by Bill Haley | Jul 5, 2019 | Church Unity, For the World, Justice and Mercy
This past Sunday I preached at The Falls Church Anglican on one of the most confusing and important verses in the Bible: Colossians 1.24 “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the...
by Bill Haley | Jun 14, 2019 | Justice and Mercy, Peacemaking
This past Wednesday night, many from our Coracle Community went to a sneak-peek showing of the new film Emanuel, near the fourth anniversary now of the shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. We went because the story matters, this tragedy is worth...
by Bill Haley | Mar 28, 2019 | Peacemaking
Tomorrow I’ll fly to the Holy Land with another 17 pilgrims for a very unusual experience of Israel and Palestine. Todd Deatherage of The Telos Group and I will co-lead it, our fourth trip doing this together. It’ll be my sixth trip following in the literal...
by Bill Haley | Mar 22, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a lot to do! Most people I know really want to make a difference in the world and make it a better place for more people. Many of us struggle to pray more and be with God more deeply as the deepest way we respond to the...
by Bill Haley | Feb 21, 2019 | Justice and Mercy
This past week I was pleased and privileged again to attend the Matthew 25 Gathering, where folks from the Anglican Church of North America gather to encourage each other in the ways that God has called us to work for the Kingdom, and work for justice with mercy. ...
by Bill Haley | Feb 7, 2019 | Contemplative Life, For the World
When I was growing up, there was a funny little toy called Stretch Armstrong. Made of soft rubber and dressed only in tiny blue wrestler’s shorts with blond hair painted on, there was really only one thing you could do with him: stretch his arms as far apart as they...
by Bill Haley | Jan 24, 2019 | Contemplative Life
We wrestle with God for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes, we want to wrestle because of what we see “out there”– a culture moving in the wrong direction, the moral failings of trusted leaders, the disunity and strife amongst God’s people, etc. ...
by Bill Haley | Jan 18, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Justice and Mercy
As we approach the national holiday honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, it’s easy (and right) to contemplate his activism and commit to carrying on that legacy of justice for all and especially for those who have the hardest time finding it. It...
by Bill Haley | Jan 10, 2019 | Justice and Mercy
“Tikkun Olam” is I think one of the most powerful phrases on the planet. It’s Hebrew and of the Jewish tradition, and captures the vocation of post-Fall woman and man. It simply means “repair of the world”. Embedded in Tikkun Olam are the assertions that...
by Bill Haley | Dec 14, 2018 | Contemplative Life
Earlier this week Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal acts committed while in service to Donald Trump. Until this week I’ve not given much thought to Michael Cohen and bear him no ill will, but I do think his story warrants attention as a...
by Bill Haley | Dec 5, 2018 | Liturgical Seasons
Advent–always a wonderful, and strange, season. It’s wonderful because it gives the opportunity once again to recall the long wait of the people of God for their Savior, and the promises punctuating centuries of waiting throughout the Old Testament that would find...
by Bill Haley | Nov 30, 2018 | Contemplative Life
I’m not a big birthday guy. Most years I’m content to quietly let the day pass without a lot of notice and a simple dinner with loved ones, with some time to reflect and pray in gratitude. But this year I tip over some sort of edge into my 50s, and as I’ve done on...
by Bill Haley | Nov 15, 2018 | Contemplative Life
I’d been on that roof top many times in Kathmandu, and never seen it. But when last there and our group was taking the Eucharist on that same roof top deck, one of our members suddenly exclaimed, “Look! There’s a Himalaya!” And indeed there it was, one mighty...
by Bill Haley | Nov 9, 2018 | Contemplative Life
At the end of a week when our eyes have been focused on the mid-term elections of 2018 in the United States, we can be grateful that our country’s governmental model–based on the checks and balance of power–worked yet again. For those most concerned about the...
by Bill Haley | Nov 1, 2018 | Justice and Mercy
Last week’s news in America was terrible, shocking, depressing, and filled with sadness. The mail bombs from Florida, the targeted killing of African Americans in Kentucky, and the massacre of Jews in Pittsburgh can’t help but raise the questions of our country,...
by Bill Haley | Oct 26, 2018 | Contemplative Life
Some authors are worth coming back to again and again. Dallas Willard is one of those for me. Dallas will, for a profound lack of a better phrase, rock your world, if you do the hard work to understand what he’s getting at! His thoughts and contributions are like...
by Bill Haley | Sep 20, 2018 | For the World, Justice and Mercy
On a layover this week* through Vienna, Austria on the way to Cyprus, I was reminded of one reason why getting out of my home country on a somewhat regular basis has been, for about 25 years, almost a spiritual discipline. International airport hubs are like swimming...
by Bill Haley | Jun 22, 2018 | Contemplative Life
In Jesus’ life, he had many conversations with his Father in prayer. At times, we know Jesus’ side of the conversation, what he said. But we don’t have many accounts of what God the Father said to God the Son. There are three times God the Father spoke in audible...
by Bill Haley | Jun 11, 2018 | Contemplative Life
It is autumn, my favorite season. The beauty of it, for those with eyes to see, threatens to undo us. This is the sentiment of Edna St. Vincent Millay in her poem, in autumn, ‘God’s World’: O world, I cannot hold thee close enough! Thy winds, thy wide grey skies! ...
