First Sundays: An Introduction
In this endeavor, I hope two things: I hope I shall ride the circuit responsibly, and I hope you will ride it with me, commencing on October 5th when “First Sundays” will begin running in this space.

A Chance for Change
Today is a day of considerable significance, perhaps even of great significance. We won’t know which descriptor is the more accurate for several months, of course, maybe even not for a few years; but for right now, there is no question that calling this Sunday a significant one is the very least we can say of it....

Thoughts on Travel and Trees
A man—a genteel and gracious older man who, with his wife, was my host at a Sunday luncheon some few weeks ago—asked me if I enjoyed traveling as much as I do. There was about the directness of the question and the directness of his gaze an intensity which told me that his was not some idle question offered up for the sake of making social conversation. He truly wanted to know.

Slipping into the Mystery this Advent
There are few things in life that I am truly “fixated” on, in the sense of never really being able to let them go …  But there is  undeniably one story that I have spent my life in thrall to; and this being the First Sunday of a month, and second Sunday in  Advent, I cannot shake off my need to tell that story once again .

Waiting for the Epiphany
"I don’t really know how to engage Jesus, the infant, or even Jesus, the toddler. And aside from the theological and incarnational implications involved, I can’t even get excited about His ever having been such. I just want to rush through all that stuff and get to the Man…"

Sex and Prayer
For February, the month of love and romance, Phyllis Tickle's First Sunday blog has some plain-spoken truths about the much-publicized marriage advice from Grapevine, Texas.

Beer and Bible
Last Tuesday night, I was sitting in a pub, enjoying the beer and the camaraderie of an evening of “pub theology,” when the conversation veered into what I thought—and still think—is a direction worth pondering for a long, long time … or at the very least, worth pondering from Tuesday until Sunday.

The Handwriting on the Wall
Most of us probably would concur that, like it or not, we are Judeo-Christianized in aggregate, whether or not we be observant Christians or Jews privately. We would also concur that there are a number of purely secular advantages to this state of affairs.

The Witch of Endor
One can spend a great deal of time parsing out who the Witch of Endor actually was, not to mention fretting over what exactly is meant by the use of the term witch in the Hebrew original. ... By whatever name one gives her or her art, she conjured the dead.

The Purest Kind of Forgiveness
Once in a while there is a story that teaches about forgiveness in profound and lasting ways. For this month's First Sunday, Phyllis Tickle writes of such a story, one that will stay with you, as it has with her.

On Poetry and Patriots
Early on, Phyllis Tickle learned from her father that in poems we can often best celebrate our own birth as children of God, and the birth of our nation.

The Play's the Thing
Phyllis Tickle reflects on her latest endeavor, that of writing a liturgical drama

Myth and Theology
This month brings some of the holiest days in world religions and a few thoughts from Phyllis Tickle on the intersection of myth and theology.

October: A Month for Rest and Silence
From early on, Phyllis Tickle has been enamored with the cool of October, its silence and its invitation to rest, and perhaps reflect a bit.

The Emergence Upon Us
Phyllis Tickle reflects on a meeting on Emergence Christianity that showed, without a doubt, that Christianity is on the move toward a new phase of being.

The Blessing of Waking and Sleeping
Soft December mornings and poems of waking are, for Phyllis Tickle, poignant reminders of what God wants for every man, woman and child.

Age-Old Questions for a New Year
It is sometimes in childhood that we have the clarity and awareness to question God at the deepest level.

The Blessedness in Beauty
Some several weeks ago now, an editor asked me to name the one book I thought should be laid along side the Bible and read in conjunction with it. My answer was immediate: The Norton Anthology of Poetry....