Looking closely through things that scare us: Reflecting on Church Life in Stressful Days Stuart Higginbotham I caught myself again this past Sunday walking by the table in the narthex and looking at the attendance sheets for the two services we have. I have done this most Sundays for a while now. I would love... Continue Reading →

Stuart Higginbotham October 24, 2021 Image of "Christ Healing the Blind" “What do you want me to do for you?” I catch myself more often now, I think--I hope. I catch myself when the anger and fatigue and, honestly, disillusionment that seems to have soaked the atmosphere begins to rest heavily on me. I bring... Continue Reading →

Being a “friend of God” Stuart Higginbotham There is a reproduction of this icon, traditionally known to be St. Menas, with Christ, in the Taize' Community In this season of my life, I have found how important it is to start each day with meditation, with this core practice that grounds my day. It is... Continue Reading →

The Personal and the Common Good Stuart Higginbotham August 19, 2021 Rublev's icon of the Three Visitors with Abraham is well known Friends, This transformation will continue to take as long as it will take.  We continue to experience the reality of living within a truly watershed moment as a society.  The painful struggle we... Continue Reading →

A Byzantine icon of Holy Sophia, Holy Wisdom August 15, 2021 Lay aside immaturity and live At this point, it feels like the sermons write themselves. Or at least that our circumstances feel so intense and peculiar that they demand a spiritual response that is deep enough to meet them.  Challenging times call for intentional... Continue Reading →

August 12, 2021 Last night, I had a powerful dream.  In the dream, I had been sent to Eastern Turkey to visit an archeological site.  When I arrived, I was told that Mary Magdalene’s body had been discovered deep within a cave.  A group of people had worked to construct a shrine around the site,... Continue Reading →

This photo comes from a cookbook my grandmother gave Lisa and me as a wedding present...from a family potluck. The Rev. Dr. Stuart Higginbotham Proper 12, Year B July 25, 2021 The Magic of Potlucks I couldn’t read today’s texts without being filled with childhood memories of the fantastic potluck Sunday lunches we had at... Continue Reading →

Church in the Bardo Stuart Higginbotham If you have read George Saunders fantastic book Lincoln in the Bardo, you will have been introduced to the phenomenally imaginative description of Abraham Lincoln’s life after the death of his son Willie.  Lincoln the father struggled to understand what could possibly come next in his life; indeed, he... Continue Reading →

Icon by Robert Lentz The Rev. Dr. Stuart Higginbotham 7th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 10 July 11, 2021 Ephesians 1:3-14 To gather up all things in him Over 1,600 years ago, an Ethiopian robber and slave owner named Moses had a conversion experience and became a hermit monk. He lived in the Western Egyptian desert... Continue Reading →

Church in the Wild: Healing for soul, body, community, and the earth Stuart Higginbotham As I look to step into this two-month time of rest, reading, reflection, and re-grounding, I am keenly aware that I feel drawn more and more to explore the richness of what it means to pray with and through creation--not in... Continue Reading →