This is the final part of a six-part series about an imaginary journey to an Episcopal seminary where I ask hard questions about Christianity and priesthood. Without twenty-first-century answers, I may have to drop out. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, and Part 5 here. My … Read more
This is the third part of a six-part series about an imaginary journey to an Episcopal seminary where I ask hard questions about Christianity and priesthood. Without twenty-first century answers, I may have to drop out. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. I am attending my first New Testament class to … Read more
This is the second part of a six-part series about an imaginary journey to an Episcopal seminary where I ask hard questions about Christianity and priesthood. Without twenty-first-century answers, I may have to drop out. You can find Part 1 here. Last week, I attended an imaginary class about prayer and prayer life. I asked … Read more
This is the first part of a six-part series about an imaginary journey to an Episcopal seminary where I ask hard questions about Christianity and priesthood. Without twenty-first-century answers, I might have to drop out. I graduated from seminary fifty-eight years ago in a very different world. I started seminary in 1957, when the church … Read more
My father was an Episcopal clergyman. He thought he was a Christian. My mother was born and baptized a Methodist but became an Episcopalian when she married my father. She, too, thought she was a Christian. I was baptized when I was three weeks old in the Episcopal church, but my parents said later it … Read more
I’ve been loath to use the word “God” since November 1958. It represents so many different meanings, ideas, and concepts, and it carries unbelievable baggage. One of those gods killed my friend Brad. Maybe it was the same one or perhaps a different one who “blessed” our middle daughter so that she is deaf, legally … Read more
It was sneaky, not planned. It just happened that way. After that fire engine whapped us and killed my friend Brad in October 1958 and that priest asked me what we had done to deserve this horrendous accident, I wasn’t interested in working for, serving, or even hanging around a god who would punish people … Read more