that the church has historically seen one sacrament as a precondition for the other. We simply question, in the present pastoral situation, the propriety of following that practice.

Read it all at The Living Church

Episcopal Cafe has essays on the issue of Communion Without Baptism here and here.

Anglicans Online has noticed a trend on church notice boards of not only listing when services begin but a new phenomenum of listing the time when services end. They wonder why this is happening:

It is understandable that people should like to know when they'll be able to breakfast after communion or join friends for brunch. Others are keen to use what remains of Sunday to get on with some form of recreation: walking in the park or on the beach, finishing or starting a livre du jour, helping children with an essay due soon, or taking part in one of that most hallowed Sunday custom, the early afternoon post-church-and-paper nap. A clue about when a service will finish, as well as when it will start, can be undeniably helpful.

And yet we prefer to see just the starting times of services on signboards and websites. The time we give to Divine Worship is too important to be circumscribed by calculations after the manner of railway departures and arrivals. In this all-too-human world, a sermon inevitably goes longer or shorter than planned; a hymn takes longer to sing than one thought; a baby wails to the point of delaying a baptism for several minutes.

Read it all here.

Add your thoughts on time and worship.

Laurie Goodstein reports on Reform Judaism's new prayer book. The article in The New York Times says that the nation’s largest Jewish movement, Reform Judaism, is preparing to adopt a new prayer book that was intended to offer something for everyone — traditionalists, progressives and everyone else — even those who do not believe in God.

"The changes reveal a movement that is growing in different directions simultaneously, absorbing non-Jewish spouses and Jews with little formal religious education while also trying to appeal to Jews seeking a return to tradition."

Traditional touches coexist with a text that sometimes departs from tradition by omitting or modifying some prayers and by using language that is gender-neutral. References to God as “He” have been removed, and whenever Jewish patriarchs are named — like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so are the matriarchs — like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. The prayer book took more than 20 years to develop and was tested in about 300 congregations. Its release has been delayed for a year because the initial printed product was shoddy, said people involved with the project. But the book is expected to be released in about a month — too late, however, for the High Holy Days, which begin Sept. 13.

“It reflects a recognition of diversity within our community,” said Rabbi Elyse D. Frishman, the editor of the prayer book. “We have interfaith families. We have so many visitors at b’nai mitzvah ceremonies that I could have a service on Shabbat morning where a majority of people there aren’t Jewish,” she said, referring to bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies on Saturday mornings.

Read it here

Jarrett Kerbel, 41 year old Episcopal priest, offers his thoughts on how to open up Episcopal liturgy to newcomers and seekers. At his blog Last Protestant Dinosaur Kerbel tells how he makes liturgy more available to those who did not grow up in a church (more and more of the population) or whose church of childhood was not an Episcopal church

Growing Episcopal churches choose to exist for the world beyond their walls serving the local community in mission. More specifically, growing congregations choose to exist for the next person through the door. I cannot emphasize the importance of this spiritual step enough when a community graduates from a 'serve my needs and tastes' spirit, to a 'how do we offer this rich relationship with God to all who hunger for its spirit.

Episcopal liturgy is an incredible gift and dire burden for the work of spreading the kingdom of God. How do we open up our gift to folks who want to benefit from it?

1. Stop worshiping the Book of Common Prayer and start wondering what the other 99% of people in your community do to connect with God. It can be very powerful to be counter-cultural but it can also be elitist, rigid and arrogant. We can bend a lot more than we do without sacrificing our integrity...

2. Make hospitality the central spiritual priority and the sniff test of everything you do. Look at everything from the perspective of a newcomer. Invite friends to attend as 'secret shoppers' and then ask about their experience in detail. So many churches are too afraid of real feedback...

3. What in your pew or in your bulletin says welcome? What puts people at ease? Assure folks that they can participate as little or as much as they like. Make sure they know the collection plate is OPTIONAL. If you must do a fund raiser or stewardship announcement, ONLY ONE PER SERVICE ever....

4. Open communion! When our central spiritual act of communion with God and each other becomes a symbol of exclusion and conditionality we substitute the spirit of bureaucracy and institutional control for the spirit of Christ who welcomes all to the table. I strongly recommend Kathy Tanner's article in the Anglican Theological Review on this topic. In my experience people often do not respond to the invitation but it means the world to them as they transition from a church experience that felt judging or worse. Communion is not primarily an act of discipleship, it is primarily an offer of unbreakable relationship from God to which people are free to respond.

5. Put it all or as much as possible in the bulletin. If you use service music PRINT WORDS AND MUSIC. Best of all - avoid Hymnal 1982 service music like the plague it is. If you must direct people to a hymnal - TELL THEM WHAT COLOR IT IS not the name. Hymnal 1982 means nothing - BLUE hymnal does. If you want to see the best bulletin out there - go to Saint Paul & the Redeemer.... Big, generous, welcoming, clear, clean, readable, directive - awesome.

6. Since I brought up music.... Style doesn't matter as much as quality. Church music exists to transport us and support us in our journey into relationship with the living God. Music serves worship, not vice versa. We are not an Anglican culture society! Avoid Anglican Chant unless the choir is singing it without congregational participation. There are tons of wonderful antiphonal settings! Stop using hymns for Gospel processions - use repeating Alleluia's or simple songs. You are making the service way too long. Try to use up beat music at communion as if we are CELEBRATING our redemption. Pick singable hymns.

7. Worship must be held to one hour in length MAX. If you add something, cut something.

8. You cannot give a too warm welcome. I heard Gene Robinson do it last night when he led worship and boy was he great. He made it crystal clear worship was for everyone in the room regardless of faith tradition. He was warm, personable, funny, loose and sincere ... really put me at ease and brought the whole group together.

9. Cut extraneous crap! Here are some suggestions - THE GLORIA (ack, ick,) this is praise? no, this is impenetrable dogma set to shitty music - The COLLECT FOR PURITY - Doxology and Prayers at the presentation - the concluding collect at the end of the prayers of the people. Cut down the number of PSALM verses used. Psalms are incredibly deep, a little bit goes along way. Use 6 verse max at a time. Let me sit and contemplate, not gorge.

10. Speaking of cutting - either shorten or get rid of readings. We expect way to much of our people in terms of scriptural consumption. My last highly educated congregation told me that they were still thinking about the Hebrew Bible reading through all the other readings and that there is just no way to comprehend that much material. I strongly suggest alternating Hebrew Bible and Epistle from Sunday to Sunday so there is one reading with the Gospel. Overly long readings can be easily cut down by smart editors to highlight the best bits. Listening to Paul's long salutations is about as useless as it gets.

11. Stop using the Prayers of the People from the Book of Common Prayer. YAWN! First, they put me to sleep. Second, the fact that we pray for clergy and hierarchy and government first is a horrible remnant of establishment and clericalism. Third, they break up any thematic development in the service - they don't relate to sermon or scripture. I strongly suggest using the publication Prayers for the Christian People (lectionary based prayers), or having talented church member write them. Also, while I am at it, can we please stop praying for the 'virgin' Mary? The Greek means 'young woman,' and she wasn't a virgin. Virgins don't have babies. How about we pray for 'adolescent Mary mother of Jesus.' Why is that not enough? Finally, when you invite prayers give lots of time - don't be afraid of silence.

12. A great thing about using full bulletins is we can mix and match from other resources. Other confessions and absolutions are particularly effective at waking people up!

13. Invite congregational participation in as much of the liturgy as possible. The Collect of the Day should be said by ALL. It is a much more energetic way to start he service and it defies clericalism. Have the congregation say the doxology at the end of the Eucharistic prayer. Its awesome. If you invite participation in Prayers of the People give enough time to do it! I always like to prep a group of extroverted pray-ers so that the POP are primed to be participatory. Participation reflects the ministry of the whole and the priority of lay ministry.

14. I personally like to rewrite the current Eucharist prayers which are really way too wordy,...

15. Announcements: Three at most -always focused on mission, fun, motivational and short, pre-screened or entrusted to skilled people who introduce themselves. Never nag, cajole or threaten. Never recruit for sensitive position. Encourage lay leaders to act relationally by approaching people one on one. Keep it under 5 minutes plus a general welcome to the community, the table, to coffee (or whatever) and to the welcome card.

15. Acclamation - Processional Hymn - Collect of the Day is a nice tight way to get rolling! I recently saw the final hymn called the "Procession into the World for Service" and that was really cool.

16. Communion hymns generally fail. In the midst of this mystical moment the last thing I want to do is open a hymnal or have a loud anthem blaring at me. Taize or other repetitive simple stuff, or gentle instrumental music, or chant works great. There is a Jewish tradition of melodic singing without words that I love too - called Ningun (sp?). I had a bunch of kids strumming "My Sweet Lord" (George Harrison/Charelles) one Sunday during communion and tons of folks joined in because they already new it by heart. krishna, krishna!

17. A good sermon is no longer than 12 minutes, has one theme and main point and is delivered with energy, humor, sincerity, real emotion and in simple common language. Folks want to learn, they want to be moved, they want to be inspired and they want something to take home that will help them function. Folks I have served have also liked to be challenged to think in new ways. Spare me a display of your VAST learning, banish your Solemn tonalities and your use of 'you,' and your veiled implications that clergy are more enlightened than the congregation. Please share personal stories, real struggles, confusion, doubt. Please share the Good News.

18. Dare to try non-unilateral sermons. How do you invite other voices and multiple voices? We once used a Quaker style silent sitting after the sermon where people who were moved could speak.

Read it all here

How does your liturgy welcome newcomers and seekers?

Our earlier item on "Welcoming Liturgy" has occasioned a passionate response both on the Café and elsewhere. Some of you have argued that a church should be extremely careful in altering its Sunday morning Eucharist to make it more seeker/stranger-friendly. Sunday morning, the argument goes, is not prime time for evangelism. Maybe not. But eventually newcomers need to feel comfortable participating in common worship, or else they won't join our gradually dwindling numbers. So how do we make worship appealing without watering it down?

Thoughts?

(Hat tip for the Last Protestant Dinosaur and Derek at Haligweorc.)

Controversy over a liturgy to bring the Millennium Development Goals into focus during this Lenten season has caught the attention of Christianity Today. The liturgy, which was developed in 2007 by Mike Angell for a young adult conference; Angell notes in the piece that he did not intend it to replace the traditional stations of the cross.

Angell, who initially wrote the liturgy, agrees that it should not replace traditional Lenten worship. "Unless we see [the MDGs] as a way to participate in God's saving action, they don't accomplish anything," he said. "That's why the idea of them being a substitute for the Stations of the Cross would be beyond heretical and idolatrous."

"The real point of this liturgy was to allow people to prayerfully enter into the MDGs," said Angell, campus missioner at the University of California , San Diego. "Lent is a good time to explore the poverty in our world and the way in which our actions can either prolong that suffering or — through repentance and following the Jesus who calls us to be mindful of the poor — alleviate that suffering."

The article notes the critical (and, at times, condemnatory) response from Anglican blogs:

Several critics at Anglican blogs, including [Kendall] Harmon's TitusOneNine, have accused the liturgy of conflating Jesus' death on the Cross and human suffering. That's not a problem for Mike Kinman, executive director of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, an independent organization that is promoting the Stations service.

"I look at the 30,000 children who die every day of preventable, treatable causes. If every one of those children is in the image of God, then there's a level at which those are 30,000 crucifixions," Kinman said. "That is not to cheapen what Christ did on the Cross — in some ways it makes it more meaningful."

The whole thing is here.

Saint Thomas' Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City is Web casting audio files of its Holy Week services.

Hat tip to bls at Topmost Apple, who also found some other wonderful music.

The redoubtable Bosco Peters has launched a new feature on his blog that deserves attention for both its name and its flinty sense of humor.

Mak Galli has a very interesting essay in Christianity Today about the increasing relevance of traditional liturgy to many evangelicals:

We've recently featured in CT's pages a story about evangelicals who are attracted to liturgical worship, but in the context of American youth culture, many wonder why. The worship leaders wear medieval robes and guide the congregation through a ritual that is anything but spontaneous; they lead music that is hundreds of years old; they say prayers that are scripted and formal; the homily is based on a 2,000-year-old book; and the high point of the service is taken up with eating the flesh and drinking the blood of a Rabbi executed in Israel when it was under Roman occupation. It doesn't sound relevant.

Yet many evangelicals are attracted to liturgical worship, and as one of those evangelicals, I'd like to explain what the attraction is for me, and perhaps for many others. A closer look suggests that something more profound and paradoxical is going on in liturgy than the search for contemporary relevance. "The liturgy begins … as a real separation from the world," writes Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann. He continues by saying that in the attempt to "make Christianity understandable to this mythical 'modern' man on the street," we have forgotten this necessary separation.

It is precisely the point of the liturgy to take people out of their worlds and usher them into a strange, new world—to show them that, despite appearances, the last thing in the world they need is more of the world out of which they've come. The world the liturgy reveals does not seem relevant at first glance, but it turns out that the world it reveals is more real than the one we inhabit day by day.

. . .

I thank God for the liturgy. The liturgy does not target any age or cultural subgroup. It does not even target this century. (It does not imagine, as we moderns and postmoderns are tempted to do, that this is the best of all possible ages, the most significant era of history.) Instead, the liturgy draws us into worship that transcends our time and place. Its earliest forms took shape in ancient Israel, and its subsequent development occurred in a variety of cultures and subcultures—Greco-Roman, North African, German, Frankish, Anglo-Saxon, and so on. It has been prayed meaningfully by bakers, housewives, tailors, teachers, philosophers, priests, monks, kings, and slaves. As such, it has not been shaped to meet a particular group's needs. It seeks only to enable people—people in general—to see God.

Read it all here.

According to the Telluride, CO Watch you can now have a "green" burial.

Thanks to Telluride-based EcoffinsUSA, eco-friendly caskets, coffins and urns are now available nationwide to funeral directors and funeral homes for an all-natural, green burial.

Ecoffins are hand woven from organic sustainable materials, available in six unique casket styles, four coffin patterns and six ashes urns. Standard sizes accommodate adults up to 325 pounds; smaller sizes are also available.

Ecoffins biodegrade naturally, leaving nothing behind but human remains within six months to one year from the time of burial. The product also works well for cremation, releasing dramatically fewer toxins than conventional coffins during the cremation process.

More information here and here.

... willow coffins are the ultimate consideration towards environmental recycling. This is because willow grows up to 8ft in height in one year and because it grows from the same crown annually, it doesn’t need to be replanted each time it is harvested. Willow requires little mechanical processing, making it one of the few truly environmentally renewable resources. In addition, willow when buried under the ground decomposes far more quickly compared to hard woods.

The clergy and lay delegates of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut voted Saturday to ask the bishop to allow same-sex weddings, as the state Supreme Court's decision to legalize gay marriage in the state becomes official today.

Read more »

Science Daily reports that listening to your favorite music may be good for your cardiovascular system.

Read more »

It is a creative time in churches around the Anglican Communion. From Bethlehem, PA to Seattle, WA to Coventry UK, a variety of liturgical experiences are being offered. Some come from emergent churches others from churches looking to expand the message of the Gospel to various groups. U2 Eucharists and Beatles Masses have been around for awhile but here are some new ideas:

Read more »

Allow us to recommend the lively, insightful conversation sparked by Holy Chaos, or : What Episcopalians can learn from Baptists, Emily M. D. Scott's essay on liturgy on the Daily Episcopalian blog.

The Church Times says that a narrow gauge railway museum in northwest Wales is planning a round-trip excursion on Good Friday evening retracing by rail the fourteen Stations of the Cross.

Read more »

The 2009 Blue Book online, has a report from the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops:

Read more »

Friday evening, April 3, friends of Lee Davenport gathered online to celebrate his life in our midst. Most of us only knew him through his insightful and sometimes humorous comments on our blogs, on Facebook and other places in the 'net. We felt somewhat adrift with our grief as we could not go to where his service was being held in Emmanuel Church, Bristol, Virginia.

Read more »

The most recent draft of the proposed Anglican Covenant, which we wrote about yesterday, speaks at some length about the powers that will be exercised by the various Instruments of Unity or Instruments of Communion. Indeed, almost every recent document dealing with Anglican governance speaks of the instruments as though they are at least as old and as well-established, as say, the three branches of the United States government. Yet the attempt to invest these instruments with ecclesiastical authority is barely a decade old, has never been examined in any formal way by the member Churches of the Communion and has never even been approved by the so-called instruments themselves.

However, by speaking as though the system that they wish to create already exists, proponents of a more top-down form of governance may succeed in wearing down resistance to a system of ecclesiastic arrangements in which individual churches are gradually forced to cede power to the global Communion.

Read more »

We invite you to enter into meditation on the Way of the Cross. Episcopal Café Speaking to the Soul offers four versions of the Stations of the Cross at Multimedia Meditations.

Read more »

Flash mob guerilla worship is featured at The Times, UK in an article by Ruth Gledhill.

This is thought to be the first time 'flash mob' has been used to generate a 'random' act of Christian worship. It took place [April 4], Saturday, at Liverpool One Shopping Centre.

On the dream - re-imagining worship website, some of those involved have posted an explanation:

'We began scattered among the shoppers. At the signal, we all stopped and took off our shoes ... an ancient sign that this is "holy ground". God lives in shopping malls as well as churches! We then made out way to the park at the centre of the mall where we sat together to form a cross ... and prayed silently for a few minutes. We remembered Easter and the cross. We prayed for the current economic situation ... for those who have lost jobs ... and for God's blessing on our city ... we prayed for hope.'

Read more »

The Rev. Peter Pearson

The Rev. Pearson has worked on many projects as a liturgical artist and consultant by designing worship spaces, furnishings, vesture, and seasonal decorations. In every aspect of his work, he seeks to combine sound liturgical practice with quality artistic design. He is a priest of the Diocese of Bethlehem, PA and presently serves as the pastor of a small parish in New Hope, PA.

From Episcopal Cafe´ Speaking to the Soul, watch and listen, Easter Meditation.

Paintings by He Qi.

Trinity Church, Wall Street tried an interesting experiment this past Good Friday; twittering the Passion narrative. Twitter, a rapidly growing social microblogging service allowed the story to be posted in small chunks throughout the traditional three hour observance.

Religion Dispatches has an excellent account of the reporter's own reactions to the service:

"It all got going around 12:10 p.m. on Friday, ten minutes late, after some technical troubles. The first post: ‘via @ServingGirl: is so tired. Caiaphas and the priests have been up all night questioning a man who claims to be the Messiah. And I wait on them.’ Yes, the text itself was under 140 chars, but with the ‘via @ServingGirl:’ part it went a bit over. By 1:27, a few such posts prompted ‘@jgderuvo’ to shout out, for all watching twspassionplay’s Twitter page to see, ‘Guys, stay within the 140 character limit… it’s truncating, ruining the effect!’ It’s basically the equivalent of someone standing up in the theater and shouting that the script wasn’t in perfect iambic pentameter.

Read more »

Christianity Today reports that pastors' messages continue through TV, radio, and the Internet, even as some listeners probably don't even know they're gone.

Read more »

Bosco Peters remembers the 40th anniversary of the first communion on the Moon.

He writes on his blog Liturgy:

Read more »

The Rev. Bosco Peters, New Zealand blogging at Liturgy: worship that works - spirituality that connects notes:

Read more »

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports on a community memorial service for a member of the K-9 Corps led by the Rev. Dr. James B. Simons, of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Read more »

In a growing trend, people are noticing that one of the reliable ways to attract a younger congregation of folks in college and their mid twenties is to return to Solemn High Mass rather than making existing forms more contemporary feeling.

Read more »

From The Houston Chronicle:

While some preachers may frown upon the use of cell phones and laptops in church on Sundays, one Katy-area pastor is encouraging people to keep their wireless devises on so they connect through the Internet and social networking sites during a new service.

Read more »

September and October have become traditional months for blessing of animals services. The proximity to the Feast Day for St. Francis of Assisi, October 4, is often the impetus for holding these liturgies in the Fall. The Episcopal Church is providing bulletin inserts for Sunday, October 4 and some congregations have made the blessing an all day event.

Read more »

Lauren Winner, Assistant Professor of Christian Spirituality at Duke Divinity School and the author of Girl Meets God, wrote on H1N1 and the common cup for this week's Wall Street Journal. The effect, she contends, is broad, and based, perhaps, more on fear than on available logic.

Read more »

Entangled States blog reports on a joyfilled Advent 4 service held in 4 languages in Phoenix:

Members of the Sudanese congregation lead the processional with singing and dancing accompanied by the sound of pounding drums. They also offered music during the offertory and the recessional. Mariachis provided most of the additional service music.

see video below

Read more »

Deep in the midst of a bleak winter, churches are finding ways to illuminate people's spirits. In Durham, North Carolina, St. Luke's Episcopal Church is planning to usher in the season of Epiphany with 400 lights:

Read more »

Churches across the land have incorporated Feast of the Epiphany celebrations into their calendars to mark the time when the Magi (wise men) visited Jesus and also to mark the end of Christmas and the beginning of the season of Epiphany:

Read more »

Snow, ice, fog, and freezing rain are certainly all hallmarks of this time of year - just things we've learned to live with and drive on - but major sections of the U.S. have recently been shut down by bad weather. How do you exercise your faith when the weather keeps you at home?

Read more »

The Louisville Courier Journal reports on the first same-sex blessing held late last year at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church.

Read more »