In last week’s installment of “The Water and Sanitation Mystery” my colleague discovered that, to his alarm, the project had not gone as planned. Household latrines had not been built and the one public latrine that had been built was not in use. Most concerning, however, the community was not capturing and protecting its clean waterContinue reading “The Water and Sanitation Mystery (Part Two)”
Category Archives: Spirituality
The Kumari’s Blessing (Part Two)
Author’s note: The second part of this story reminds us that, even after the most terrible of disasters, we can find hope and healing. I hold onto this as we count the losses of the most recent series of tragedies we are enduring. The morning after we received the Kumari’s blessing, my daughter and IContinue reading “The Kumari’s Blessing (Part Two)”
The Kumari’s Blessing (Part One)
Just short of a year after the April 25, 2015 earthquake that struck Nepal, my daughter and I landed in Kathmandu. We were there to visit the recovery programs that Episcopal Relief & Development was supporting. Before leaving Kathmandu to tour the epicenter of the destruction and our work, my daughter and I took anContinue reading “The Kumari’s Blessing (Part One)”
Three Everyday Thin Places
You don’t have to travel thousands of miles to find a thin place. In fact, it’s important to find them in your everyday life. But, you have to be looking for them. Here are three thin places that I try to visit on a regular basis.
Finding God at Elmina Castle
Each time I approach Elmina Castle on the Cape Coast of Ghana, I am struck by the beauty of its setting. The Castle sits on a bluff looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. Swaying palms. Breaking waves. Shimmering white sand on an endless beach. Blazing saffron sunsets. However, the beauty is counterfeit. Evil permeates Elmina.
The Old City of Jerusalem
The Old City in Jerusalem is chockablock with thin places. Countless worship and pilgrimage sites for the three Abrahamic faiths are packed within one square kilometer. I find it all overwhelming. For the most part I have not experienced the transcendent power of being in a thin place when I am in the OldContinue reading “The Old City of Jerusalem”
On the lookout for thin places
Have you ever had the sensation that the barrier between the temporal and the eternal has become porous or indeed disappeared entirely? Then you’ve found a “thin place.” One of my goals in this blog is to share my experiences of those places with you so that you can be on the lookout as well.
Hearing God’s Voice on Middle Path
Middle Path runs right through the center of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. The Middle Path, or as Anglicans and Episcopalians call it, the via media, is the path between Roman Catholicism and Puritanism. It is by following the via media that one comes closest to finding the truth. But, can you also find GodContinue reading “Hearing God’s Voice on Middle Path”
Rob's Reflections 