Last week, I joined a small interfaith group of religious leaders at the Islamic Center of Lake Norman in Mooresville. We were invited to attend a prayer service as honored guests. After removing my shoes, I settled into a chair at the back of the room next to my friend who is a local rabbi. What I experienced as a guest was both ordinary and extraordinary. It was ordinary in that we witnessed many of the same things we would see in any church or synagogue—folks slipping in late due to...

“We will.” This is our response to the question asked of us during every baptism: “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?” When we make this promise, I hope we really mean it. As the newly baptized are welcomed into Christ’s family, more experienced Christians are given the opportunity (and the expectation!) of nurturing those with less experience, to help them “grow into the full stature of Christ” as the Book of Common Prayer...

Y Yesterday, July 22, was the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ most important and most enigmatic followers. The word 'magdala' means tower in Aramaic. In Christianity, Mary Magdalene is a tower of faith and devotion to Jesus. Magdalene is thought by many to have been a prostitute, but this was an irresponsible assumption made by a pope in the late 6th century. He conflated her with the unnamed “sinful woman” who anoints the feet of Jesus in Luke’s 7th chapter. But Luke never says...