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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
https://bookstore.upperroom.org/Products/1921/a-family-like-mine.aspxWhom Shall I Fear: Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence
https://www.amazon.com/Whom-Shall-Fear-Questions-Christians/dp/0835819671-
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Author Archives: Rosalind C Hughes
Show me Jesus
Imagine that they ask you, “Sir, sister, stranger, where can we find Jesus?” What would you tell them? What might you show them? Where would you take them? Who would you call for back-up? Continue reading
Seventeen
At ten o’clock on the fourteenth day of the third month of year two thousand eighteen of this portion of our history, twenty-eight days after seventeen of their generation died in one school, in one day, countless students will leave their classes, searching for one more word of covenant, one more promise of life redeemed from the chaos. Continue reading
Posted in current events, gun violence, story
Tagged beatitudes, Noah's Ark, numerology, school shootings
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Idols made of metal
The bronze serpent was not an amulet, but an icon of futility; an emblem of the impotence of evil in the sight of a gracious God.
The modern casting would be an AR-15 made into a museum piece, rendered harmless, useless, toothless by its irrelevance, not empowered by false reverence. Continue reading
Sinners at the cross of angry Jesus
I’m not going to go through the Commandments one by one, because frankly, unless we can reconcile our fundamental issues with the first three and the prohibition on killing, not to mention loving our neighbour, I do not see a way for us to achieve any kind of passing grade. Continue reading
Cleansing the temple
Christ, cleanse our temple courts where money changes hands to purchase sacrificial lambs offered on the high altar hymned with thoughts and prayers and the black sheep, tethered, set aside for the devotions of white-robed acolytes, while mourners shuffle ceaseless intercessions … Continue reading
St David’s
Sheer skyfall, blue to blue, plumb-lined from the heavens to the deep measures a cliff, eroded from creation, where only dune-grass and sheep may grow, miraculously rooted as the earth turns. We set out on a narrow path littered with … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, story
Tagged adder, creation, Fall, innocence, St David’s, viper
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Book Review: Raising White Kids, by Jennifer Harvey
Harvey has plenty of useful things to say to parents and others wondering how to shift their conversation around race from optimistic color-blindness to realistic anti-racism. Continue reading
Their cross, our cross
I have been trying to imagine how the words of Jesus to the pre-resurrection people would have sounded. We cannot hear of the cross without spiritualizing it, sublimating it post-resurrection. To have the same impact today as he had on that crowd in first-century Galilee, what might Jesus say? Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, prayer, sermon, story
Tagged Jesus, repentance, righteousness, salvation, take up your cross, Year B Lent 2
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“Startled” is putting it mildly
“I mention all of this because I am able to consider Donald Trump’s suggestion that teachers in school should carry weapons, recalling my roles as a soldier, an educator and a parent.” Continue reading
Posted in current events, gun violence, story
Tagged #Parkland, arming teachers, gun violence, school safety, school shootings
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A perfectly imperfect marriage
I think John Henry was lonely, and that Christ was as much his consolation as his committed husband.
He approached his ordination like a wedding, with excitement and dread, with joy and cold feet. Continue reading
Posted in homily, sermon, story
Tagged church, holiness, John Henry Newman, Oxford Movement
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over the water 