I’m leaving for Israel-Palestine tomorrow night. And while I’ve been packing, I’ve been looking over some old notes from my last trip to Israel in 2003. Pastor Brian Morganstern wrote this poem for me, Fellow pilgrim and poet, you are here! Walk in its ways, feel the texture of its walls, feel the weight of […]

  Readings for the Second Sunday after Pentecost (Year B) Ezekiel 17:22-24 Psalm 92:1-4, 11-14 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17 Mark 4:26-34 This sermon was preached at Church of Our Saviour Episcopal Parish in San Gabriel CA on Sunday June 14, 2009. This year, I had the privilege of celebrating Palm Sunday at a little […]

One of the highlights of our voyage for me was visiting the grand Gothic cathedral: Notre Dame de Paris. Apart from being magnificent and enormous, I found the cathedral to be daunting, frightening and bizarre. The flying buttresses span out like giant spider legs, the circular stained-glass windows glare like a monstrous Cyclops, and the […]

  Nine months before Christmas Day, the Church celebrates the Annunciation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Lady Day (as the Church of England likes to call it) or the AOLJC to the BVM (as I like to abbreviate it). This day commemorates the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that […]

            When Westerners hear of Sufis, they often think of the whirling dervishes (maybe from Madonna’s music video) or the elated poetry of the popular Persian Rumi, or severe acts of self-mortification. Although the twirling and self-mutilation may initially sound repulsive or ludicrous, the questions beg to be asked: Are the motivations behind such Sufi […]