Friends, 

I have posted here the homily for the Requiem Eucharist for Evangeline Mandel on Sept. 10, 2011. Evangeline passed from us on Sept. 4, just short of her 77th birthday on the 11th. 

May the Lord be her possession and may she rest in peace. 

Preaching four consecutive Sundays in July gave me the opportunity to do something I haven't done before: preach a series of sermons from the same biblical text--Paul's letter to the Romans. On any account, Romans is a letter of great significance--but current scholarship is characterized by lively debate and controversy regarding just what that significance is. 

Peace and all good! Here I've assembled my homilies for Year C (Advent 2009--2010).

"The Audacity of Love: An Earthquake Exposes the Fragility of Life--and Good Intentions," homily for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Bishop Jean Duracin of the Episcopal Church of Haiti has written to Episcopal Relief and Development organization designating ER&D as the relief organization through which aid should be channeled for Haiti. Bishop Duracin also pleads that North Americans NOT plan on traveling to Haiti to help just now: "unless they are certified professionals in relief and recovery, they must wait.

For further reflections on Haiti and the present crisis you may wish to visit Fr. Neil's online blog, "On Second Thought." Recent entries include

In the wake of the terrible earthquake in Haiti, we are all moved to reach out in whatever way we can to people suffering devastation. Here are some ideas.

Learn about Haiti's history and about U.S. policy (this will be unsettling reading!):

from books:

Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains 

Paul Farmer, The Uses of Haiti

On this page I've posted resources related to the seminar on St. Paul that I offered at St. Paul's on the Hill this spring, and to the seminar on "Paul in the Global Village" offered in Fall 2009 through United Seminary's Academy for Vital Christianity.

I've been asked from time to time to provide copies of sermons preached at St. Paul's. Here are homilies from Advent 2008 through 2009 (lectionary Year B). 

Grace and peace,

Fr. Neil

A friend, an Episcopal priest and biblical studies colleague, has sent out an e-mail invitation to recommend some summer reading for the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Most Rev. Rowan Williams spends a lot of his time these days expressing grave concern over the Episcopal Church, especially now that we have decided, in its General Convention, to resume living out our faith. The Archbishop has now called for "painstaking faithful exegesis" of the Bible on the question of homosexuality.