by Bill Haley | Jan 5, 2024 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
*During this season of Epiphanytide, we are going to spend the next three Saturdays looking at the story of the Magi, specifically highlighting the main characters: Jesus, Herod, & the Wise Men. They all have a lot to say to us today about power, status, politics,...
by Bill Haley | Aug 17, 2023 | Contemplative Life
“SOUNDINGS” posts consider topics that are important for our society, for the Church, and for our own spiritual journeys. To ‘take a sounding’ is a nautical term about using depth to determine where you are and where you’re going. These writings are designed to do...
by Bill Haley | Jan 26, 2023 | Contemplative Life
Friends, I’m delighted to unpack this story about Jesus that has had such an impact on Coracle’s season of corporate discernment and now on our vision moving forward. This reflection was originally offered at one of our Second Wednesday gatherings and was part of a...
by Bill Haley | Aug 19, 2021 | Contemplative Life
“Emptying precedes filling.” Eugene Peterson My favorite living novelist is the Canadian Roman Catholic, Michael D. O’Brien. I’ve read most of his thirteen novels, and his Father Elijah remains one of the most formative works of fiction in my life. For all...
by Bill Haley | Sep 1, 2020 | Contemplative Life
Several years ago I had occasion to write a spiritual autobiography. I wouldn’t naturally have done that, but the assignment opened up a surprising opportunity to trace God’s fingerprints in my life and led to deep worship then and now. Something I had to do turned...
by Bill Haley | Dec 5, 2019 | Church Unity, Liturgical Seasons
I love my parents, they did a great job with us four kids. They didn’t do it perfectly of course (what parent does?), but they loved us as best they knew how, and loved Jesus as best they knew how, and those two things cover a multitude of, well, things I’m sure they...
by Bill Haley | Nov 8, 2019 | Church Unity, For the World, Justice and Mercy, Pilgrimage
Coracle’s first pilgrimage to understand immigration issues and the forces that are driving tens of thousands of people northwards from Central America is now done. We flew from Washington DC to Guatemala, and then on through Mexico to Juarez and then El Paso,...
by Bill Haley | Oct 18, 2019 | Church Unity, Contemplative Life
For a long time my life has been formed and fed by the monastic tradition. It began by reading Henri Nouwen’s Genesee Diary in college, and it was that book that introduced me to monasteries, the Trappists, and spiritual direction. Since that time and over time God...
by Bill Haley | Sep 20, 2019 | Creation
It was surely a surprise 10 years ago when God invited us to move from the inner-city of DC to rural Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. It was unexpected, and unexpectedly good, a grace. It was as if the Lord was saying to us, “Thank you for your heart and service...
by Bill Haley | Aug 30, 2019 | Vocation
Happy Labor Day weekend, friends! Some years ago, I wrote this for the Washington Post, and I hope that in reading it for the first time or re-reading it, you’ll be reminded deeply and again that your work is one of the main ways God does his work in the world. Take...
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 8, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Creation
I love Lent. Somehow it gives me the opportunity again to honestly own what I deeply know––I am a sinner, and sin. In the words of the confession from the 1559 Book of Common Prayer (see below) which we sometimes still say, “There is no health in us”. Lent reminds...
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 15, 2019 | Contemplative Life
On the desktop of my computer I keep a document called “Current Quotes”, easily found to be opened quickly (the app Evernote works just as well). It’s for brief thoughts and quotes, from deeply trusted sources that reveal deep truths and that speak to me in the...
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 | 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...
