The traditional elements of a Turkish bath include a bath bowl, soap and peshtamal. Bigstock / Uwphotographer
Footwashing makes us feel vulnerable, as vulnerable as an Episcopal priest felt on a visit to a ‘hamam’ in Istanbul. But maybe that’s the point, she writes -- vulnerability is the paradoxical source of Christians’ strength.
Bigstock / Balyasina
This worship service is based on Puerto Rican Christmas traditions, which include joyful gatherings of friends and family, music, and a soup called asopao.
Visitors to the spontaneous Puerto Rican Christmas-season parties called parrandas often play the güiro, the instrument pictured here. Creative Commons / le Guiro
A pastor shares the traditions of her native island, where big parties with steaming bowls of delicious soup called asopao symbolize abundance, hope and resistance.
Detail from a mosaic of the Three Magi in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy. Creative Commons / Wikipedia
Even in a fearful, divided and dark world, the Magi gracefully and joyfully sought the Christ child by seeing hope in a tiny point of light, writes a managing director at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.
This Chrismons ornament is called "Pelican in Her Piety." It's part of a series representing the seasons of Christmas and Lent called the "Christian Year Series," designed by Frances Spencer, who created the first Chrismon tree in 1957. Photos by Jessamyn Rubio
Chrismons -- white and gold ornaments representing the story of Christ -- are part of the identity of the Lutheran congregation in Virginia where they originated six decades ago.
After worship services in the Bethany memory care unit, retired United Methodist Bishop Kenneth Carder goes around the room, greeting each resident by name. Carder is serving as interim chaplain at Bethany. Photo by Matt Brodie.
Serving as chaplain at a memory care facility, a retired UMC bishop learns that the longing for home is an innate hunger, buried deeper than our memories or imaginings. And it lies at the heart of Advent.
Credit: Angola Prison
An Episcopal priest finds in the obit pages of The Angolite -- Louisiana State Penitentiary’s award-winning magazine -- reminders that we are all members of the communion of saints.
BigStock / Tawng
The image of God at Pentecost is multilingual, multicultural and multiethnic, not for a politically correct agenda, but because the gospel demands it. The gospel is polyphonic, the dean of Duke Chapel says in this Pentecost sermon.
"Jesus Washes an Apostle's Feet" by Laurie Olson Lisonbee, 2006. Used with permission.
Jesus’ intimate moment with his disciples calls us to leadership that manifests and concretizes love, writes the director of Duke Youth Academy.
PInky the cat and the author's mother, Carolyn, comfort a fretful baby. Photograph courtesy of Jane Webb Childress
The passings four years apart of Pinky the cat and a much-loved mother has the author thinking about death and the meaning of a life.