Hopeful Thinking

When does one have the right to say the words: I am a theologian ?  I will confess I even spelled the word wrong when I typed it for this writing. (Who would have thought there was an 'i' in it?)  But am I a theologian anyway?  The definitions say that one must be learned, expert even, before they are considered a theologian.  But is one born a theologian?  I don't ever remember a time when I wasn't aware of the ideas about life after death and its implications for life before it.  My earliest memories are of death.  Not the experiencing of it - no family member died until I was much older - but the awareness of it.  I was around three when I have my earliest memories of them, but the memories include an awareness that they had been happening for some time.  Panic attacks about death several times over the course of years (for what reasons, I cannot even speculate) imprinted upon me a deep early questioning about faith and the afterlife....

At the risk of stating the obvious, I have often noticed that it's uncomfortable to be wrong.  We don't like it one bit.  We rail against it.  Our egos do backflips to conjure some remedy that we may be mistaken about having been wrong.  We get defensive and argumentative.  We use our creativity and ingenuity to sculpt debate platforms and develop keywords, and we bring emotional weapons to the front lines in order to rally support for our wrongness.  Our present fight in congress is about that very thing: we must not be wrong . But is being wrong so bad?  Isn't being wrong indicative of having been removed from the shadows of error?  Isn't discovering one is wrong cause for celebration?  Isn't resistance to discovering one's error living in the past?  I say live in the present! If I discover I have been wrong it it because I am now, hopefully, right!   Allow your ego to step aside and celebrate the fact that you are no lo...

Wil Darcangelo                                                                                                                             Monday, October 7, 2013 Dr. Robert Pazmino Educational Ministry Across the Life Span The Turn-Off of Christianity: Mapping New Territory for the Exploration of Faith in Our Time A contextual look at the spirituality of Generation “Why” Introduction In our contemporary society filled with an increasing abundance of technology and ...

This is an assignment for my fundraising and grantwriting class with ANTS President, Dr. Nick Carter.  We were required to write a stewardship sermon for our (or a) church. We are not delivering these sermons, merely submitting them.  -Wil Stewardship Sermon for Rollstone Congregational Church, Fitchburg, MA My middle name is Daniel. I was named for my father, Daniel.  This is a photo of him. (Show photo) When I was born he was a mail carrier and he didn't much like going to church.  This is a photo of my parents on their wedding day. (Show photo) My grandparents on theirs. (Show photo). They , in contrast to my father, were involved in nearly every committee and club in this building. My parents, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle.  They were all married in this church. They spent their spiritual lives building up this sacred space.  They participated in things like the Candlelight Club, on committees, attended fundraisers, donated to scoutin...

Wil Darcangelo Weekly Reflection Paper - Friday, September 27, 2013 Culture and Religious Variations on Childhood The definitions of childhood are as varied as the number of children on the planet. It is possible to define it for one’s own purposes, but defining it on behalf of the culture at large is a task of arrogance. The field is too wide and the cultural differences too many for any one metric to emerge. Each would be more unfair to the majority than the other. Each would impose upon the other a cultural paradigm unfit for universal application, and thus, be doing some cultures a disservice in favor of those whose cultures happen to align with a prescribed educational format. But when it comes to the care and raising of a human child, there may be room for a common mission to be articulated. A constitution of child-rearing that all humans could adopt in their own way and style. A document of faith that acknowledges our special relationship and responsibili...

So, now I come to the point in my new life that I have to figure out a way to synthesize it with my old one.  How do I combine my careers with my theological path?  In one major sense, they are not disparate ideas at all; my dual-careers (my community and my music) have always been informed by my evolving theology.  It is why I partnered my two careers together in the first place.  My faith system encourages me to do well by doing good , the central tenet of cause marketing and social enterprise (thank you, David Roth and Corinne Farinelli for teaching this to me).  It is perfectly natural to me to believe that greater profit comes from high-integrity business plans.  Plans which create opportunities to collaborate with the community.  When everyone is a shareholder, everyone participates.  When everyone participates, a network is automatically generated within the group.  When a network exists, all things are possible. But in the specifics...

I have spent the past two days at orientation.  It was a real eye-opener.  The first day of classes is tomorrow. "Education Across the Lifespan" will be my first class at ANTS. I am actually doing this. It was only six months ago to the day that I realized I must do this and now I'm looking at a stack of books and a student id with my giddy face laser marked into the glossy white surface.  I am already $5,000 deeper in scholastic debt (I got a few thousand in scholarships from the school) and it's only the beginning. I just dove into this experience headfirst.  I never even knew how long the program was, how much it would cost, how many credits I needed, and most of all, what kind of seminary I wanted to attend.  I knew a couple people at Rollstone who had attended ANTS so I just decided to go there.  Other schools never occurred to me. I went into this experience not worrying a whit about any of the details.  I knew that they would be worked out ...