Welcome to the great drama of Holy Week! This Sunday we embark upon a journey with Jesus. It is a dramatic journey from His triumphal entry…to His cross…to His empty tomb.   Practically, for us, it is 5 services in 8 days—the most concentrated season of worship on the church calendar.   I can recall earlier days in my Anglican journey, where I thought this was way too much. I tended to opt out of this or that service. Selectively attend. Certainly did not immerse myself in th

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily ple

On Sunday, I introduced everyone to the Quartet of Desire. There was a lot packed in that introduction, so I thought I would share again some of the key points here in a blog post.        What is that Quartet?        The Quartet of Desire is a set of four deadly sins that all have one thing in common : they are all   disordered desires for fulfillment .        The first three Deadly Sins we treated—Pride, Sloth and Anger—are less oriented towards fulfilling our desires. They

With some Special Thoughts about Gossip…and a Postscript about the Manifold Irritations of Our Age “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.”             Ephesians 4:26   St Paul’s admonition to the Ephesians 'to be angry but do not sin' rests on a crucial distinction between righteous and unrighteous anger.   We are all well-acquainted with the fact that one man’s righteous anger (so-called) often appears to others as unrighteous. We are easily ca

Why is Sloth/Acedia listed near the top of the Seven Deadly Sins? At its core, it is a sorrowful aversion to the love of God, our final end and ultimate joy. What are some different ways that Acedia manifests itself and how do we push back against each one? 1) Allergy to Real Work Intentional sabbath; active rest; worship; Lent is more than “giving up stuff” or ceasing; it invites us to a truth-telling/recalibration. Look to the incarnated Christ who was a carpenter for most

We began our Lenten series with Pride on, fittingly enough, Ash Wednesday. This is a follow up blog post. The Desert Fathers Evagrius and John Cassian argue that the sin of vainglory is separate from pride. For them, it is an 8th deadly sin. This is an intriguing distinction, one which the later Latin tradition in the west rejects or at least omits. Since we in the west are more heirs to that Latin tradition than to the Desert East, we canonized 7 deadly sins and not 8...so v

Starting today, Ash Wednesday, we begin a Lenten series on the Seven Deadly Sins (7DS). In several blog posts during this series, we want to share with you additional perspectives we will not develop in the series as such. Our teachings will focus on the sins themselves as diagnosed by the Scriptures--and ultimately, treated by the Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus. In this way, we hope this series leads us through a Lenten season of reflection and repentance--

You might have noticed a change in our Prayers of the People. In addition to our archbishop and bishop we are now praying for yet another bishop--our provincial dean, Bishop Julian Dobbs. Why the change? You might recall that a few weeks ago, I shared word of accusations and charges brought against Archbishop Steve Wood. In the past week, Archbishop Wood has been formally suspended from ministry (called: an inhibition) pending the outcome of the investigations into these ch

Have you ever wondered why you don't reach out for prayer more often?  I know I have asked myself that question.  Even knowing deeply the...

“We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your abundant and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table; but Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood..." — The Book of Common Prayer 2019, pg. 135 T

by Dcn. Josh   The church’s liturgical calendar begins every year with the season of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas which are...

Why are we doing this? And is it safe? By Fr Steve Lake First, let me address why? The short answer to the 'why?'-question is that it is an historic practice with symbolic theological significance that dates back, at least, to Jesus and the Last Supper...but more likely, all the way back to the first Passover meal in Egypt. No joke. As St Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that

This past Sunday we concluded our sermon series on our church's mission statement with a focus on the so-called Third Table : of us...

As we announced on Sunday, four members of our parish attended last week the Convocation and Synod of our new diocese, Christ Our Hope....

On Sunday our sermon focused on the prophesy as one mode in which the church serves as a faithful presence in the world. Here are some...

With our first sermon on the so-called 'Third Table' of "faithful presence in the world," Dcn Josh this past Sunday provided us a...

The experience of fellowship can mean a lot of different things in a lot of different places in the body of Christ. It certainly always ...

Here are some additional resources on catechesis, following up from this Sunday's sermon. I showed you the hard copy, but you can find...

This past Sunday we began exploring the so-called "three tables"--the three strategies we at Church of the Resurrection pursue as we make...

I begin this week's 'additional resources' with some additional reflections on the way technology impacts relationships today. On...