by Peter James | Dec 31, 2023 | Sarum Primer
We come at long last to December 31, the last day of the year. The transition to a new year brings with it reflections on the passage of time and uncomfortable reminders of our mortality. We live in a death-denying culture. We avoid talking about death and have even...
by Peter James | Dec 30, 2023 | Festo Kivengere
Festo Kivengere (1919-1988) and his wife Mera attended a Good Friday service at All Souls Church in London. The sermon centered on Jesus’ words from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23.34). Festo carried in his...
by Peter James | Dec 29, 2023 | John of Damascus
I marvel at the depth and profundity of Christmas carols. Take the classic carol, “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” There’s a line in the song, “very God, begotten not created.” Did you catch that? In the span of a single phrase, we sing that...
by Peter James | Dec 28, 2023 | Helen Roseveare
She was a featured speaker at Urbana several times in her retirement years, a mission conference for collegiates attracting upwards of eighteen thousand students. What attracted college students to this diminutive, white-haired lady from Northern Ireland? Surely, her...
by Peter James | Dec 27, 2023 | Fanny Crosby
She visited a Manhattan prison one spring day in 1868 to speak to inmates. As she was leaving, one prisoner cried out in a pleading voice, “Good Lord, do not pass me by.” She couldn’t get the man’s plea out of her mind as she composed a poem...
