I belong to a tiny, dying mainline church. It is dying even as its members are. Just the other day one of us passed— luckily not from the virus, but simply from old age. The advent of corona may postpone or hasten our closure, but it will not change the fact of it. I am […]

Who’s to blame for the spread of the coronavirus? 5-G? Animals? Tourists? China? How about God? For centuries, natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and plagues were often understood to be of divine origin. Figuring out reasons why a basically good God would afflict basically good people is called theodicy. Although formally the domain of […]

Each day I attempt to understand more deeply the spiritual challenges found in the present isolation we are experiencing because of the Coronavirus pandemic. The sense of community integral to our human and religious experience is now often circumscribed physically by our living space and the neighborhoods in which we reside. Some of us are […]

  The last thing the world needs right now is another article on COVID-19, or perhaps this is exactly what we need? The United States watched from afar as numbers climbed in China, and then when our own case numbers began climbing, we were at a loss with what to do. States responded in an […]

In the midst of Coronavirus, we are each being asked to adjust to the new realities of life to maintain communal safety. In this time of isolation, with its numerous challenges, what keeps us grounded? Further, what can we learn about how to be better world citizens? As a college student, the context we find […]

On this past March 23rd, Scott Berinato interviewed the foremost expert on grief, David Kessler, in an article titled: That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief. Kessler’s comments hit a public nerve at the unsettling confluence of a simultaneous lack of feeling safe today and lack of a sense of hope for tomorrow. Except for specific […]

The opportunities to face our mortality are seemingly infinite. In an age when human-caused climate change brings into question the survival of humans and many other beings, we are challenged to consider our collective as well as our individual finitude. In a year when a new virus is infecting thousands and we can’t help but […]

The only reason that it’s scary getting old Is people treat you like you’re too big to hold And you still feel just like a kid… That is why I reach for you so much I think I’m drowning, until we touch Life is an ocean we fall in When you hold me I can […]

Love is not cancelled. We each have a way of saying this in a time of Covidian-19 disruption. Today Bishop Shelley Bryan Wee of the ELCA Northwest Washington Synod reflects on the memory of a song of love in the Christian tradition. Love is not cancelled. In 2011 I was diagnosed with cancer (I am […]

The recent outbreak of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has a powerful impact on the flow of life around the world. From a healthcare standpoint, it is most serious for those with compromised immune systems. For collective and individual ways of life, the disruption will echo years to come. People will need to change the way […]