Hermetic You, wisp of fine white smoke, kiss of the breeze on my lips, smooth as silk that slips through the tight crack in well-crafted plans. Oil flows through a stack of dry stones, the boundary I set, firmly, between what is mine and yours. “Come here,” you say, softly, beyond the best that thoughts... Continue Reading →

How can we talk about what we need to talk about? A parish reflection in tense days The Rev. Dr. Stuart Higginbotham        I remember when I heard someone describing Social Security as the “third rail of American politics,” and I actually took the time to research what that meant. I learned how subways are... Continue Reading →

The truth lit from behind We so quickly claim that our time this day, this moment, is full of more struggle than others, those who are now ghosts and memory, that somehow the strain has grown– Never before, they say– No one has ever– Unprecedented– The bow slides sharply across the string, and the note... Continue Reading →

Stuart Higginbotham Fifth Sunday after Easter, 2023 John 14:1-14 “In Jesus Name we pray” Something has shifted in the readings this morning, if you noticed. As Cynthia said in her sermon last week, at the beginning of the Book of Acts, coming on the heels of the Resurrection, the disciples and the growing community have... Continue Reading →

Facing Hard Truths and Gracious Opportunities: A Reflection on the Coronation of King Charles III Stuart Higginbotham In a couple weeks’ time, much of the world’s attention will focus on the coronation of King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, in Westminster Abbey, in London. Some in the parish have already said they are... Continue Reading →

Stuart Higginbotham The Third Sunday of Easter April 23, 2023 Seeing Reality I imagine that the story of the encounter on the Road to Emmaus is one that most church people would recognize, at least in its basic structure: two men, with some connection to the group of disciples, with enormous questions about what has... Continue Reading →

Center of gravity When we are walking on the path of life, our center of gravity cannot be in the heart of another. As we take our next step our balance cannot bow to the thoughts and fears, the tight strings of another’s story. Not that our souls do not touch, but they are fingertips... Continue Reading →

On wells and healing waters A sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent Stuart Higginbotham Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. My grandparents had a well in their backyard, and as a child, I would sneak over and take the old wooden cover off. I would lean over... Continue Reading →

Strike a match, and watch it burn I woke up last Thursday and my entire image of God  had changed, not all at once but completely. God, the word, is a piece of slick paper my soul cannot grip any longer. God had always been something–Someone– I prayed to, but now, somehow, God was something–somewhere,... Continue Reading →