Category: Church
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On the (Protestant) Recovery of the Rite of Confession
I grew up as a Dutch Reformed protestant, and as such, never participated in an ecclesiastical rite of confession. My parents were also raised Dutch Reformed protestants, and so they didn’t either. And so on back generations upon generations. However, I wonder if we are missing something central in dropping the tradition of confession, not…
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A Close Encounter of the Divine Kind
I remember the first time I attended an Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Walking in the door was almost overwhelming. The lingering scent of incense was unmistakable, and unlike any olfactory experience I’ve ever had at church. And it was equally visually stunning, being surrounded with iconongraphy: saints, cherubim, biblical scenes, and especially Christ and the Theotokos.…
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On Christian Healing and Curing and Christian Rites
This Sunday, one of my churches will be having a healing service as part of our Sunday liturgy. This has become our practice for the third Sunday of the month, and it has become a meaningful practice. Growing up, “healing services” were things that charismatics did when they pushed people over and other strange things…
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Leaning into Liminality
On 8 May 2023 I completed my term as President of the Synod of Albany, and as part of that, I presented the annual State of Religion report. While such a thing generally doesn’t sound that interesting, the response from it has been positive, so I thought I would share it. Grace to you and…
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On the Weekly Celebration of the Eucharist
Proclamation of the Gospel through preaching is incomplete without the celebration of the Holy Supper. It is like a tune that doesn’t resolve. It feels unfinished, incomplete. When I was growing up, we celebrated the Holy Supper (Lord’s Supper, Communion, Eucharist) once a quarter. That was the minimum required in the church order and I…
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To Be Leaven For the Future
He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ Matthew 13:33, NRSV The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of new monasticism which has in common with the old only the…
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My Ecumenical Manifesto and a Plea to the Reformed Church in America
‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory…
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Echoes of 1857
In 1857, the Reformed Church found itself fracturing when a faction saw themselves as purer than everyone else. Their separation had nothing to do with their ability to follow their consciences. They were not pushed out, they were not forced to function against their beliefs, and no one was forcing their beliefs or practices into…
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Rethinking the Artificial Binary
In 1857, my church communion, the Reformed Church in America, experienced a secession of several churches because those churches and ministers thought that the things that divided them were greater than those which held them together. The fact of the matter, however, is that the things which divided were far smaller than those which united,…
Matthew van Maastricht 