Laura Giffin

March 25, 2021 7 Mass Shootings in 7 Days That was an attention-grabbing headline that caught me off-guard, unprepared for the magnitude of all that it represents.  Lives so cruelly and so senselessly cut short.  Pain and suffering has been transferred from one person onto many, many others, pain and suffering that will go on for many lifetimes.  When you think about all the potential that is lost, the very course of our human history is altered each and every time human life is taken, lives lost, for I really do believe that we are all connected, and what happens to any one of us affects every one of us. It does point to a much larger issue, the epidemic of gun violence that has seized our nation at a critical juncture, when people seem more troubled and divided than ever before, particularly in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,…

March 18, 2021 And now, please turn to page 447 in your Book of Common Prayer. There, you will find one of the least-trod sacramental rites of the Anglican tradition, one that for unspoken reason, holds intimidating sway over us all, The Reconciliation of a Penitent, more commonly called “confession.”  Somewhere along the way, the more ritualized act of “confession” got left behind on the cutting room floor, when we made a deliberate split from Rome.  Oh, we confess, weekly, as a community; some of us even daily, in the offices.  But the act of telling our sin, our separation, to another living soul, is somehow so intimidating, so scary, so frightening. There is a tension that exists between confession and gratitude, the relief that comes through reunion, the rejoinder of souls that sin has torn apart.  It is in that tension that God sits, waiting patiently for us, like…

March 11, 2021 lex orandi lex credendi (Praying Shapes Believing) On Thursday, Fr. Stephen Waller and I had the pleasure of being invited as conversation partners into Theologian-in-Residence Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle’s master class entitled “Eschatology and Ministry in Uncertain Times.”  Eschatology, the parts of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul, and of humankind, are not typically front-and-center of daily theological life for most clergy or flock.  Images of a torn, broken world swallowed up in apocalyptic fires of judgment come to mind, not the subject of usual polite Episcopal conversation. Episcopal images of eschatology and the eschaton, the end of the world as we know it, and the ushering in of God’s reign, are anchored in the sure and sound hope of the resurrected life of Jesus Christ, the pivotal fulfillment of the “God among us” act.   The hope that we strain toward…

March 4, 2021 Lord, who through-out these forty days for us didst fast and pray, Teach us with thee to mourn our sins, and close by thee to stay. –    Claudia Frances Hernaman (1838 – 1898) Why, O God, why, do we need to do this Lenten journey, a deep-dive inward, into the psyche of sin, separation from God (and each other) this year, of all years?  It would seem that we have spent quite enough time in isolation, apart from our friends and family, our loved ones.  How long it has been since we freely and fearlessly embraced, inhaling and exhaling uninhibited Holy Spirit presence, the breath of life. Did we take Holy Spirit for granted?  Definitely.  Will we again?  Possibly.  Maybe.  Probably? Why is that, fellow Lenten sojourners?  Why must we go into the desert, for 40 days and 40 nights, to realize again, that we need each…