My Return to South Africa
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 26 2007For years I have yearned to return to South Africa. I have not
been there since 1976 when apartheid was still fully enforced.
Nelson Mandela was in jail on …
Christpower
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 19 2007Dear Friends,
On December 24th, 1974 I delivered in my Church in Richmond, Virginia, a sermon, which sought to put the Christmas story into a modern context through …
Submission to the Church of England’s Listening Exercise on Human Sexuality
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 12 2007Dear Friends,
From time to time a report comes across my desk
that is so important that I want to share it with my readers.
That …
A Voice Within the Catholic Hierarchy Finally Speaks Out
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 5 2007“The Pope has too much power. The Pope is finally answerable
to the Church.”“The Catholic Church has a problem with credibility.”
“The Church’s teaching on …
An Anglican Priest and an Anglican Church in New Zealand: Sources of a New Hope
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 28 2007It was a very different kind of liturgy. The opening hymn
was by New Zealand hymn writer Shirley Murray, exhorting the
community of Christ to cry out for …
A Conversation on Death in New Zealand
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 21 2007“There were two ways that people seemed to relate to the
death of my wife. Those who perceive death as the opposite of
life tended to look at …
Lecturing in Central Otago, New Zealand
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 14 2007Most of my readers will not have heard of Central Otago. Otago
is the name of a Southern Province in New Zealand stretching
roughly from Dunedin on the …
The Five Fundamentals: A Conclusion
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 7 2007If the “Five Fundamentals” articulated by traditional
Christians in the early years of the 20th century represent the
essence of Christianity then the time has come to acknowledge
…
The Fifth Fundamental The Second Coming
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 31 2007The last of the Five Fundamentals claimed by American
Protestant Traditionalists as the irreducible essence of
Christianity has to do with the second coming of Jesus. To
modern …
The Fourth Fundamental: Miracles and the Resurrection, Part V
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 24 2007Something clearly happened to the band of Jesus’
disciples at some point following his crucifixion that was
profound, life changing and deeply real. We have no written
records …
The Fourth Fundamental:The Historicity and meaning of the Resurrection Experience, Part VI
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 24 2007Something clearly happened to the band of Jesus’
disciples at some point following his crucifixion that was
profound, life changing and deeply real. We have no written
records …
The Fourth Fundamental: Miracles and the Resurrection, Part V
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 10 2007Did Jesus literally and physically walk out of
his grave, restored to life, on the third day following his
crucifixion? Those who drafted the Five Fundamentals thought so
…
Unexpected Serendipities from Australia
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 3 2007My lecture tour of Australia apparently tapped
into a spiritual hunger that seems to be omni-present in that
land. Book store lecture events in Sydney, Melbourne, Malvern,
Frankston …
Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney, Australia The Face of Tomorrow’s Congregation
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 26 2007Some twenty years or so ago the leaders of Australia’s
Uniting Church, a body that came into being in 1979 as a merger
of Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists, with
samplings …
Common Dreams, Sydney, Australia, 2007
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 19 2007It was the best conference I have attended in my
entire career. Entitled “Common Dreams” and attracting 1500
plus people to Sydney, it was the brainchild of a committee of
…
If Christianity Cannot Change, It Will Die.
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 12 2007Author’s note: While in Australia, the Sydney Morning
Herald invited me to write an op-ed piece on the future of
Christianity. I found that a particularly interesting …
A Public Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Rowan Williams
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 5 2007Dear Rowan,
I am delighted that you have agreed to meet with the House
of Bishops of the American Episcopal Church in September, even
if you appear …
Why Should People Pay Any Attention to the Christian Church on Sexual Matters?
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 29 2007In recent decades the primary battles that have been fought
in the Christian Church have not been about theology, but about
issues of human sexuality. Huge debates polarize …
The Fourth Fundamental: Miracles and the Resurrection, Part IV
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 22 2007The idea that one can raise a deceased person to
life entered the biblical story in two narratives from the
Elijah-Elisha cycle of stories. It is then picked …
The Fourth Fundamental: Miracles and the Resurrection, Part III
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 15 2007In this series we first sought to identify the places in the
Bible where miracles seem to appear in groups. There are only
three: The Moses-Joshua cycle of …
The Fourth Fundamental: The Nature Miracles were not meant to be read as Events of History, Part II
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 8 2007In fundamentalist religion there are a number of strange
claims made that arise primarily out of a lack of biblical
knowledge. One of them is the claim that …
Miracles and the Resurrection The Fourth Fundamental, Part I
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 1 2007I return this week to our running series on the Five
Fundamentals, that supposedly irreducible set of principles that
believers were told had to be accepted as literally …
Flavius Josephus, Judas Iscariot and Anti-Semitism
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 25 2007During this summer I have read Flavius Josephus’
history of the first century war fought between the Romans and
the Jews. That war began in Galilee in 66 C. …
On Spending Three Days with DignityUSA
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 18 2007“My name is Sam Sinnett and I am a gay
Catholic.” These words, reminiscent of the way members
introduce themselves at AA meetings, opened a luncheon at a
…
In Praise of the United Church of Christ
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 11 2007Throughout the course of my professional career I have always
been impressed by that
faith community which calls itself the United Church of Christ
or the Congregational Church. …