The Next Blog

I’ve moved to Chicago… but I’m still writing, taking pictures, and reflecting on the place where I live. If you’d like to follow me via my new blog, here is the link: Diary of a Downtown Priest You can sign up to receive the new blog posts by email by clicking “Follow this blog” at […]

Farewell to Bolingbrook

In a week, the moving truck will come and a crew of Chicago bruisers will load all our earthly belongings into a truck or two and haul it into the city. We’ll leave behind a bed of ripening strawberries, a renovated bathroom that still flutters my heart, a wheelbarrow, four kinds of iris, rampant mint, […]

Mildew and Mystery

This is the view from a third story window in the church where I grew up. I went to a funeral there a few weeks ago. It was the first time I’d been back in years. I got there early and decided to walk around a bit, up and down the stairs and halls. It was like walking around […]

Calling God “Mother”

In college, I learned to call God, “Mother.” I didn’t stop using “Father,” “Spirit,” “Christ,” or one of my favorites from St. Francis, “Brother Jesus.” A few times, I tried to call God “Sophia,” which is the Greek for “wisdom” and can be seen vividly in Proverbs 1, 3, and 8. But “Mother” felt more natural for me. The two predominant names for God in […]

Book Review: Two Manuals for Dying

I wrote a review for The Christian Century of two companion books on dying by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, a professor of medical humanities at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. Her two books are both beautiful and uncomfortably practical guides to facing an approaching death – your own, or that of someone you love. Here’s an excerpt from […]

Ashes To Go: In The Joliet Herald-News

St. Benedict and I were in the Joliet Herald-News for offering “Ashes to Go” for the fourth year yesterday, Ash Wednesday. I was glad to work with the reporter and photographer – they “got” what we were doing and did a wonderful job capturing the day. Donna Ialongo, our Priest Associate, and I got to […]

Pretty Little Minister

“Well, aren’t you a pretty little minister? How old are you?” The grey-haired piano tuner had met me on the steps of the church, in the small New England town where I was serving, so I could unlock the big wooden doors and he could tune our grand piano. Bristling, I told him: “Twenty-four.”  Then […]

The Liesborn Prayer Wheel

This pen-and-ink drawing was found on the inside of a medieval Gospel book. The book dates from 980, when it was commissioned for a well-to-do convent in Germany. The drawing is probably not original – it seems to have been added later. It reminds me of a labyrinth but really it’s more like a puzzle or […]

The Mosque Next Door

I wrote an article for The Christian Century about our church’s growing relationship with our Muslim neighbors here in Bolingbrook, a relationship that means a lot to us, but that is also as ordinary as any suburban worshipping communities who happen to be neighbors. “…we visited the congregation’s Eid al-Fitr festival, held at the end […]

Empty Churches

I have a melancholy, hopeful love for abandoned churches. I visited this one last winter, meeting one of our Bishop’s staff to pick up some used furniture, cassocks, and hymnals for St. Benedict. The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany was built in 1885 and closed in 2011. It’s located in the medical district of Chicago, just west […]