Tag: faith
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The Gift of Distraction
If I have seemed distracted, lately, perhaps it is because I have been startled by the beauty of a world in motion. Yesterday, it seems, we were trapped in the heavy humidity of August in Pennsylvania; this week there is an edge to the morning cold, and I noticed the edge of a dark red…
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GUEST POST: Disciples Take Their Faith Public
This past Sunday my congregation was honored to welcome a guest, the Rev. Gloria Yi, into our pulpit to preach. She was and is a gift to our church, and her powerful words, proclaimed in the aftermath of an incredibly emotional week for so many folks, were well-needed. As a pastor, I give thanks for voices…
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Theology 101: Faith
Isaiah 5:1-7 Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he…
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Church and State
Yesterday morning I read that the IRS is investigating the UCC because of a speech given by presidential candidate Barack Obama at general synod. It appears that the distinction between church and state may have been breached because Obama, who has always identified as UCC, accepted an invitation to give a speech to his…
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Drumroll…
update on my last post– things went well! I was recommended by my CPM for candidacy and will be appearing in the presence of Presbytery on April 5th…. so soon too! As for the process, I will say that this time around was much less nerve-wracking than the previous two meetings with CPM, which is…
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Into the fire
It’s D-Day. And by D-Day, I mean my annual CPM meeting. Now, granted, I love my CPM. They are great folks and I every year I leave with the sense that they are truly committed to this process. They are loving and supporting (and to my knowledge none of them read this blog so, no, I am…
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In the Struggle there is Hope
I went on a retreat a few weeks back with my fellow seminarians where we spent almost two days in seclusion on the property of some Cistercian nuns in Southern Massachusetts. It was a great experience for me, to a great extent because it was intentional space set apart from the world around me, space…
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One less hoop…
So today, whilst many a folk was probably enjoying the weather, or reading a nice book, or whatever folk do, I was doing the final preparations to send my forms for candidacy to the Committee on Preparation for Ministry in San Jose, CA who oversees and handles my ordination. It was a pretty big deal,…
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First post
Well, hello there. So this is my first post on what will potentially be an amazing journey, an attempt to begin to scratch the surface of the many thoughts, questions, and ponderings that have filled my mind over the past year or so. It may or may not be an easy journey, but I would…
Deeper in me than I 