by Bill Haley | Aug 31, 2020 | Contemplative Life
This was a uniquely meaningful spiritual practice to undertake, and if you ever feel the desire to take a stab at your own spiritual autobiography, I collected some thoughts on different guidelines and postures that might help you get started. You can find...
by Bill Haley | Aug 27, 2020 | Coracle News
Friends, it’s already been an intense year– severe storms of a pandemic and America’s racial reckoning have kicked up and are not done yet. And here comes our election season, and this storm will be very intense for the next couple of months while the other two keep...
by Bill Haley | Aug 19, 2020 | Contemplative Life
Recently, in a sermon at The Falls Church Anglican, I finally got the chance to spend some time unpacking quite a few years of thoughts about praying what we’re actually feeling versus what we think we should be feeling. This is an intense time in our country and in...
by Bill Haley | Aug 11, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Spiritual Direction
Maybe it’s a little strong, but it’s probably just about right to say that my spiritual director has saved my life at least twice in the past 15 years. And God has met me, profoundly, a thousand more times through his ministry. Father James, a Trappist monk living...
by Bill Haley | Jun 23, 2020 | Contemplative Life
These are remarkably intense days in an unprecedented year for America. We’ve seen before some of the things we’re living in now, but never all at the same time like this. One writer draws out “a fascinating breakdown of 2020 and its historical parallels (so far):...
by Bill Haley | Jun 18, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy
What is it to lament? You make a lament when the pain you feel can’t be carried by mere words. You make a lament when you’re so sad about something that you’d rather cry than speak. You make a lament when you’re grieved so deeply that you want to throw-up. You make a...
by Bill Haley | Jun 12, 2020 | Church Unity, Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy, Peacemaking
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I’m writing to you in the wake of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd and in the context of ongoing protests across the United States and the world calling for racial justice. I’m a Christian, and also...
by Bill Haley | Jun 4, 2020 | Justice and Mercy
We gathered to seek God’s will. We gathered to discern. We were black and white Christians, about 15 of us, from Orlando, D.C., Richmond, Minneapolis, and Atlanta, from churches, non-profits, foundations, and the government. We met at a small farm in Virginia’s...
by Bill Haley | Jun 2, 2020 | Justice and Mercy
I’m writing to invite you to a virtually-offered “Lament for Racial Injustice” from the Corhaven Graveyard on Juneteenth (June 19), considered the Independence Day for African Americans since 1865. We will have brief reflections on the current state of race...
by Bill Haley | May 21, 2020 | Church Unity, Contemplative Life, Creation
This was originally delivered as a sermon at Washington Community Fellowship in the fall of 2010. In the season of autumn, we are often treated with stunning, breath-taking days of beauty. I cannot help but be reminded of the poem “God’s...
by Bill Haley | May 15, 2020 | Contemplative Life
Video Transcript Below: St. Paul offers this testimony. He bears this witness: “I have learned in whatever situation to be content. I know how to be brought low and how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and...
by Bill Haley | Apr 23, 2020 | Contemplative Life
The opportunity for a father and son to go fly fishing for a trout is always a good thing, but in this case, it was for so much more. My own dad had died not even five days before, in the season of COVID-19. While his death was not caused by this particular...
by Bill Haley | Apr 18, 2020 | Vocation
My dad, Charles William Haley, went home to glory (and to God and to Mom) on April 15. It was not COVID-19 related, and he passed peacefully and painlessly, with my brother and sister able to be with him for his final breath. On the night my dad died, my family...
by Bill Haley | Apr 16, 2020 | Contemplative Life
On April 16th, 2020, I had the opportunity to share 4 pillars of self-care for Christian leaders in a crisis with members of the Accord Network, an organization dedicated to unifying God’s people to serve the world’s poor with excellence. Please feel free...
by Bill Haley | Apr 9, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
In this “Simple Soundings,” Bill offers a brief Maundy Thursday reflection on how we might harness our anxieties to drive us to prayer and a deeper relationship with God.Explore Other “Simple Soundings”...
by Bill Haley | Apr 6, 2020 | Coracle News
Peace be with you, friends. One of my dear mentors, Gordon Cosby, would say, “In times of crisis, go deeper…” We are in a crisis, and I’m ready to go deeper and help you go deeper too. Last week I wrote to our staff and board, “I’m feeling energized by the...
by Bill Haley | Apr 1, 2020 | Contemplative Life
In this, our first “Simple Soundings” devotional of the 2020 pandemic, Bill Haley offers a stirring call to embrace God’s invitation to us in the midst of the difficulties of adjusting to pandemic life, specifically, living “sheltered in...
by Bill Haley | Mar 18, 2020 | Church Unity, Contemplative Life
This most recent coronavirus is not the first humankind has had to contend with, and it won’t be the last. This pandemic serves as a not-so-subtle reminder that indeed all things are fallen and frail including our bodies, our planet, and our systems and structures. ...
by Bill Haley | Mar 6, 2020 | Contemplative Life, Spiritual Direction
It’s been almost two weeks since the news broke about the founder of L’Arche, Jean Vanier, and it hit many of us very hard, myself very much included. Sadly It’s become a bit ordinary for revelations to come out about the deep misdoings of Christian leaders, but...
by Bill Haley | Feb 14, 2020 | Contemplative Life
It feels a crazy time. For me at the moment, it’s all too easy to be often distracted, perhaps even a bit disoriented. There are always the challenges of work and family, and yet right now there is the particularly disappointing and even depressing state of our...
