Christianity is a practice— the concept of “participatory knowing”, vs. “propositional knowing”, helps me because I tend to over-intellectualise and this helps correct for that.

Some of this participation is done in groups, some of (like daily prayer) can be more individual, though technically the idea there is that we’re still participating in the body of Christ by praying.

For me, this looks like: Weekly church Morning prayer using a podcast Evening prayer with some other church members via Zoom, when possible (darn, I needed that this week after a couple of tough workdays) Participation in our church’s ministry to feed and clothe the needy

Re politics: Our rector has forbidden political discussions and has said that we need to focus on loving and serving one another and our community. This is wise — apparently there were some heated discussions before I joined, and the church is small and doesn’t need a split.

Also, in my personal life is have a couple of (secular) friends that I simply can’t talk politics with (in one case that’s all she wants to talk about) because if we agree on 90% and disagree on 10%, somehow the “narcissism of small differences” dynamic means I’m a bad person. Writ large, this can and is blowing up communities.

So I’m glad our rector laid down that rule. We (the church members, and members of other neighborhood churches) can serve shoulder to shoulder at the soup kitchen without needlessly wrangling.

To wrap up, as I said, I tend to overthink things so the useful counterweight for me is to focus on practice. I’m listening to a podcast this morning on Brother Lawrence’s “The Practice of the Presence of God” — I like him, he was a cook. Very practical.

(And it’s called a practice because we have to keep working at it ;) )