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 Calendar and Archives 

The Liturgical Calendar

Parish Life

August 2007 -- Stewardship -- Make 'Em Laugh!  --  It’s mid-summer. At churches across the land, Stewardship Committee Chairs are emerging from their hideaways, scouting around for new committee members, calling preliminary meetings, and peering ahead to the Fall Campaign.  more.. 

Homilies and Sermons

April 2008 -- Homily for the 7th  Sunday after Pentecost -- “Welcome”  --  Delivered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Port Townsend, Washington, on June 29, 2008   more.. 

April 2008 -- Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter -- “A Picture of Abundant Life”  --  Delivered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Port Townsend, Washington, on April 13, 2008   more.. 

March 2008 -- Homily for Maundy Thursday  -- "A Love Story" -- Delivered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Port Townsend, Washington on March 20, 2008.   more..

January 2008 -- “Feet and Pee — Stories of Attention and Change”  --  Delivered at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Port Townsend, Washington on January 13, 2008.   more.. 

October 2007 -- Homily for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost  --  “Out of the Boomerang Trap” -- Delivered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Port Townsend, Washington on October 28, 2007.   more..

April 2007 -- Homily for Wednesday in Holy Week  --  “A Love That Saves” -- Delivered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Port Townsend, Washington on April 4, 2007.   more..

Published on Other Sites

May 2007 -- "With Apologies to Dana Carvey"    Ruminations on church ladies -- fanciful, real, and future -- posted on Episcopal Life Online.

December 2007 -- Excerpt from Sacred Attention -- I met my friend Sam at college, back in the early seventies. Sam had been adopted as an infant in a "blind" adoption, so he grew up knowing nothing about his genetic parents...   -- posted on DailyOM -- Nurturing Mind Body and Spirit.

Margaret's Bench

June 2008  --  Three separate times, a love without bounds showed itself to me so that I looked and paid attention, so that I could see.   more... 

May 2008  --  Last December, in an effort to bring abundant life into our home, David and I got a puppy. We named him Bingo. If abundant life involves sleep deprivation and obsessive interest in someone else’s bathroom habits, then Bingo brought it, right away.   more... 

April 2008  --  Every Sunday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Port Townsend, we stand and say the Nicene Creed together. It is my least favorite part of the service.   more... 

March 2008  --  "“These are the first two poems I’ve ever written in my life,” said Jeff. As the class instructor, I was glad to hear both surprise and pleasure in his voice.   more... 

February 2008  --  "Today I'm going to talk about feet and pee, in stories of attention and change..." — From a talk delivered at the Quimper Universalist Unitarian Fellowship's Sunday services, January 13, 2008.   more... 

January 2008  --  Our first dog, Jackie, was a tri-color basset hound named in honor of Jack Benny, one of David’s all-time favorite show biz personalities...   more... 

December 2007  --  Happy birthday to the Courtyard—one year old this month...   more... 

November 2007  --  I’m deeply attached to my “To Do” list. How would I live without it? The tasks swirl around me, and at times I’m frozen, drowning in a sea of possibilities. I need to write them down, simply to choose what to do next. And so the trap quietly closes...  more... 

October 2007  --  We adopted Katie from the local animal shelter about four years ago, just before Thanksgiving in 2003. The folks at the pound had the phone number of her former owners, and before signing the papers, I gave them a call. It was an awkward conversation...  more... 

September 2007  --  Three days after my mystical experience in the Safeway parking lot — three days after I was given a revelation of the essential, fundamental love-ableness built into all human beings — I walked into a frightening and infuriating demonstration of its opposite...  more... 

July/August 2007  --  On an October afternoon, Tom Waits’ gravelly voice, flamboyant lyrics, and diamond revelations in the grit of city street life felt like perfect accompaniment to the fir trees, horse barns, and small-town neighborhoods that I passed in my car...  more... 

June 2007  --  You know what drives me nuts about the recent spate of books begging me to find salvation and give up religion before it’s too late? Books arguing not only that God doesn’t exist, but that religion is a greater threat to humanity than avian flu and reality TV combined?  more... 

May 2007  --  This month is the 10-year anniversary of my confirmation in the Episcopal Church. I had confirmed my baptismal vows once before, in the Evangelical United Brethren Church, when I was about 12 years old. Then a few years later, I took it back.  more... 

April 2007  --  It’s April, and the dandelions are popping out everywhere, shamelessly yellow. If dandelions could write their own creation story, I wonder if the story would say that the first dandelion was made in the image of God.  more... 

March 2007  --  The Stations of the Cross didn’t play much part in my Protestant upbringing. I remember some hair-raising sermons on the crucifixion itself, but I don’t remember spending much time on the stages of the journey from the trial to the tomb, which is what the Stations are all about.  more... 

February 2007  --  The proposal to build a courtyard at my home parish of St. Paul’s called for sand-set pavers to be laid in the area between the church building and the parish hall, and for the pattern of a labyrinth to be inlaid in the paved floor. Diane, a parish artist, took charge of designing and making the labyrinth's rosette center.  more... 

January 2007  --  In the commercial world, the Christmas season has a long youth and a short old-age: born in mid-autumn, weaned the day after Thanksgiving, and dead by the close of the  New Year's Eve sales. In the church calendar, Christmas is the shortest season of the year.  more... 

December 2006 -- I’ve been a writer ever since I could read, and I’ve been a thief ever since I could write. In the first grade, I was publicly unmasked as a plagiarist during show and tell when I tried to pass off a story from Highlights magazine as my own.  more... 
 

Lectio + Haiku

June 2008 -- Psalm 131: 1-3  O LORD, I am not proud; I have no haughty looks. I do not occupy myself with great matters, or with things that are too hard for me.   more...
 

May 2008 -- From Psalms for Troubled Times: Prayers of Hope and Challenge by Barbara Gibson.  Psalm 3  “Help from Sophia”  O Wisdom, how many are my doubts! My cynical thoughts disturb me, saying “There is no hope for the world.”   more...
 

April 2008 -- Psalm 148:1-14  Praise the LORD!  Praise the LORD from the heavens;  praise him in the heights!   more...
 

March 2008 -- Psalm 116: 1-4; 6-8  I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.    more... 
 

February 2008 -- HURRY TO THE SOURCE OF LIFE by Rumi, the 13th Century Sufi mystic poet.  How could the soul not take flight / When from the glorious Presence / A soft call flows sweet as honey, comes right up to her / And whispers, “Rise up now, come away.”   more... 
 

January 2008 -- Isaiah 35:1-8 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing...  more... 
 

December 2007 -- James 5:7-8  Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains...  more... 
 

November 2007 -- Ecclesiastes 2:24-25, 3:1-8  There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil...  For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven...  more... 
 

October 2007 -- Psalm 121  I lift up my eyes to the hills -- from where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth...  more... 
 

September 2007 -- In this month's passage, Paul riffs on the interdependence of all people.  I Corinthians 12:13b–22, 24–26  We were all made to drink of one Spirit...  more... 
 

August 2007 -- Last month, Wisdom told about being present with God at the creation of the cosmos. For this month, I chose a variety of verses taken from the same book.  Selected Proverbs   Just as water reflects the face, so one human heart reflects another. ...  more... 
 

July 2007 -- Proverbs 8:1-4; 22-31  Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand...  more... 
 

June 2007 -- On this page last month, the Bride sang to her Bridegroom. For the month of weddings, it seems only fair to let the Bridegroom respond.  Song of Solomon 4: 1-7, 9  How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful... more... 
 

May 2007 -- For the lusty month of May, a portion of Solomon’s Song of Songs.  Song of Solomon 2: 8-17  The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains...  more... 
 

April 2007 -- A passage with the promise that after famine comes abundance.  Joel 2: 21 - 29  Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things!  more... 
 

March 2007 -- Lent is a season for coming to terms with who we really are. Wisdom of Solomon 7: 1-6  I also am mortal, like everyone else, a descendant of the first-formed child of earth;  more... 
 

February 2007 -- Winter turns toward spring, and the heart of the psalmist turns toward God.  Psalm 42 : 1- 7   As the deer longs for the water-brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God.   more... 
 

January 2007 -- For the last days of the Christmas season and the first weeks of Epiphany, a song of intimacy and awe.  Psalm 139 : 1- 8   O LORD, you have searched me and known me.   more... 
 

December 2006 -- For the month of Advent and Christmas, a song of remembrance and hope.  Psalm 126 : 1-6  When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.  more... 
 

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