Reprinted Essay by Efran Menny for our Continuing Lenten Reflection* …Many witnessed the final moments of Keenan Anderson, a 31-year-old father and teacher tased repeatedly… by an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department. He died just hours later. WhenRead More →
Who would even think about praying all the time? But brace yourself. That’s not only possible. It can be a blessing. Over the years I have developed a practice of prayer, which opens up the promise, I believe, of whatRead More →
When my two kids were young enough so that I could carry both of them in my arms, I sometimes found occasions to pick them up, sing a random ditty that I’d make up on the spot, and dance inRead More →
This may have happened to you. You’re at the airport, about to board your flight. People are milling around in the waiting area. Then everybody suddenly turns their heads and looks in the same direction. Why? Somewhere in the midstRead More →
So, Rachel Maddow is now doing a major series of podcasts. Almost all the people I know of in public life – or maybe half – now have podcasts. What’s a podcast?* Add to the podcasts: many public-minded souls areRead More →
In recent months, I have been unashamedly talking about my new book, EcoActivist Testament: Explorations of Faith and Nature for Fellow Travelers (Cascade), with anyone who might be willing to listen. I have particularly sought out younger friends and coworkers,Read More →
When you were sitting through your last graduation ceremony, your own or a child’s, say, as you were dutifully trying to listen to the commencement speaker, did your mind ever wander? Of course it did. More particularly, did youRead More →
The twentieth-century German playwright, Berthold Brecht, once said something like this: “When I see a beautiful Mediterranean fishing village, with its small white houses etched against the deep blue waters, under the luminescent rays of the brilliant sun, I seeRead More →
This is a question I’ve thought about a lot lately, because I’ve recently been reminded, by my daughter and one of her two daughters, that it’s much on the mind of younger generations these days. While those two key womenRead More →
In my day and in my particular Church tradition, thirteen-year-old Catechumens were routinely asked, among many other things, to memorize Martin Luther’s explanations of the Ten Commandments. Even at such a relatively young age, I was struck byRead More →
A Talk Given November 7, 2020, University Lutheran Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts – All Saints It’s always a delight for me to stand in this pulpit. I stand here today, as a former pastor of this congregation, to thankRead More →
Of course my wife, Laurel, and I had to see the much-heralded exhibit at Boston’s Gardner Museum in the fall of 2021, “Titian – Women, Myth, and Power.” For the first time in 500 years (!!), this preeminent Renaissance artist’sRead More →
I have lately donated most of my ecotheology books to a theological library in England. I am pleased that these books have now found a new and more permanent home. Call this the pedagogy of fourteen boxes. Let me explain.Read More →
As the Covid pandemic was upon us all, on the first Sunday in Advent, 2020, University Lutheran Church in Cambridge, MA began to offer a Zoom Eucharist. A what? Martin Luther must have groaned in his grave. But, mirabile dictu, itRead More →
For me, April 22, 2020 was not just the celebration of the first Earth Day fifty years ago, it also was a more parochial time to begin some ruminating. I published my first book in ecological theology the same yearRead More →