About this blog

This blog is experimental, for me. As a minister, I believe it is important that I keep learning and seekingt, and the blog in some ways is a report on what’s going on in my workshop.

I am as much as anything a writer, and I most enjoy writing letters. So another way I think of this blog is as a place to write letters — mostly “To whom it may concern,” but possibly also to specific groups or even people.

I also hope from time to time to write brief tracts, which might be usable by Friends for education forums or as leaflets for visitors.  I may also post pieces by others that I want to draw to readers’ attention.

I hope to use the blog as a place to pull together many of my short pieces that might be of use to someone — and at least will be in one place for my own convenience.

I am open to suggestions from anyone who reads this:  One of my favorite Advices is: ” Teach by being teachable.”

A note about the name.  “Amor vincat” is Latin, and means “May love conquer.”  Now, the sort of love that I have in mind is what is called in some circles “Christian charity,” translating the Greek word agape.  This has been translated into Latin as caritas, as in 1 Corinthians 13.  In John 13:34, when Jesus commands his disciples to love one another as he has loved them, the Greek gives us agape/agapao, but the Vulgate uses dilectio, and the verbal form is habere dilectionem.   In classical Latin, amor had a wide range of connotations, from earthy physical love and desire, to more abstract ideas like the love of country, or love within families.  So, close enough.  I chose amor because it’s more familiar to people who don’t read Latin, because the rhythm is good with vincat, and because the sense sort of works. Anyone reading this blog will see right away that I am not speaking of romantic love  (even though they might know the phrase amor vincit omnia, which usually has the romantic connotation).