St. Andrew's Journal
Earth & Altar: a religious blog on Anglican life and worship
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TAMING THE TONGUE
When teaching through a particular subject, I find that everything suddenly relates to it. One co-worker alleges that I mentioned Dante in every conversation, while I was teaching through the Renaissance recently. I suppose there could be worse things to mention. My current subject, rhetoric, though a respected member of …
SETTING A CHILD UP FOR SUCCESS
When a baby’s physical growth is stunted, it is considered a tragedy. The aim of parenting is not to prolong childhood, but to encourage maturity. Yet parents often make choices that stunt the growth of their children. We live with the accepted pattern of a twenty-seven year old “man-child” still …
KEYS
This summer I moved from California to Texas, and before I left, I gave back most my keys to the people who needed them and had right to them: the house key to the remaining inhabitants; a garage key for the garage door; a garage door opener; a school key to …
STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS
“American farmers are the only farmers who can read Homer.“ – Thomas Jefferson While Thomas Jefferson boasted of the education of the commoners of his day, that education he praised—a classical one—now makes no immediate sense to most parents and students. The study of Latin and Greek and what are …
FROM BUCHENWALD TO BACH
A REPORT FROM GERMANY WITH THE ST. ANDREW’S ACADEMY CHOIR Yesterday, as of this writing, the St. Andrew’s travelers went to Buchenwald, the first major death camp of the Nazis to be liberated by American troops. Sobering is the only word I have found thus far to describe it. Even …
THE CHURCH OUR MOTHER
In his letter to the Galatians, in chapter four, St. Paul says that the “Jerusalem which is above is free; which is the mother of us all” (26). And, at the beginning of chapter five, he says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free….” We are children of the free …
RADICAL EDUCATION
The entire education of the younger generation of theologians belongs today in church cloister schools, in which pure doctrine, the Sermon on the Mount and worship are taken seriously (1934, letter to Erwin Sutz). The restoration of the church must surely depend on a new kind of monasticism, which has …
CHARACTER COUNTS: THE PRIORITIES OF PARENTING
“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” —Traditional Saying Human babies are not like most animals when born. They are far more dependent on their parents for far longer than most animals. The …
THE BACK LAWN & PARENTING
As I sit looking at our back lawn on our typically cold Memorial Day weekend, I realize that the lawn must be mowed, and fertilizer would help greatly. I remember the landscaper’s interesting and potentially beautiful design for this lawn, full of turns and twists and beautiful arcs. I had …