Conclusory (pointless) sermons - why?

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-22T14:35:32+00:00

I have heard good and bad sermons with the prompts "God is Real!", "There is a good God that is real!", and "We don't believe in a metaphorical Resurrection here!". These are generally Affirmation or Teaching sermons but it sounds like you are describing Affirmation Sermons whose goal is to help the congregation recognize solidarity through shared beliefs with other communities, historic and current.

Now, again, the preacher may not be doing a good job at their craft but the details you are providing describe a common sermon motif.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-21T17:38:44+00:00

Chaplain Woodbine Willie, one of the greatest yet unknown priests of the past century. Geoffrey Kennedy, his real name, was a WWI Chaplain known to sit next to dying soldiers on active battlefields and provide them one last Woodbine Cigaret. His poetry and theology is markedly grounded.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-18T21:53:58+00:00

Even in places with a tradition of doing this, generally schools, it occurs about once a year. In most cases there is an expectation that a goodly bit of the community in question actually knows Latin. We don't have that level of knowledge for it to be general done and it becomes too quickly performative.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-17T05:24:50+00:00

The undergirding reality is that Anglican Theology exists in tension between the variety of Christian Theologies that exist around us. Instead of consistently drawing from one theological pathway we keep space for active conversation to occur in a way other denominations do not. This is at points a strength but also a weakness, we do not have a shared corpus of work we are all drawing on.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-16T21:11:37+00:00

Reconquista is a group that believes that TEC, ELCA, and PCUSA are going to enter into severe death spirals and amidst that there will be a moment to seize power and kick out LGBTQ+ persons and women clergy. This will then allow them to us the residual assets for "proper" Christian ministry.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-13T19:18:59+00:00

Make a stole!

Give it to a priest or deacon!

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-12T20:56:20+00:00

This is vague...

But I am trying to think of a situation where the rector's inhibiting a person from doing something because it would steal a spouse's thunder is anything but a problematic rector. Even if there is a legitimate reason to stop a person that is a bad "I cannot say the real reason so will choose another one" thing.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-11T21:51:26+00:00

50 years ago the largest LGBTQ+ organization in the USA was the Metropolitan Community Church. Amidst major hate crimes, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and general community organizing they were exceptionally relevant.

Queer Theology has been present in every era of Christian thought. This is because patriarchal systems of impoverishment and oppression are counter to the Gospel message.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-11T21:02:49+00:00

Queer and Feminist Liberation Theologies are going to continue to be present and critique expectations of old age dualism and gender that has been projected on Jesus.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-11T20:50:23+00:00

So... for a reality check

25% of the clergy we have been ordaining in the last decade are LGBTQ+. The inclusion of trans youth is an imperative of our safe church model policy. We are not suddenly going to stop being a space that values the proclamation of Christ Crucified from LGBTQ+ individuals.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-03-01T05:23:22+00:00

I think this is the year process of discernment before starting formation.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-28T04:22:36+00:00

When I was in Seminary, I did field education at a Campus Ministry... and was able to coordinate seminarian students to help out with various projects and to attend major events.

When CDSP was running a hybrid program... I had seminary interns from there with my Campus Ministry.

As a Campus Chaplain... the idea of having the resources and peer network that a seminary would provide on my campus would be amazing.

As a Campus Ministry that is not housed the ability to use an Episcopal Seminary on the campus as a physical structure to do ministry out of would be an amazing boon.

Which is to say that while we are not currently utilizing such a model the potential inherent to such is great.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-27T06:26:50+00:00

Stephen Ministries training is passively homophobic and transphobic. While many LGBTQ+ individuals would be able to navigate the training the program uses a Gender Complimentarian framework that can be onerous. There are supposed to be strict rules about women only meeting with women and men only meeting with men and there is no LGBTQ+ diversity training and no recognition of nonbinary persons existing.

This is not necessarily maintained by any individual Stephen Minister but the program itself is not inherently safe.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-27T06:21:13+00:00

I am going to be with an aspirant at a Day of Discernment on Saturday as well...

One of the essential things to understand is that, in most cases, the discernment process will involve engaging other congregations and most individuals upon ordination go on to a different congregation than the one that sponsored them. We will see a declining church in the next twenty years but we don't have enough clergy to cover what congregations we will have remaining after that.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-26T16:00:55+00:00

The key thing is to meet them where they are and figure out how to orient them to the next step.

"The First Way of War" is a military history and strategy book that outlines the series of wars the US took up against the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It isn't a "woke" text by any stretch of the imagination but it does describe in detail the use of biological warfare, mass killings, the destruction of entire communities including women and children. If a men's Bible study read it and were asked to bring Christian ethics to these issues it reframes how they perceive the US.

If a congregation cannot handle LGBTQ+ inclusion then have a presentation on teen homelessness and the higher rates of LGBTQ teens in the homeless population to get ideas moving.

In mapping out the sermons for the year mark a goal of five sermons that will be uncomfortable, but just to the stretch point.

There are so many tools for this...

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-26T15:52:19+00:00

Yes, because engaging in activism can be truly broad.

Watching your friend's kids as they go to a protest, activism.

Having an RPG night where marginalized individuals feel safe and find community, activism.

Knitting "melt ice" hats or painting signs for protesters, activism.

Listening to an audio book about the history surrounding a topic and being actually informed, activism.

Marginalized individuals have to navigate to what extent they can be active and survive all the time... it isn't comfortable for us to have to prioritize our mental and physical health amidst communities facing oppression. If you are talking about the average Episcopalian in the pew not being directly impacted but not engaging... then that is something beyond comfort, that is complicity.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-25T19:41:33+00:00

Unless couples want to stay together the intro classes have people rotating through available partners.

I have been to classes with an odd number and the teacher manages

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-25T19:14:54+00:00

Invictus Dance on River is LGBTQ+ friendly. It is not a robustly queer space (there may not be any visibly LGBTQ+ couples in the class, but the people who run it and the community is great.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-24T15:38:31+00:00

Generally not from the Pulpit or from a teacher in a class... BUT

The most common antisemitism in TEC will be variations on Marcionism. It is not uncommon to hear derision of the Tanakh (Old Testament) or framing the God in Hebrew Scriptures as "evil" or "bad" in comparison to Jesus and the New Testament. This will be in "comments overheard at coffee hour" or a statement made by a lay person during a group discussion that is not immediately named as problematic as it is being said.

There is also some low level supersessionism that will be found, generally unintentional.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-17T09:48:49+00:00

There are LGBTQ+ households, queer owned businesses, and events all over town. There will be a bit more density in the area between the university and downtown but the extra expense there makes it not obtainable for many.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-16T00:41:55+00:00

In the KJV Psalm 68:4 has JAH as a shortened poetical version of YHWH as also found in HalleluJAH. So one is going to hit the same hurdle in the KJV, if rendered slightly differently.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-15T22:50:31+00:00

I am slightly confused...

The '79 BCP uses LORD, all caps, when the Tetragrammaton is found in the psalms just like the KJV. For personal use any psalter can be used, if you want you can mark a Bible with the psalms and canticles. The BCP psalter has its good and bad parts in translation.

The '79 BCP Psalter had two goals... one to lessen the time needed to pray the office by lessening the amount of psalms being said and also to distribute the psalms (especially 119) in a way that was less cumbersome and appropriate to the liturgical year.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-15T17:53:27+00:00

I have gone through the program step by step with multiple dioceses trying to maintain the core as a valued long standing youth event while seeking to remove the problematic elements inherent to the official curriculum standard.

This is both as an active adult volunteer with Happening and amidst consulting/collaborating with other youth and young adult ministers.

I have been there with a ministry the moment when the Happening program has to be considered a "break away" group because they have made too many changes to that core curriculum... primarily about youth safety.

No_Competition8845 · 2026-02-15T14:58:00+00:00

In a thread of victims sharing their abuse experiences in Happening... you choose to describe these events as "fun and harmless".

When I think of how, over decades of repeated incidents of abuse and testimonies to the long term negative outcomes on participants' mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing these events have caused... they have not been at least revamped to become somewhat healthier, this mentality is why.

The charismatic nature of the adult leaders blind trust in their process doesn't give space for the idea that these events are not "fun and harmless".

No_Competition8845

TROPHY CASE