Author Archives: Rosalind C Hughes

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About Rosalind C Hughes

Rosalind C Hughes is an Episcopal priest, poet, and author living near the shores of Lake Erie. After growing up in England and Wales, and living briefly in Singapore, she is now settled in Ohio. Rosalind is the author of A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing , and Whom Shall I Fear? Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence, both from Upper Room Books. She loves the lake, misses the ocean, and is finally coming to terms with snow.

Year C Epiphany 1: For us, and for our salvation

After Christmas, after Epiphany, we come to the baptism of Jesus. In a way, this story is the culmination and confirmation of everything that has happened up to now. An angel announced his conception. Faithful even before he was born, … Continue reading

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Waving goodbye

Whenever we left she wept, never knowing which time would be the last. (Sometimes, poetry is simply laying the ghosts out in the daylight.)

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In bodily form

When our bodies betray us, let us down, we berate them, hesitate to call them holy, when, after all, they are the sacrament of God’s creative genius, each featherlight touch a reminder of the love that engendered our creation, redemption, … Continue reading

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Telling stories: extracts from a sermon on Jesus in the Temple, aged twelve

I have a weakness, I confess, for all things biblical, especially stories, especially imaginative retellings of biblical stories, or poetry, or words, words, words … I am drawn like a moth to a flame to a new fictionalized gospel account, … Continue reading

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Epiphany

Epiphany: A lightbulb moment. A parish church. A cake, a tradition. People going down to a snowy river in Russia to renew their baptismal promises in the freezing waters. The other Christmas. Magi, wise men, kings; gold, frankincense, myrrh; Herod … Continue reading

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Following

The brightness beckoning, reckoning light years away, in the beginning, there was a star which now calls them from afar to follow, stumbling in the daytime, in the forests, fog-filled valleys, rallying with breathless joy on the mountaintop where all … Continue reading

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A GOEs prayer, reblogged

Originally posted on over the water:
My prayer for those (especially Jon, Adam, Lisa, Michael, Linda, Katherine, and Jennifer) taking GOEs (General OrdinationExaminations set by the General Board of Examining Chaplains of the Episcopal Church) this week: All-knowing God, Grant, I…

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The naming of cats, children, and wonderful counsellors

Recently a parishioner handed me a list she had come across of fifty names for Jesus given to him in scripture – fifty shades of great, perhaps? There were some wonderful titles, but I don’t think that in the whole … Continue reading

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New Year’s Eve: A Litany

January For resolutions unresolved, promises forgotten, commitments that crumbled, God forgive me. February From the long darkness save me; from coldness of heart deliver me. March For those who hunger, for those who thirst, may we who fast from overindulgence, … Continue reading

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Holy Innocents

The hard historical evidence for the massacre of the innocents of Bethlehem may be sketchy, thank God, yet the meme pervades our culture, from Moses to Jesus; even though we can barely comprehend the idea, we admit it to our … Continue reading

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