I began serving as the bridge interim pastor at Westbrook Congregational Church UCC in Westbrook, Connecticut this morning. I will be there until the Sunday after Easter while they complete their search for a settled pastor. My post to begin my Advent Journal for this year is the manuscript of my sermon. It is specific…
I am preaching this morning at our church in Guilford. The passage for today is Mark 13:1-8. One of the memories that has stayed with me from my preaching class in seminary is one of a student questioning our professor about how to be original. A knowing smile came across the professor’s face and he…
Today marks five weeks since my knee replacement surgery. Since that time I have been more singularly focused than almost any time in recent memory. The last five weeks have consisted of doing my exercises, eating, and resting–though not always sleeping. I came home from the hospital the day after my surgery and spent the…
I started playing with words others have written that have become inscribed on my life for one reason or another. It was a nice distraction as I prepare for my surgery on Wednesday and turned out to be fun as well. index of first lines I pulled into Nazareth was feeling ‘bout half past dead…
We have had the kind of weekend that makes me glad I live in New England: cool mornings, highs in the seventies, low humidity, and the long, warm, late-afternoon light that lets you know the days won’t be this way for long. Our little town put on a Performing Arts Festival that gave us good…
tiny waltz and somehow a day worth bottling has slipped into night without leaving words to describe how it felt and I have spent far too long staring at a screen as though the sheer silence of sitting would shape my sentences and I have deleted far more than I have saved but that’s true…
how are you? is the throwaway question in need of redemption when asked it should be followed by a pregnant pause the questioner willing to be the midwife we have let ourselves settle for hit and run compassion for lots of reasons we mean well we want to know –I’ve got to take this i…
When I had my first knee replacement, a church member called about a week after the surgery and said, “I can help you,” and so we asked her to come to the house. To say she is a physical therapist feels her short; she is a healer. Her visits were a big part of my…
harvest moon I posted a picture of the moonrise over Long Island Sound and a friend in Arkansas wrote, “It was really bright at our house too!” Another friend in Carolina told me she is talking to a group in Australia who feed hungry people about ways she can help I have one more from…
Part of my Sunday morning ritual is to pour a cup of coffee and watch CBS Sunday Morning until it’s time to go to church. I’ve watched the show on and off since the days of Charles Kuralt. It is just the right mix of calm and questions. Not a bad prelude for worship. This…