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Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

April 2018

April 11, 2018

The Problem with Spiritual Fruits

The band quit playing at church because our priest asked them to sing from the...

August 2017

August 09, 2017

Possessed

It refused to rain during the hot, middling July weeks the summer I turned fifteen....

July 2017

July 26, 2017

The Baptisms on Pentecost

Our guests at the baptism on Sunday agreed, all of our friends and family, many...

May 2017

May 19, 2017

Poetry Friday: “The Spirit of Promise”

Memories can make good material for poetry. In “The Spirit of Promise,” Daniel Donaghy is...

January 2017

January 02, 2017

Poem for the New Year: “In the Candleroom at Saint Bartholomew’s on New Year’s Eve” By Heather Sellers

This poem moves me and impresses me with its sense of almost-but-not-quite arriving at connection....

November 2016

November 15, 2016

Stiff Necked Church Lady

Church Ladies. Most of them are pretty darn good souls. They’re at the church every...

August 2016

August 11, 2016

Eat

By Kelly Foster Lundquist Since birth, the rhythm of my week has been set by...

July 2016

July 13, 2016

The Cult of Emotion

As a newish, struggling Christian recovering from two years in a fundamentalist youth group, I...

June 2016

June 16, 2016

Pieces of Resistance

We've beat records for rain this year in central Minnesota. The sidewalks are pillowed with...

June 08, 2016

The Strength of God’s Gaze

By Laura Bramon The first time I saw her, I made up a story about...

April 2016

April 28, 2016

Praise Bands, Lipstick, and other Futilities of the Faith

By E.D. The drummer in the rock band at my church, bangs on his drum,...

April 08, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Smokers, Sunday Morning, 1975” by Bobby C. Rogers

This poem seems at first to be a straight-forward narrative: a childhood recollection of the...

March 2016

March 29, 2016

Believing in the Beach Boys

The first church I attended as a teenaged new believer swiftly taught me two doctrines:...

March 18, 2016

Dancing on the Way to Prison

By John Bryant I’m standing in a circle with thirty singing and swaying old men...

February 2016

February 16, 2016

Your Ideal Church

I don't mean to brag, but I attend your ideal church. If you’re a millennial...

January 2016

January 25, 2016

Listening to Simone

By Christiana N. Peterson The woman stands in the entryway of our common building just...

January 11, 2016

Sign-Seeking in the Dark

January is for sleeplessness. Maybe its cause is the temperature inversion that presses pollution down...

November 2015

November 02, 2015

My Soul Thirsts

My children’s Michigan fact book says you can’t go more than eight miles without hitting...

September 2015

September 03, 2015

I Come Not to Praise the Megachurch

The church may have begun as a non-spiritual entity, a business of some sort that...

July 2015

July 31, 2015

Wrestling with Sunday Mornings

This past Saturday afternoon I warned my husband, “I’m not going to church tomorrow.” In...

July 08, 2015

Art on Fire: The Life and Work of Melissa Weinman, Part 1

By: Richard Cole In a recent painting by Melissa Weinman, a small, white rose floats...

June 2015

June 26, 2015

Divine Drudgery

Two weeks after we moved to the Mennonite community in rural Illinois, a baby was...

June 12, 2015

Sunday Morning at Wegmans, Prince George’s County, Maryland

It is the Feast of Pentecost on the Eastern Orthodox calendar, the annual commemoration of...

June 10, 2015

The Eucharist: Eat, Eat!

By Shannon Huffman Polson We sit in the back pew at church with intention; there’s...

May 2015

May 28, 2015

What Is a Christian?

According to recent survey by the Pew Research Center, the number of U.S. adults who...

February 2015

February 25, 2015

I Belong to Jesus

Today we are happy to welcome back former Good Letters blogger Sara Zarr as a...

November 2014

November 05, 2014

My Big Bang Theory

Guest post by Cathy Warner I awoke one morning from a recurrent nightmare of nuclear...

August 2013

August 20, 2013

Yeshua Ha’Mashiach

In drafting my last post, “Orthodox Films Fill the Void,” I intended to end the...

July 2013

July 25, 2013

Belief and Belonging

Last week I went and watched my son graduate from Virginia Boys State. After the...

July 16, 2013

Holy Water

"One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith." –St....