About this blarg. Uh, blog.

Welcome to my blog. This is my platform for holding forth at length on whatever comes to mind, and engaging in conversation (at least when I have a moment) on those topics that interest me, particularly theology, specifically Anglican and Old Catholic issues in Europe.

By way of introduction, I am an American who has lived in northern Germany since 1993. I speak English, of course (well, Brits might argue with that) and fluent German. I'm separated and have two young kids, whom I love dearly. I was raised in the Episcopal Church in the US, had a phase where I didn't have much to do with church, then groped my way back to faith by exploring various parishes in my area, mostly EKD Lutheran, but generally running away screaming from all of them. No offense at members of the EKD, just that the run-of-the-mill EKD parish tends to be anti-liturgical and low church, and it just ain't my cup of tea. Or of wine transsubstantiated blood. (Sorry, consubstantiated.)

Once I found the Old Catholic parish in Hannover in late 2004, I finally felt at home, and since then I did all kinds of work for the parish -- cantor, diocesan delegate five times, parish council member for five years, webmaster, parish bulletins, acolyte, and whatever else tickled my fancy. I'm something of an unusual animal in Germany -- I'm one of the few people I know who attends church every Sunday.

In September 2014, I moved to Potsdam and thus changed to the Berlin Old Catholic parish, though I also visit the Berlin chaplaincy of the Church of England, St. George’s. I was elected to the Old Catholic’s vestry council in February 2015 and now do the Berlin parish’s church newsletter.

While I would generally be considered a more liberal Christian -- I favor women's ordination, believe homosexuals should be welcome in the church, etc. -- I also have a deep respect and appreciation of the Orthodox Church, and also look forward to a time when Canterbury, Utrecht, Rome and Constantinople are once again united.

Other than theology, I'm also interested in history, cosmology, early music, computers, console games and cooking. I should also mention that while I'm obviously a committed Christian, I also enjoy discussing faith with non-believers as well as with other faiths, and have made many friends over the years doing so.

As for my professional background, I got my degree in graphic design in Germany after starting as an exchange student, graduated in 1997 and since then worked as a graphic designer with emphasis on Web design, teaching myself programming along the way. If you're looking for a good freelance web designer, please do drop me a line. My website is at www.xanitydesign.de.

Since 2011, I have been on a disability pension, but since late 2014 I have worked as an English teacher for scientists working on their doctorates in Potsdam as well as designer of the Old Catholic newspaper Christen heute.

Aside from my website, you can find me on Quora, my (currently paused) business on XING, LinkedIn, Twitter, Behance Network and Facebook.

I'd like this blog to be collegial, friendly, informative, and on the level, but also controversial and engaging. I don't like echo chambers, not even when it's my echo. But I also place great value in mutual respect and decency. Please be sure to abide by that when posting.

So...once again, welcome to my blog, and I hope you enjoy your stay. Pull up a chair and sit a spell.

All sermons and other texts authored by yours truly on this site are made available under the Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.