Journal

Author: Bill Haley

Deep Inspiration from a Life Cut Short

Recently while in China, I had the opportunity to reconnect with Chris Hickey, a good man who I’d gotten to know while at St. Brendan’s.  He shared with me a hard story of the death of one of his good friends, Brad Ipema, who died too young. Chris forwarded on to me...

The Smallest Things Matter the Most

Yesterday, I bumped across a couple of brief writings from some great souls that were essentially saying the same thing.   Basically, don’t worry too much about the big picture, but rather love the people who are actually around you with great love, and do the things...

Resources for Ash Wednesday and Lent

Every year I look forward to the liturgical season of Lent for the sober opportunity it provides to take stock of my relationship with God, and take on or put off a few things that are hindering my intimate with God.   It feels for the soul like the season it falls...
A Good Man, a Good Life, a Good Death

A Good Man, a Good Life, a Good Death

On December 31, 2013, Bill Scherer, father to Tara and father-in-law to me, entered the larger Life.  He was a founding board member of Coracle, and instrumental in enabling Corhaven to come into reality, among so many other things.  Below is the homily that I...

Blossomed and Fed

A Homily in Memoriam for Peggy Buresh, December 15, 2013 My enduring memories of Peggy Buresh will not be her body in the last year of her life on this earth the way that this earth is now.  They will be of all her years of life leading into this past year, and there...

Making Next Year Happen This Year

Dear friends and fellow-pilgrims, I’m genuinely excited to ask for your help to enable Coracle to grow in the coming year, but you’ll have to wait til the bottom of this letter for the details about that. There is just so much really good stuff to share first! After...
God Loves You… No, Really!

God Loves You… No, Really!

Recently, I had another all too familiar conversation with a man preparing for a retreat at Corhaven. He said, “Even though I’ve been a Christian for many years and heard a hundred sermons on this, I have a hard time accepting God’s love for me. If I had to climb 10...

A Few Last Thoughts From 39,000 Feet

On the flight home now, still in and over this amazing part of God’s good earth where so many of the people of this earth live.  While I’m on my way back, Bill Deiss will head on to Kuching, Malaysia for several days with Archbishop Bolly to see some of the...
The Church of the Province of Southeast Asia

The Church of the Province of Southeast Asia

Bill and I had long meetings today in Singapore at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. We had a very profitable time with the Archbishop of the Province of Southeast Asia (CPSEA), Bolly Lapok from Kuching, Malaysia, Keith X who convenes the Economic Empowerment Task Force for the...

Singapore in One Photo

The 55-story high Marina Bay Hotel and Park, with a giant ‘boat’ on top connecting the three towers, complete with pool, casino, restaurants, spa, and more.  And why this photo sums up Singapore is that when Bill Deiss left Singapore in 1984, there was no...

An Inspiring Story and Recommended Book

“They tried to put me in solitary confinement but that is actually impossible as God is everywhere.” James Mawdsley   What would you go to jail for in Burma?  Burma itself, in the case of James Mawdsley. Mawdsley is a Brit who, in the late 1990s, got...

A Growing Church in Burma

After hearing virtually every Anglican Burmese talk about the Archbishop’s vision for the Province of the Church of Myanmar (CPM), “Thy Will Be Done,”  we were excited to hear it from Archbishop Stephen Than Myint Oo himself.  He did not disappoint, and we were...

Into the Tragic Underknown

“For years, Burma’s plight was one of the most under-reported tragedies in the second half the twentieth century.” Benedict Rogers, Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads I’ve been aware of just how little I know about Burma as the days before entering near.  The world is...

With Half of the World

We arrived after a full day’s journey from Washington to Singapore, 28 hours from door to door via Tokyo, Japan.  Flying over Southeast Asia, the little flight map on the plane showed us the cities that lay sleeping below…Taipei, Taiwan; Manila and the cyclone...
Blogging Burma and Southeast Asia

Blogging Burma and Southeast Asia

Dear friends and fellow-pilgrims…In a week’s time, I’ll be traveling to Burma and Singapore, and writing about it on our blog, and I hope you’ll come along for the journey!  Following the pattern of mission reports from Congo and South Sudan, and Israel and...
A Theology of Vocation and Spiritual Formation

A Theology of Vocation and Spiritual Formation

The following is the edited transcription of a talk given to participants of The Washington Institute’s “Come and See” Vocation Conference July 16-17, 2013 in Washington, DC. Jesus came into the deep mess—the mess of the human experience.  Of course,...