Remember that time I designed a chapel service around Derek Webb songs? I’ll set the scene for you. It was Holy Week 2010. I was about to turn 30. I was the registrar at a small seminary that had been transitioning toward a merger with its neighboring Christian university, and I had spent several months … More Liturgy, Derek Webb, Self-Compassion and Liberation
By Steff Fenton A note from Michelle As the season of Epiphany draws to a close with Ash Wednesday just days away, I offer you the last of this series, Eyes to See. I hope you have been invited and challenged in each piece to see in new ways the path of liberation that leads … More Eyes to See: An Invitation to New Sight
By Eleanor Anne Dote “For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12, NRSVUE Anne Lamott once wrote, “The opposite of faith is not … More Eyes to See: We Have Not Arrived
By Eli Palacios A friend of mine was recently ordained by the United Church of Christ and installed as a pastor in a congregation. As I witnessed these events, I felt joy and wonder: the younger me who grew up in church could have never imagined a queer same gender loving person being celebrated and … More Eyes to See: Worthy to Be Seen, Loved and Called
By Rev. Emma Loane “You know that ministry is incredibly inefficient and perpetually messy, right?” This was the troubling realization I came to during a two-night solo retreat immediately after saying ‘yes’ to serving a congregation as their Associate Pastor. This was a retreat that I had planned several weeks earlier to set some time … More Eyes to See: A New ‘Normal’ in Pastoring
By Regina Shands Stoltzfus I believe that peace is possible, and that justice is something that can happen. As a peace studies professor, former pastor and occasional preacher, I revisit these beliefs frequently because I also believe in telling the truth, as best as I know it. And if I didn’t believe that this messed … More Eyes to See: A Long Resistance
Michelle F. Morrow 