by Bill Haley | Feb 14, 2013 | Liturgical Seasons
I love Lent…I love Lent. It’s like a long, hot shower for the soul, spring cleaning for our spirits. There’s such value in observing the church year, such pastoral help. Lent helps us come clean through self-examination, confession, repentance, and amendment...
by Bill Haley | Jan 3, 2013 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
I’ve often mentioned that I’ve come to discover the deepest truths about life, God, and the spiritual life from the lives and insights of those who have suffered much, and those who have chosen the religious, viz the monastic, life. Perhaps one could add to those...
by Bill Haley | Dec 21, 2012 | For the World, Liturgical Seasons
If we can’t count on cold weather and snow this holiday season, one thing we can count on is that all of us will have many opportunities to wait. Checkout lines at the grocery store are longer, more people flood the retail stores shopping for gifts and clogging the...
by Bill Haley | Nov 3, 2012 | For the World, Justice and Mercy
Something Coracle seems to specialize in is being able to walk with those whose lives are on the front lines of seeing some of the worst that a broken world can throw, whether poverty, injustice, violence, and all sorts of disillusionment. Last week, I was grateful to...
by Bill Haley | Oct 10, 2012 | For the World, Peacemaking
We’ve made it, home. After 28 hours of travel from Kigali to Entebbe to Addis to Rome to Dulles to Corhaven, home. I’m deeply aware and grateful for the prayers of so many folks for us, they were all answered, in more abundance and gentility that we would have...
by Bill Haley | Oct 7, 2012 | Church Unity, For the World
It’s dawn in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 6am on Sunday morning in the lakeside town of Bukavu. It lives up to its reputation as the most beautiful city in Congo, sitting on the southern shore of Lake Kivu. We are here to meet with Archbishop Henri Isengoma,...
by Bill Haley | Oct 5, 2012 | For the World
We began our journey in eastern Congo (DRC) in Aru, a place spared much (though not all) of the violence that is so typical of this country. Anglican Relief and Development Fund helped establish a project in this diocese that we had the chance to see and evaluate, and...
by Bill Haley | Oct 5, 2012 | For the World, Justice and Mercy
In the northeast corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), The Bishop of the diocese of Aru was the first to say what we’ve heard several times since in the last two days since we arrived, “When you visit us, we know we are in your hearts, when you visit Congo...
by Bill Haley | Oct 4, 2012 | For the World
Today (Wednesday) we flew from Maridi to what is perhaps the most important symbolic town in South Sudan: Bor, in the eastern part of the country. It was here in 1983 that the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) first took up arms against those from the north that...
by Bill Haley | Oct 4, 2012 | For the World
Critical to the success of the new South Sudan, according to Archbishop Daniel Deng, are three things: agriculture, education, and health-care. Without these the people will not flourish or develop, and if the people don’t, the country won’t. And so, in the last 24...
by Bill Haley | Oct 4, 2012 | For the World, Justice and Mercy
It’s normal when I travel for our seven year old daughter, Iona, to give me a little something for my suitcase. For this trip, she offered a larger fluffy dolphin and a slightly smaller doll. “Those are great, sweetie,” I said, “but these ones might be a little too...
by Bill Haley | Oct 2, 2012 | For the World
In any country, there’s always a big difference between the city and the country. In Africa, multiply that by ten, or maybe twenty. In some of the regions of South Sudan, according to Archbishop Deng, there are those who still live “as they did when God...
by Bill Haley | Sep 30, 2012 | For the World
Of course, in South Sudan, there are all the challenges you expect to see in Africa: poverty, corruption, infrastructure yet to be developed and the roads to prove it, economic disparity, HIV and AIDS. And yet…and yet, our introduction to this land has so far...
by Bill Haley | Sep 29, 2012 | For the World
I’ve been to Africa more times now than I can remember. And getting ready to go again brings back a familiar feeling, of a heavy dread mixed with a lot of hope. Ten years ago, almost to the day, Tara and I were about to arrive for six weeks in Nairobi, and...
by Bill Haley | Sep 27, 2012 | For the World
Congo, South Sudan, and Rwanda…in 10 days. Why there, why this trip, what are you doing, how can we pray? These are all the right questions, and Canon Nancy Norton of the Anglican Relief and Development Fund (ARDF) answers the first three very well: “On...
by Bill Haley | Sep 21, 2012 | For the World, Justice and Mercy
Having ministered in the inner-city for many years, both in Washington DC and around the world, it’s not been uncommon for people to seek my thoughts on a question all of us have asked: “What should I do when a homeless guy asks me for money?” It’s a great question,...
by Bill Haley | Sep 21, 2012 | Contemplative Life
Can the web help us grow spiritually? Yes! It is true, of course, that in any number of ways websites and blogs can quickly and easily de-form us spiritually, but there are some wonderful sites and web resources that can help “form Christ in us”, the essence of...
by Bill Haley | Sep 21, 2012 | Creation, For the World
It was a cruel thing, perhaps, to do to Liam, our six year old son. His whole life to that point had been urban, as in, the inner-city of Washington DC. Living in the broken places of the world and the city had been Tara’s and my past for a long time, and we...
by Bill Haley | Sep 21, 2012 | Contemplative Life
Right at the end of last year, the New York Times published an opinion article entitled “The Joy of Quiet”, by the well-known author Pico Iyer. He reflected on one of the deep ironies of our 3G, wi-fi, smart-phone, text-messaging, uber-connected age. The irony is...
