It’s Time for a Change

There’s an old Joke: 

“How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?”

CHANGE ?!?!?! (screamed with fear and trembling)

Originally my E-Newsletter started with the intent of bringing reflections on a changing church particularly from my perspective as Bishop of the New England Synod. Then it evolved to include thoughts on the ways spirituality is showing up in our world. This was most clearly articulated in my book Everyday Spirituality. Regular subscribers of this E-Newsletter may have noticed an inconsistency of late - Issues have been released with greater infrequency and a lack of clarity and direction. That’s because I’ve been at a loss for how to use this medium. You’ll also notice that the Podcast has gone into hibernation. 

It’s clearly time to shake things up!

Therefore, I’m switching to both a new format and a new focus. Going forward my writings will focus on the intersection of religion, culture and the soul. This grows out of my studies at the Haden Institute for Spiritual Direction. You got a glimpse of this in last month’s issue of this newsletter where I focused on “Contemplative Prayer”

The new format will be in the form of a Substack Newsletter. Huh? What’s that? Basically, Substack is a website and a newsletter combined. It’s used by writers who want to generate content and put it all in one place. It’s not a fancy schmancy website with pretty pictures, it’s mostly text on a white background.

Why make the change? Well, there are two reasons. 1) I’m board of this E-Newsletter format, it’s a bit clunky to assemble an issue and the cost of maintaining a subscriber base of 2500 is increasing. 2) My writing interests are shifting from writing about the church to writing about spirituality more broadly. While I could make the shift within this format, I think the new venue allows for a transition. A break, if you will, from something old to something new. 

What’s next? In the next week or so you’ll receive the first issue of the new “Notebooks of James Hazelwood” Substack Newsletter.  If you don’t want it, no worries, just unsubscribe. No harm, no foul. I’ll not be offended. If you do nothing it will keep coming to your inbox as long as you wish. If you are reading this blog post and don’t already receive the E-News and now want to subscribe to the new “Notebooks” substack letter. Click here to subscribe.

For those of you connected to me through the New England Synod, I’ll continue my communications through our E-Newsletter there. If you don’t already receive that you can subscribe at this link.

Still in One Peace,

James Hazelwood

The first issue will engage this quote, more to come soon.

“We do not leave the shore of the known in search of adventure or suspense or because of the failure of reason to answer our questions. We sail because our mind is like a fantastic sea shell, and when applying our ear to its lips we hear a perpetual murmur from the waves beyond the shore. Citizens of two realms, we all must sustain a dual allegiance.” 

– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,1976), 24.