My husband and I moved to the U.S. 16 years ago. We didn’t know a soul in the college town where he would be starting graduate school, and with just six months of marriage under our belts, we barely knew one another either. But God provided a new family through the local church: An older Read more
When you think about the mechanics of Sunday Eucharist, it’s difficult to imagine a system better designed to spread contagion. Parishioners of all ages are crowded into a confined space, they hug or shake hands, they receive bread on the tongue or in the hand from a minister whose hands are not gloved, they share Read more
So much emphasis was placed on presumed sexual morality and ideal families at these parishes that anyone who didn’t fit a rigid traditional mold was ostracized. Unwed, separated and divorced parents and their children were shunned. Families like mine — my parents were divorced — formed an outgroup that was systematically excluded. I experienced bullying. Read more
The wedding invitation said ‘summer chic’. I smiled to myself as I read this request of the parents of the bride. I had to hope that my hosts would be very understanding. The black suit of a priest would hardly pass as ‘summer chic’! At any celebration, the hosts are very much in charge. They Read more
Jesus once said: “If anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble… it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” To be a representative of institutional Christianity after last week is to feel the weight of that Read more
Aileen Carlin Giannelli died on September 8. By itself, that’s probably not something most readers are interested in. Statistically, perhaps as many as 46,000 American Catholics died in September, and I am sure any reader of these words can name at least one of them. But this particular American Catholic was my wife’s mother and Read more
The Anglophone crisis in Cameroon can be resolved only by the Catholic Church, says one of the world’s leading conflict-resolution organisations. Noting the Church is the largest religious group in the country, the International Crisis Group says there are few alternative prospective peacemakers. They say if the peacemaker role is not filled, the Anglophone separatist Read more
A vicar who once built an ice rink inside his church has taken it a stage further this year with a toboggan run. Father Stuart Cadduck has installed a 30ft long inflatabe run next to the pews, just yards from the altar, stretching down one side of the ancient church. Read more
As I wrote in The Gatekeepers are Gone: What’s Holding Your Ministry Back?, we need more churches taking advantage of online services, podcasts, livestreaming, social media, blogging, you name it. Online church is not just necessary, it’s important, even essential. The speed, convenience and world-wide reach of the internet is a wonderful tool. The digital world Read more
The latest in a long line of studies, now numbering in the hundreds, if not thousands, shows that church attendance is good for your health. Published in May by researchers from Vanderbilt University, the study found that middle-aged adults who attended religious services at least once in the past year were half as likely to die prematurely Read more