Welcome, Friends!

Twenty years ago, I felt a strong call to dedicate my ministry to the promotion of the spiritual renewal of our nation. My work has taken me to local congregations, seminaries, ecumenical organizations, civic agencies and denominational headquarters. In each setting, my concern has been to discern the growing edge of spiritual revitalization. What are the longings of the people? What are the problems blocking the flow of the Spirit? What ethical and moral issues cry out for wisdom and grace? What are the manifestations of self-centeredness, self-righteousness, inhospitality, incivility, and inordinate pride?

These questions function in a diagnostic mode, but I have also tried to be sensitive to the spiritual flowering that could prove to be a harbinger of fruitfulness. Where do we see signs of community occurring in new ways? What rituals are reviving hope and inspiring acts of justice? Where is liberation proving to be the new order of the day? Where are families finding the strength to hold together in the midst of pressures threatening their covenants of love? What disciplines and traditions of nurturance set people free from greed, prejudice and violence?

have used the word “spiritual” several times. I have discovered through the years that there is no consensus about what it means, how important it is, or the best way to appropriate what it would seem to promise. It is clear to me that the richness of God’s revelation is not limited to one system of belief. Therefore I am interested in being challenged and inspired by others. But such openness to other faith traditions is no substitute for a deep devotion to the Christian tradition in which I find the truth of life and the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. Contrary to some of my co-religionists, the more open I am to the Spirit of Love, made known in Jesus Christ, the more open I am to such love and truth genuinely shared from those who pray in different places or give another name to the transcendent reality I call God.