Last Sunday we hosted a communal online experience meant to offer each of us some spiritual help in our individual journeys of leaving behind what constricts us and embracing promise for the future. Our sense is, as we turn the page on 2020, this past year has been full of chances for constricting lies, traumas, thoughts, beliefs, or vows to make their way into us and start to take up residence.
Read MoreFull recording of our virtual kid-friendly take on the traditional Anglican Christmas Carols Service — carols, readings, a brief reflection, and prayer.
(Art by Janet McKenzie)
Read MoreFor many of the problems we are personally navigating, there are no simple solutions. Because many problems don't come down to isolated issues, they come down to the systems of our society or religion or government (or family unit even) themselves. Special guest Cara Carothers, an advocate for educational equity, joins us to talk about how we can hope and fight even so.
Read MoreThe winter ahead feels certain to be long for lots of reasons: fatigue, disconnection, loneliness, loss. And the reactions we may have to all this are those often associated with grief: anger, denial, bargaining, and feelings of depression or defeat. Special guest Erica Coates, professional counselor and friend of BLC, offers some spiritual/mental health principles that can help us grow hope within us so we can grieve our losses well, rather than pass on our pain to the next person.
Read MoreFor some of us, America's political divide hits very close to home. BLC's Christina Culver and Kyle Hanawalt discuss how faith can offer a way to feel hope about the future even if we never experience someone changing their mind. When is it right to say something, and when is it right to not? What are healthy boundaries to protect that hope?
Read MoreOptimism is great! It's what we feel when external signs point toward a better future. But hope is internal (spiritual even); it's not dependent on external good news. Hope is more resilient. Many Advent reflections point to two figures from the Bible who had profound experiences of hope being sparked inside them: Simeon and Anna. How might they encourage us this year?
Read MoreBLC stakeholder Elizabeth reflects on finding comfort from God in the midst of grief. Part of our value on emotionally healthy spirituality is trying to provide meaningful experiences of ceremony or ritual for people who otherwise wouldn’t have that, so once a year we set aside a Sunday to remember and grieve loved ones lost by people in our community. Jesus, the God acquainted with grief, is an incredible help in this.
Read MoreWe are not bad or faulty for needing to brush our teeth everyday; it's just good hygiene. Likewise, we are not bad or faulty for having to lay down the same burdens continually, for having to pray regularly for the same resolve again and again, for needing the same thing we did yesterday; that's just good spiritual hygiene.
Read MoreWhat is caring for our spiritual health as a community that feels a mix of relief (that Trump did not win), moved (to have our first ever woman of color vice president), AND hurt or disappointed (that the message delivered by the election results was not as resolute as hoped)?
Read MoreIt’s no surprise that white American Christianity has chosen Donald Trump as its leader when for decades its prevailing use for Jesus on the Cross has been “motivation by fear of punishment from a strongman, violent God”. What an unhealthy, worthless picture of God! BLC stakeholder Abby Dye helps us discover Jesus on the Cross as a totally different (and inspiring) picture of God that models a totally different kind of leadership: self-sacrificial love.
Art: Ethiopian painting of the Crucifixion, ca. 2000
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