Worship in the Church of the Future

For years, I found church worship services boring, repetitious, uninspiring, and almost worthless. The format was always the same except on the first Sunday when it was Holy Communion, which was equally unexciting. The reenactment of the Last Supper, a powerful drama, was usually boring and confusing. What was its significance? The institution has been … Read more

Marriage in the Twenty-First Century

The concept of marriage in 2024 is very different from when I was born in 1932. Few people were shacking up or having premarital sex (supposedly), and for the most part, marriage ceremonies were performed in churches and synagogues, not by judges or court clerks. I met my Anne in 1960 and wanted to marry … Read more

Ask Bil Anything

Carol asks, Why does the church talk about sin so much, especially in Evangelical and Roman Catholic churches? It seems clergy and parishioners constantly talk about it, and it makes me uncomfortable. I agree with you, Carol. Let me start with Jesus. He was born, lived, and died as a Jew. His ministry primarily was … Read more

Orenda

My silence since November 5 has been deliberate. I haven’t known what to say after such a stunning defeat. I have a confession: I did unload on an Episcopal bishop whose reaction to the election was “Not everyone will be happy.” He didn’t like my rant about being a coward and giving Donald Trump a … Read more

Who Was Jesus?

The New Testament gives us different choices about who Jesus was. Let’s look at nine of them, and then you can pick the one that makes sense to you. Son of God—The Son of God is probably the title that would receive the most votes. Not mine! I don’t believe in an anthropomorphic God who … Read more

Ask Bil Anything

Greg asks, Why are you so down on the Trinity? You’re right, Greg: I am down on the idea of a Trinity. I have never understood it. Early in my ministry, a priest suggested that many aspects of the church are a mystery, and the Trinity is one of them. Because I was a young … Read more

Ministry in the Future Church

When I entered the ministry in 1957, there was no such thing as a volunteer priest in the Episcopal Church. (Roman Catholic priests didn’t receive a salary, but their church gave them everything else.) On my first assignment, the church housed me and gave me an old car, medical benefits, a retirement fund, and $2,400 … Read more

Ask Bil Anything

Dave asks, I went to an Episcopal church (someone said it was a “high church”) and watched as the priest kept kissing things: the altar, the Bible before and after he read it, and vestments when he was changing them. Then he started swinging an incense pot (my eyes didn’t like the smoke) and genuflected … Read more

Abe Lincoln and 2024

My wife and I start almost every day with a power walk for an hour or so. After sixty-four years, she didn’t need to hear me pontificate anymore, so we thought, “Let’s listen to audiobooks.” One was Jon Meachem’s And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (2022), the story of Lincoln from … Read more

Ask Bil Anything

Joan asks, Is there anyone who answers prayers? Sixty-six years ago, in my second year of seminary, after a tragic accident in which my best friend was killed, I was forced to abruptly deal with this issue when a priest came into my hospital room the next day and asked, “What did you and Brad … Read more