Featured
“Movies”: FAVE FILM FRIDAY
On Fridays, I intend to post a movie review of a one of my favorite films. I have been interested in films for the past 25 years or so. Not that I did not go to the movies as a child or young…
“Devotions”: GEORGE HERBERT: The Country Parson
GEORGE Herbert was born in 1593, the fifth son of a noble father and a saintly mother. George was a noted classical scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, and aspired to a post in the royal…
“Wed Talks”: MARRIAGE ACCORDING TO THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER
Throughout the month of September, “Lift Up Hearts, Gafcon!” will offer a series of devotions on the subject of “Marriage According to the Book of Common Prayer” by the Rev. Dr. Stephen Noll,…
WELCOME TO STEPHEN’S WITNESS
Welcome to Stephen’s Witness blog! Fifteen years ago, I began to archive some of my writings as “Stephen’s Witness.” Then two years ago, I set up “Contending Anglican” as a site where I could…
“Contending Anglican”: NO COMPROMISE ON ESSENTIALS
WHY DIALOGUE CANNOT RESOLVE THE SEXUALITY ISSUE IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION Note: I wrote this essay in 1998 just prior to the Lambeth Conference and it was published in…
“CINDERELLA MAN”: A Video for Our Time
When the film came out in 2005, Roger Ebert commented: “‘Cinderella Man’ is a terrific boxing picture, but there's no great need for another one. The need it fills is for a full-length…
“Mission”: REMEMBRANCE OF THE MARTYRS: Reflections from Uganda 2020
While the Church of Uganda remembers its debt to its founders and stands firm, Canterbury plays politics with the inheritance of the saints.
“Movies”: “THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON”
I have had an interest for many years in video as perhaps our age’s most creative medium. My taste, I confess, is rather eclectic, sometimes downright weird. Over the years travelling on…
“Bible”: FROM THE BOSOM OF THE SON TO THE BOSOM OF THE FATHER: Pondering the Feast Day of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist
This year I participated in the midnight and morning Christmas services at our parish church. I read the Gospel from St. Luke at the first service and heard a sermon on the Gospel from St.…
“Anecdotage”: CALLED TO UGANDA: Twenty Years On
On the last Sunday in June 1999, I preached a sermon at the chapel of Uganda Christian University. My wife Peggy and I were on an exploratory trip, our first ever to Africa, to look at…
“Sexuality”: SECULARISM ON THE MARCH: THE ABOLITION OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
Note: I was invited to give the annual public lecture, sponsored by Uganda Christian University and its Africa Policy Centre, on the topic “Secularism on the March: The Abolition of Marriage…