Many decades ago, it was somehow impressed on me that, if there's a silver bullet for preserving health through the course of one's life, it's exercise. I already knew I wasn't a runner, and fairly quickly figured out that I'm not the sort to make a gym membership worthwhile. So I became a walker. I [...]
As has been our custom for the last several years, the Diocese of Springfield will be joining in the period of intensive prayer known as Thy Kingdom Come. Eucharistic Communities are encouraged to organize special prayer opportunities using resources that will be made available from the Bishop's office, and on the Thy Kingdom Come website. [...]
Fellow-Disciples in the Diocese of Springfield, I hope that blessed Dietrich Bonhoeffer might forgive me for borrowing the title of one of his important books. It's just so apt for what I want to share with you briefly. You have no doubt heard me talk (or write about) the three core spiritual practices that support [...]
Usual (new) morning routine. Made preliminary arrangements to list our Springfield house for sale. (It hasn’t rented yet.) Spent the balance of the morning drafting my address to synod next week. Lunched on leftovers. Ran some nearby errands (on foot) with Brenda. Scanned and processed accumulated hard copy in my physical inbox. Took my homily [...]
As I write, at the beginning of Labor Day weekend, I'm beginning to form impressions of the first round of something that is a new experience for us as a diocese. In our last revision of the diocesan canons, in 2016, we now ask each Eucharistic Community (or organized geographic parish) to submit annually a [...]
The eight-day period each January between the feasts of the Confession of St Peter (the 18th) and the Conversion of St Paul (the 25th) has been observed across various Christian traditions for more than a century as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. If you're readings this after January 25--no worries, ecumenism is important [...]
As I sit down to write this at the end of August, two massive societal earthquakes continue to dominate the news cycle: the deadly demonstration and counter-demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia that unmasked a shocking vein of white supremacy in our country, and the once-in-a-millennium rainfall, produced by Hurricane Harvey, that has wreaked havoc on the [...]
This is Paige Daugherty. She's the new Communications Coordinator for the Diocese of Springfield. Paige is a native of Springfield and a graduate of Sacred Heart-Griffin High School. In 2016, she received her bachelor's degree in communication from Illinois State University, so she's excited to have her first job in her chosen field. We've never [...]
"Ite, missa est!" That's Latin for, "Go, you are dismissed." For hundreds and hundreds of years, in the Latin rite, this is how the Deacon tells the people that their liturgy--their solemn duty and joyful privilege--has been successfully performed, and they are free to go. Indeed, they are not just free to go, they need [...]
... or, one part thereof, at any rate. This is a refined-for-written-form version of three meditations I delivered a year ago at an Advent quiet day given at St Stephen's Church in Providence, Rhode Island. The Redemption of the World Although I am firmly committed to the Prayer Book norm that the Holy Eucharist [...]
