Re-Living Holy Week and Easter as Part of a Community of Faith

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 4 2013

Holy Week, including Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were especially meaningful to me this year. So was the celebration of Easter. In this column today I would …

A Pope is Chosen – Hopes Rise for Change

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 21 2013

His name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, but the world will know him as Pope Francis I. He was a surprise selection by the Conclave of Cardinals voting in the …

A New Plan for Good Friday

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 14 2013

Reclaiming Good Friday as a major focus of both Lent and the Christian story will be at the center of my life this year, when I spend that day …

The Pope Resigns: A New Opportunity for the Christian World is Born

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 28 2013

The world in general and members of the Roman Catholic Church in particular were shocked at the recent announcement that Pope Benedict XVI was resigning the papal office at …

Gun Control, Immigration and Senator Hagel: The Manifestations of Cultural Paranoia in our Current Political Debate

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 7 2013

There are times when listening to the political debate in this country that I am absolutely astonished. Many of the participants in the current struggles regarding the proposed limitation …

Inauguration Day 2013

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 24 2013

Inauguration day in America is a time of transition, the proper moment to articulate the hopes and dreams of the future. These things are more vivid if the one …

On Speaking at the Athenaeum in Madrid

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 20 2012

It was a uniquely Spanish event held in the beautifully ornate Athenaeum in downtown Madrid. It followed the format of a carefully orchestrated, intellectual and cultural pattern. The audience …

A Nun Becomes a Methodist Pastor and Lights up the Big Sky of Montana

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 1 2012

Try to imagine, if you can, a woman who was a Roman Catholic nun for 18 years, working during those years on a Native American reservation and later taking the …

My Fourth Great Mentor: Edwin Anderson Penick, VI Bishop of North Carolina

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 30 2012

All of us are mentored in life by other people.  Sometime this mentoring is done by example, sometimes by words.  An essential aspect of maturity is to recognize those …