Sometimes things are too strange to even describe. But I will try. Last week, on a visit with friends to another of the ‘wonders of the Christian world in history’, in this case the 7th century Da Qin Pagoda outside Xi’an in China, we arrived to see a drone hovering around it. I have written… Read More The Stark Contrast of a 7th Century Christian Pagoda and a Drone
Today history is being made in Asia with two important meetings. The first is between the leaders of North and South Korea. Just a few hours ago, Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in began to meet together at the DMZ (de-militarized zone). The meeting started with Kim walking across the heavily armed border, the first… Read More Two Historic Meetings in Asia Today
Yes, here I am. At one of the wonders of the world. Not just from late 8th century China, but from any century. Last week I stood again in front of the ‘Nestorian Stele’, an over 10 foot tall monument filled with the history of the Church of the East in China from their arrival… Read More A Wonder of the 8th century World
Where History Meets the Future. I love this phrase. It speaks not of a dead, dry past, but a living history that interacts with our present into the future. A history that is important not only because of what it tells us about that past, but what it tells us about what is to come.… Read More Where History Meets the Future
It is sometimes thought that those who change history must be outsiders. People who seem to appear as if from another time, so strange and unearthly that all around them must somehow come under the force-field of their influence. Wrong. At least, wrong to a great degree. For actually while it may be true that… Read More An ‘Integrated Non-conformist’ in History
What does courage look like? One doesn’t need to look beyond the face of Malala Yousafzai, who this last week returned home to the beautiful area of Swat in NW Pakistan. You may remember that in 2012, when she was only 14 and on her way to school, Taleban gunmen stopped her bus and asked… Read More Malala Yousafzai Returns Home
Confinement. A place of limitations, being held back, a lack of freedom. Yet the places of confinement in our lives often yield the greatest creativity. That’s why some of the classics in literature and history have been written in prison. Think of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letters from a Birmingham Jail, or Nelson Mandela writing a diary and letters… Read More The Confinement that Leads to Writing
There are only a few places I have visited in the world that had a palpable sense of evil. One was an island off the coast of Gambia, where captured slaves from the interior were held before being transported across the Atlantic or up to Liverpool. Another was last week at the Cellular Jail in… Read More Kala Pani and the Evils of Colonialism
If you have read this blog even a bit, you know my feelings about Mother Teresa. I had the great honor and privilege to meet her twice in Kolkata, in 1985 and 1994. I have written posts about her before, and continue to be deeply inspired by her life and the sisters who carry on… Read More Changing history by creating ripples
One of the Seven Wonders of the Christian world is in Xian, China, the starting point and terminus of the original Silk Road. It is the Nestorian Stele, a 10 foot stone tablet carved in 781 A.D. to commemorate the 150 year history up to that point of the work of the Church of the… Read More The Nestorian Stele of 781 A.D. T’ang China: Our Story in Their Story
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