Welcome to St. Alban’s Church! Every Sunday, and most days in between, people gather in this place to worship, to learn, to grow, to share the joys and struggles of our lives, and to seek God’s grace in the midst of our lives. We do not come because we have it all figured out, but because we are seeking light on the way. We come as we are and welcome one another.
Pilate and Me
So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” Matthew 27:24 Since...
What to Leave In, What to Leave Out
If you are following the biblical readings assigned for Holy Week you'll be reading a lot of John. On Good Friday we'll hear the passion narrative from John's Gospel and parishioners will see the following rubric, printed in italics below the heading for the reading, in their service...
Living in the Promise
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We’re a few days from Palm Sunday and the solemnity of Holy Week. Our worship this past Sunday, however, seemed to be preparing us for Easter with examples of God’s power and promise to bring life to the lifeless. The prophet Ezekiel recounts the story of the valley of the dry...
Breaking Silence, Holding Still and Enlarging our World
The Lenten book group that I joined has been reading Christ on Trial: How the Gospel Unsettles our Judgment, by Rowan Williams. It's a spectacular little book and in comparison with much of Williams' writing it's eminently readable! We'll finish the book over the next two weeks and...
Not Voyaging Alone
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I thought I’d have more to say about forgiveness by now. I’m most of the way through the book I chose from among this year’s Lenten reading groups – Miroslav Volf’s Free of Charge. But in contemplating God’s approach to our sin this morning, I find myself less...
Be Still and Know
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“Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.” Rumi, Persian mystic and poet As the Wednesday Daily Cup blogger...
Now Quit Your Care
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It’s a bit bouncy for Lent, isn’t it? Our sequence hymn, that is – the one between the second reading and the Gospel in our later Sunday services. We’ve been working our way through Hymn 145 one verse at a time these first five weeks of Lent. Both the tune and the words...
Suffering
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Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that...
Bad News, Good News
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Monday evening, my husband and I attended a presentation by the leadership of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which we have supported for a long time. SPLC was formed in the 1970s to defend victims of racial bias. It now identifies hate groups nationwide and takes aggressive legal action to...
Fresh From The Word
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After engaging with scripture in a pretty significant way for a number of years now I'm always amazed that any text, any pericope (a word we preachers use to refer to a passage from the bible) or any biblical book is virtually an inexhaustible source of inspiration, challenge and wonder...