That’s when the name-badge on the chaplain’s neatly pressed shirt triggered a flashback to a conversation I’d shared with another chaplain some 20 years before. You see, this wasn’t my first stent in a psychiatric hospital, so much as a replay of a residential eating disorder program I'd undertaken my
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“Advent is a season of waiting.” This is what we say every year, acknowledging the significance of this time before Christmas. As we wait for the birth of our savior, we consider the world we live in. We study Scripture. We prepare our surroundings and ourselves for what is to
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In ten years of ministry and nearly 40 years of church attendance (with a loving reminder that we Millennials are, in fact, middle aged), I’ve heard plenty of angles on the Christmas story. The funny. The saccharine. The mysterious. Preached by folks of a variety of races, ages, theological frameworks,
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On October 8, 2022, the Earlham School of Religion hosted their annual pastors’ conference on Zoom and at their campus in Richmond, IN. With the theme Disability in Ministry, the conference showcased speakers with experience in disability as church members and leaders and gave practical advice for how churches could
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It’s that time of year! Spirits and souls make their ways to our imagination through all things Halloween or All Hallows Eve. But what would it look like if we decommercialized this season and lived into spirituality more? The work of justice stems from a Spirit that moves us and
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Before arriving to the 11th Assembly on the World Council of Churches, I had no expectations or really any idea as to what I was about to attend. “Reconciliation” and “unity” were heavily sprinkled throughout the merchandise and materials we received, and those words were heard and seen more than
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As we see, yet again, mass shootings sprinkled over the US, we see, yet again, the outpouring of grief, anger, prayer, and confusion. We experience a country that holds to a death dealing ideology that it is our god-given right to bear arms. We experience white supremacy manifested in the
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During Holy Week, I can’t tell you how many photos, portraits, paintings, digital graphics I saw of Jesus with a 6-pack. Not a 6-pack of beer. Not a 6-pack of Coke. BUT BULGING ABS along with rippling muscles, flowing conditioned hair, and amazing quads. There on a cross is a
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La Semana Santa es la jornada que emprendemos hacia la muerte y resurrección de Jesús. A menudo está llena de servicios religiosos, liturgias, adoración, contemplación y celebración. En ocasiones, la semana también es consumida por las obligaciones con instituciones religiosas que pueden sacarnos de un verdadero caminar espiritual hacia la
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Holy Week is the journey that we take toward the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is often filled with church services, liturgies, worship, contemplation, and celebration. The week, too, is sometimes consumed with obligations to religious institution that may shift us from an actual spiritual walk to the empty
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