by Coracle | Mar 25, 2016 | Contemplative Life
Many of us know this traditional African-American spiritual, passed down for many generations since the 19th century. First printed in 1899, it was the first spiritual to be published in a major American hymnal (1940 in the Episcopal Church hymnal). We invite you to...
by Coracle | Mar 7, 2016 | Contemplative Life
The word “contemplative” can seem incongruous in our lightning-fast world, sounding painstakingly slow, or even archaic. For many, life is about results, and the results that count are tangible, quantifiable ones. Prayer doesn’t always produce those,...
by Bill Haley | Feb 27, 2016 | Contemplative Life
I was in my very early 20s when using A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants that I stumbled across this prayer from a man unknown to me then–Henri Nouwen. What he wrote pierced my heart, and set me off to find more of what he had written, and there was...
by Coracle | Feb 24, 2016 | Contemplative Life, Coracle News, Spiritual Direction
Hello friends! We’re going to start providing more specialized communication about our area offerings, hoping that many of you will take advantage of them and keep them on your radar. We want to highlight a few of the things we currently offer in Northern...
by Bill Haley | Feb 23, 2016 | Contemplative Life, Vocation
If William Wilberforce was the man who effected the most social change in the first half of 18th century Britain, Anthony Ashley-Cooper was one who did it in the second half. Better know as Lord Shaftesbury, he was a Brit in the mid-late 1800’s who took advantage of...
by Bill Haley | Feb 20, 2016 | Contemplative Life
Bill’s sermon from February 14, 2016 given at The Falls Church Anglican: Coracle · The Kingdom in Word and Deed
by Coracle | Feb 17, 2016 | Contemplative Life
Our friend Jay Jakub found this awhile back and was kind enough to pass it on. How encouraging! How true! My Child, You may not know me, but I know everything about you. Psalm 139:1 I know when you sit down and when you rise up. Psalm 139:2 I am familiar with all your...
by Coracle | Feb 11, 2016 | Contemplative Life
There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down,...
by Coracle | Feb 10, 2016 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
This is one of my all-time favorite poems and prayers, from a man well-acquainted with God, and with sin. Regarding sin, who cannot agree with his refrain, “I have more”. Yet it ends in hope and freedom from fear, which is precisely the destination of journey of Lent...
by Abigail Whitehouse | Feb 8, 2016 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
Lent is about making space for the resurrection by getting rid of that which impedes our relationship with Christ. At its most fundamental, this is sin –and therefore the Lenten invitation is, first and foremost, to repentance – to turn from our idolatry...
by Coracle | Feb 4, 2016 | Contemplative Life
Soren Johnson, one of Coracle’s very own board members, had his writings highlighted in a post on LivingChurch.org’s blog Covenant. As described by Caleb Congrove in this article, Soren Johnson’s writings are “mostly reflections on fatherhood...
by Bill Haley | Jan 29, 2016 | Contemplative Life
Mother Teresa said once “If I can give you any advice, I beg you to get closer to the Eucharist.” JRR Tolkien wrote in a letter to his son Christopher, “Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the...
by Coracle | Jan 1, 2016 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
(Click here to access PDF file for easy printing)
by Bill Haley | Dec 31, 2015 | Contemplative Life
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...
by Bill Haley | Dec 24, 2015 | Contemplative Life
Almost 20 years ago, I had three weeks in between graduating from college and heading off to seminary. And one of those weeks I spent with my dad, canoeing the chain of 10,000 lakes in the vast, wild, and absolutely unpeopled Boundary Waters between Minnesota and...
by Karla Petty | Dec 21, 2015 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
The song “Sleigh Ride” is lost on me this year. It has turned into the aural equivalent of eating sawdust. Originally an instrumental, lyrics were added by someone else two years after the composer finished the score in 1948, just three years after the end of World...
by Wade Ballou | Dec 1, 2015 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
The eye doctor remarked on how much my vision had changed during the past year. I waited with increasing anticipation for more than the week it took for the optician to prepare new lenses for me. Finally, I excitedly picked up my new lenses and experienced once again...
by Bill Haley | Nov 27, 2015 | Contemplative Life
“Stars in Spiral Song” Penetrate me with passion, pure and holy flame. Wild and free, galaxies spin cast forth, strewn like dice loaded and shot wide; a sweep and stars dance comets sing, take flight on sparkling wing to find wonders, and praise Your name....
by Bill Haley | Nov 20, 2015 | Contemplative Life
It Spreads for Thee by Bill Haley Dark and warmly damp waits the wood While white mist hovers thick with scent. Solace and solitude kiss Give rise to strength and rebirth To dance again. Hidden ‘tween the trunks of trees Protected lies the slitted door, Veiled in the...
by Abigail Whitehouse | Nov 18, 2015 | Contemplative Life
I recently had the privilege of leading a small memorial service for my great aunt and uncle and shared these words below. I hope they minister to you, as they ministered to me and my family in our time of grief. I was reading scripture earlier this week and God led...
