In her recent poem, “A Wing and A Prayer,” Beth Ann Fennelly captures a familiar revelation from early on in the pandemic — how the birds outside our windows and in our backyards seemed so darn loud. We thought the…
Ashes to ashes: Remembering where we came from
On the evening of January 18, 2005, the First Baptist Church of Jamaica Plain, Mass., burned to the ground. The building was one of the oldest in town, with a beautiful Hook organ, hand-carved wooden pews, and a steeple tall…
The visit of the Magi: What those outside our faith still bring to it
Growing up, my favorite part of the Christmas story was always the wise men and their star-lit pursuit of the baby Jesus. It may have been because they always had the best costumes in Christmas pageants, with their elaborate sateen…
With fear, everything becomes a potential weapon, even church bells
Under a covered patch of brick in our church parking lot there hangs an enormous bronze bell. It dates back to 1887 and hung in our spire until a structural engineer submitted a report back in the 1960s telling us…
Who will we be tomorrow?
There’s been a lot of conversation about exactly how folks — especially church folks — are feeling about this dreadful election season. Anger, resentment, disappointment, offense, shock — the list goes on. I’ve certainly felt each of those at some…
‘You don’t cut them oaks. Them’s for the College Hall.‘
The great dining hall at New College, one of the oldest colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, was built not long after the college’s founding in 1379. It features a towering ceiling supported with huge oak…
Remembering with integrity
I had been a freshman in college for hardly a month. I first learned of the attacks when I arrived at a morning class, and spent most of the day huddled around a small dorm room television with new friends….
Genius hesitates, both in science and religion
In his fantastic little book, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, a kind of primer on modern physics meant for lay readers, Carlo Rovelli tells the story about how in 1905, a 26-year-old graduate student named Albert Einstein published three short…
Following Christ in our public and political lives
I get nervous about declarations that our current times are the “most” anything in human history. So I hesitate to say our current situation is the “most” critical time to engage contemporary issues in the church.