The oddest thing happened a few weeks ago: my church fell down. A security camera on a nearby building caught the collapse, and I watched it over and over again – the steeple just… falling. (You can see that clip in the video above.) It was so surreal. It was also a bit of a…
Hi, friends! The following is a guest post in a series I kicked off a few weeks ago about what it means to be the church. Please welcome Julia Robertson to Simple Felicity! Grace and peace,Happy In response to COVID-19, my church in rural Pennsylvania forged ahead into the virtual world. We live-stream a Sunday…
Naively, I once wrote an article exploring what it means to “be the church.” A friend shared the link. Someone made derogatory comments. Other friends leapt to my defense. And suddenly there I was, in the middle of a good new-fashioned social media brawl, wondering what in the world had just happened. I’d cited some…
There is a moment in the services of liturgical churches that is sometimes called “passing the peace.” Introverts the world over often dread this moment (particularly when it derails into fifteen very long minutes of idle chit-chat) – but done right, this moment can actually have a profound impact. Every Sunday when this moment arrives,…
I thought about giving something up for Lent this year, but I found I couldn’t do it. Putting my Christmas tree away was difficult enough. Lent got here before I’d gotten used to the darkness again, and I just wasn’t ready to embrace the season in the same ways I have in the past. I’m…
