The Graduation Season 2015

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 28 2015

It is the graduation season. On university and college campuses around the world people gather in a highly-ritualized pageant to mark a point of transition in many areas of …

“Fear Not” – The Message of Christmas in a Frightened World

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 18 2014

Christmas will dawn in 2014 in a world gripped by a growing sense of fear. We have recently experienced that pervasive emotion in almost every phase of our life in …

Insights from Behind the Iron Curtain

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 4 2014

I made my second trip in the last two years behind what was once known as the Iron Curtain recently. There I saw the impact of communism that had …

Do Our Seminaries Prepare Clergy for Today’s World?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 27 2014

Writing about the Theological School at Drew University this past week caused me to think about theological education in general and my own theological education in particular. I loved …

The School of Theology at Drew University Installs Javier Viera as its New Dean

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 20 2014

From time to time, I have an experience inside organized Christianity that is filled with such excitement that it creates in me the hope that there might be a …

On Visiting a Nazi Concentration Camp

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 13 2014

In early October of this year, Christine and I had the opportunity to visit a concentration camp at a place called Theresienstadt in what is now the Czech Republic. …

The Emerging Church in Northern Michigan

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 16 2014

Marquette, Michigan, sits on Lake Superior about 300 miles south and slightly east of Thunder Bay, Canada. While we were there, Christine and I were made honorary “Yoopers,” a name …

Virginia Politics and the Trial of Governor Robert McDonnell

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 28 2014

On Monday, August 14, 2014, beginning at 9:30 a.m., my wife Christine and I were seated in the Federal District Courtroom in Richmond, Virginia, preparing to listen to the testimony in …

On Teaching at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 21 2014

They came mostly from the West Coast, although one was a Methodist minister from Chesterfield, Virginia. They represented the vast array of the traditions in American Christianity. Two were …

Chautauqua Institution – 2014

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 14 2014

It has many elements of a fantasy land. Once one enters the guarded gates, the world seems to fall away quickly. A person living in this community does not …

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