A friend recently told me about a wedding she attended that began with the bride and groom issuing a lengthy apology for entering an institution that continues to be so unjust for gays and women (the bride was a prominent feminist). It didn't exactly make for a very upbeat wedding,...

NB: I've disabled comments on this piece because of some of the truly vicious ad hominem attacks it garnered after I first published it Tuesday afternoon. Still, I hope it will encourage perhaps more productive conversation elsewhere about the impact of Rome's sexism and homophobia. In the name of Christ,...

Ever wonder to lengths to which churches will go to put on the perfect Christmas pageant? When I decided to write a piece on it for Slate magazine, I had no idea just how insane it could get. Hopefully this piece will do some bedraggled pageant leaders and parents some...

As I read the news about the Lambeth Conference, the much-anticipated once-a-decade meeting of bishops from around the Anglican Communion, I'm surprised by how calmly -- even amicably -- events there seem to be unfolding.

Now, mind you, that could be because reports coming out of the conference are somewhat...

My first day back from my blessedly news-free (and clergy collar-free) vacation, I fired up my computer and discovered that -- surprise surprise -- things don't appear to be getting any better in the Anglican Communion.

Church conservatives are outraged over a gay wedding in England and the Church...

Sunday's piece in the New York Times Magazine, "Students of Virginity," was interesting to me both professionally and personally -- professionally, because I'm a Christian priest who sometimes deals with such issues in my parishioners' lives, and personally, because I used to be a student of virginity myself.

I don't recall where I heard this, but someone once advised -- I believe in connection with the theologian Paul Tillich -- that if you want to know what a theologian really thinks, read his (or her) sermons.

Though it sounded good at the time, that hasn't always been true...

At a recent dinner with friends, someone at the table recalled a conversation she had with an Episcopal priest who told her that he didn't really believe in God -- and that, in fact, few priests he knows do. My devout dinner companions all solemnly shook their heads, but I...

I didn't miss the significance of having to walk past the Stonewall Inn en route to a talk at the Church of St. Luke-in-the-Fields by the founder of Nigeria's first GLBT organization, Changing Attitudes Nigeria. The talk was the first of several Gay Pride events sponsored by this lovely little...

Last December, when several churches in Virginia announced their break from the U.S. Episcopal Church to accept the authority of the vehemently anti-gay Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola, leader of the 77 million member province of Nigeria, I wrote a piece for Slate arguing that such a split would make the...