William T. Cavanaugh on globalization vs. catholicity

When I attended Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City some years ago, we would periodically recite together the Nicene Creed as part of our worship service.  Appended to the statement, ‘I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church,’ was always a helpful footnote explaining that catholic – with a small c – refers [...]

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Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

‘The prospects of reviving belief in a moral law are dim… [Morality] may survive in a more defensible form when seen to be a human creation. We can shape it consciously to serve people’s needs and interests, and to reflect the things we most care about.’

- Jonathan Glover

‘They are rid of the Christian God, [...]

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Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

‘I am a poor freezingly cold soul
So far from where
I intended to go
Scavenging through life’s very constant lulls
So far from where I’m determined to go
‘Wish I knew the way to reach the one I love
There is no way …
Wish I had the charm to attract the one I love
But you see, I’ve got no charm’
- [...]

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CTK Dorchester

On Sunday, June 29, CTK will install Dan Rogers as pastor of our congregation in Dorchester, Mass. A small but faithful contingent has been worshiping there for a year and a half, praying for their neighbors in one of Boston’s more impoverished and violent regions.
Some quick facts about Dorchester (which I copied from our [...]

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What’s this – why, I have a blog!

I’ve recently been called out by a friend for allowing my blog to become ‘boring’. Surprisingly, he was referring not to the posts themselves, but to the recent lack of updates. He was right, of course – it’s been nearly a month since I posted anything other than my weekly Sunday quotes (more [...]

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Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

‘There will always be someone there to say, “tell me a story”, and someone there to respond. Were this not so, we would no longer be fully human.’
- Richard Kearney
‘This is the story [Israel and Jesus] that shapes the church and forms it into a community of the kingdom, a people with the resources [...]

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Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

‘Being concerned for the true interests of his beloved surely requires that the lover also be moved by a more elementary desire to identify those interests correctly. In order to obey the commands of love, one must first understand what it is that love commands.’

- Harry Frankfurt

‘The intended function of promising and commanding is [...]

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Third Sunday after Pentecost

‘…[T]he distinction between Christians and other men, is neither in country nor language nor customs. … Yet while living in Greek and barbarian cities… they show forth the wonderful and confessedly strange character of the constitution of their own citizenship. They dwell in their own fatherlands, but as if sojourners in them; they share [...]

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