A Sound of Sheer Silence

In the US and UK alone, over 45 million people watched Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (a Northwestern alum, I am obligated to mention) get married on Saturday.  And the star of the show, or at least the person that seems to be the one most people are talking about, is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry .  He preached the sermon at the wedding, and he did what Bishop Curry almost unfailingly does, which is give a stem-winder that is heavily influenced by the rich and deep African-American Christian preaching tradition.  If you have not read it ( or, better, watched it ), I urge you to do so. If you want to distill Bishop Curry's message down to three core points, I would say they are (1) the foundation of the message of Jesus Christ is love, (2) the love we experience, including the romantic love on display at this or any wedding, ultimately has its source is Christ, and (3) love can change the world, and change ourselves.    If you w...

So, as basically everyone knows, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as President of the United States tomorrow.  Like all inaugurations, there is a great deal of pageantry involved.  And, as has been the case numerous times before going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, there will be a prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C .  The National Cathedral is the cathedral for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, as well as serving (as the name implies) in an informal way as the closest thing we have to house of prayer for the entire country in a place as religiously diverse as the United States.  In addition, it appears that the choir of the National Cathedral will be singing in some capacity at the inauguration itself. I have made my views  clear  on the idea of the presidency of Donald Trump , and nothing that has happened since Election Day has changed my position one iota.  I do not and will not celebrate Donald Trump becoming t...