As y’all probably know, some folks out there (perhaps you are one of them) have accused the Emergent/PostModern church of being chocked full-o-heretics. And with a name like Monkfish Abbey even non-Christian folks look at ‘cha kinda funny. Why, just last week an Jew-ish friend said to me ; “Oh right, you have your own cult.” My immediate indignant reply? “It’s not a cult!” Followed quickly by the little voice in my head which said, “I bet all the cult leaders say that. I bet Jim Jones said that!” Then my inner voice laughed. I discussed this with our local theologian, Lindell Alderman and he says that technically, Monkfish Abbey is more like a sect than … {read more…}

You know, I was going to write this great post about being a priest and a prophet in the post-modern reformation, complete with quotes from Peterson, scripture references from Jeremiah, and some back up from the lessons of history. But you know what? I don’t want to spend the next two days debating my point.

Instead, I think I’ll just celebrate actual stuff that happened in kingdom today…at least in the tiny part I live in. ‘Cuz all that theory, sure, it’s important, but it’s where the rubber meets the road that it really matters. So here’s what happened today in the kingdom that lies on the edge of Fremont and Wallingford…

…a friend stood in her own power and made … {read more…}

Bob Carlton over at The Corner has gathered up the usual bang up collection of Top Five posts for 2005 from various bloggers. Do go and give it a gander. Top Five at Bob’s

So, anyway…moving on from yesterday’s blog post…

Monkfish Abbey took up the task of making prayer flags this year as a form of intercession. We experimented with prayer flags because most of our tribe are recovering evangelicals and/or artists and your basic “Dear God, please help such-and-thus” kind of prayer isn’t really functioning for them anymore. But we do want a transformative faith, we want to be about something much larger than ourselves. So we needed to find a way to connect with the wider world around us, and to join our siblings in sorrow and hope, loss and recovery, and to talk to God about all that stuff. Prayer flags, in Seattle, are a fairly common site — … {read more…}

Recently I watched Kingdom of Heaven. There were three things that struck me about the film. The first was that prior to Christianity’s occupation of Jerusalem, the city was relatively open. Though Muslim controlled, Jews and Christians alike were allowed to come and worship. It was only after the crusades that the city became closed to one faith or the other. Second, I was struck by the way each side of the Muslim-Christian conflict would claim that God had issued their marching orders. This wasn’t news to me – we’ve obviously been doing throughout humankind’s long history. But there was something about seeing the various generals crying out “God wills it!” or “Allah wills it!” that brought the reality home … {read more…}

Jen R. sent me this song a few weeks ago. Doesn’t it remind you of life at our house on Densmore Street?

___________________________

ARTIST: Dar Williams
TITLE: The Christians and the Pagans

Amber called her uncle, said “We’re up here for the holiday
Jane and I were having Solstice, now we need a place to stay”
And her Christ-loving uncle watched his wife hang Mary on a tree
He watched his son hang candy canes all made with red dye number three
He told his niece, “It’s Christmas eve, I know our life is not your style”
She said, “Christmas is like Solstice, and we miss you and it’s been awhile”

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table
Finding faith and common ground the best that … {read more…}

So last weekend I went to a lecture on the history of Christmas as a national American holiday. The speaker was a professor of comparative religion at the University of Washington, and it was very interesting and offered some new-to-me information. The lecture was a at a church, presented to a room full of mainline liberals mostly in their 40’s – 60’s. The general response was one typical of most Christians I know which is “Yes! Isn’t it awful how “they” have hijacked Christmas!”

I’m sick of that particular outrage.

According to the professor, Christmas has basically equaled time with family + commercialism since the 1800’s. The 1800’s people! How long are we going to complain about it being hijacked?! Isn’t … {read more…}

We went to church this weekend – twice, actually. For most pastors this is not unusual. But for any of you who have been reading along with me for awhile, you know I don’t fall under the category of “most pastors.”

Friday night we went over to the Seattle Vineyard, a place that was my church home for 15 years, the place which first released me into pastoral ministry. One of our monk-friends, Mike LaJoie, was having a CD release party there and we headed over to celebrate. Eden was immediately in seventh heaven. In addition to bright lights and dancing, there were snacks and dozens of grown up playmates to get reconnected to. She flitted about like … {read more…}

What you don’t know about me would fill a book.

I’m feeling sad this morning. Sometimes I wonder if I’m mentally ill, because yesterday I was high as a kite! I’d suspect bipolar disorder only my cycles are way too short.

Anyway I’m feeling sad this morning and it has something to do with a couple of emails I’ve received this week. I can’t quite shake it, and I can’t quite suss it all out in my head, so there’s nothing to do but to write it out.

So I got these two emails this week, one from a pastor at a local church who I do not know, and one from a distant acquaintance. In both emails these men expressed … {read more…}

Monkfish Abbey is on the FRONT PAGE of the Seattle Post Intelligencer today. Check it!

The best part about doing this article was meeting the writer, Athima. She was so great to talk to. She’s very curious and has a keen sense of how things interconnect in her community. I really enjoyed spending time with her, learning about how she process a story. Thanks Athima!

Thanks too to Mike Urban, PI Photographer. The guy works the night shift and is used to spending his nights shooting basketball stars. I’m sure our group was considerably less thrilling. It was kind of him to spend so much time shooting our little world.

The reaction of various people this morning has been fun. … {read more…}