All rights reserved
© Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, 2011-2021. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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-
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
RevGalBlogPals
Meta
Tag Archives: funeral
Book Review: Dessert First – Preparing for Death while Savoring Life, by J. Dana Trent
So why does a book about death and grieving have such an odd title? Death is coming for each of us, so we might as well embrace our mortal life and enjoy it, grief and all, with all of its sweetness, tartness, and saltiness. Continue reading
Posted in book review
Tagged chaplaincy, death, funeral, grief, J. Dana Trent, life, memoir, ritual, theology
Leave a comment
Bearing
Smattering laughter, sundry small-talk dies away. Grasping brass handles, shoulders square. The slightest stumble, scant genuflection; the body pays its respects to the shocking weight of mortality.
Psalm for the fourth funeral
Good God, sometimes mortality becomes too heavy for us to bear under; it piles up like bones. We flood the valley floor with grief; our footsteps sink for want of solid ground. How long, O Lord, will you wait to … Continue reading
Religious rituals and summer Sunday attendance
Two days after my mother died, at half past five in the morning, I heard a strange noise outside my bedroom window, the window of the spare bedroom in my parent’s house. It was a rasping, grinding, rolling, grunting, sighing … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged 1 Kings 18:20-39, centurion, church attendance, community, Elijah, family, funeral, healing, Hebrews 10:25, Jesus, Luke 7:1-10, religious ritual, ritual, summer
3 Comments
Rites of passage
My mother’s funeral did not take place in an American high school auditorum, neither was the local rag reporter in attendance. No one wore football pads or swimming gear; I was not in clericals, being unordained as yet, and having … Continue reading
A prophet without honour
Two brothers grew up a few years apart. They were close for a time, but grew somewhat apart. They moved in different circles. The elder brother worked hard and achieved some recognition, even notoriety. Every so often the younger brother … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon preparation, story
Tagged ask, brothers, funeral, gratitude, Mark 6:1-13, prophet without honour, Year B Proper 9
Leave a comment
The fragmentation of grief
Death breaks more than the body. This morning, I came home to an email – because that’s how we’re doing it now – to say that my Auntie Joyce had died. It was not unexpected, and in many ways I … Continue reading
over the water 