God, some I know make a hard rowing today, storm-tossed by worry, grief and doubt, trying to control the compass of the future. Others are in safe harbor and have heard the “peace be still.” Some have come to summer solstice and others are in winter beauty. Some are waking still full of Juneteenth good… Read More
The Politics of Pastoral Itinerancy
Help us to remember that the Holy Spirit, gave not one, but two gifts — the power of voice for those who needed to speak, and, the power of listening for those who needed to be quiet and listen … I am the every-other-Saturday-every-other-month pray-er for our blog and those words were in my prayer… Read More
Saturday Prayer
My friend Dayalan Devanesen, director of Roofs for the Roofless, of Chennai, India, sent me a photo of Gurdon Brewster’s sculpture given to him by his mother. It is ‘Christ Dancing Off the Cross’. On the last of the waiting nights for whatever the “power” is going to be, it seems important to hold carefully… Read More
Saturday Prayer
God, there are many brighter, clearer, more beautiful pictures of cardinals on the Internet, but I meditate on this one to remind myself that I could only see it because I looked out of my window at my neighbor’s house. I only ease the headache, tight band of pain across the chest, dropped details, snap-at-a-child… Read More
Saturday Prayer
God, I want to complain that the second-hand puzzle I got at the church fair has three pieces missing (like lots of other things I’ve received from the church over the years). It didn’t undo the pleasure of putting in all the other pieces, and I can see clearly what the picture is intended to… Read More
Saturday Prayer
God, as so many of the ways we care turn to online and telephone, I feel “connected” to Paul, James, and Priscilla who wrote the letter to the Hebrews, beginning the church’s long tradition of remote worship and spiritual care. So I pray with the letter to Lydia’s church — Thank you, God, for my… Read More
Saturday Prayer
God, thank you for the way Lent captures unintentional selfies — not my face in tourist scenery to be remembered or registering (boasting) my presence at an event — but showing the shadow of me against my surroundings and the door into my inner self. Sometimes it shows my heart made of intricate knots —… Read More
The Pastoral is Political: A White Person Walks into a Bar and a Melanated Person Sings a Psalm
In the United States it is the Martin Luther King, Jr. commemoration and one of three hundred and sixty-six days this year to think about race. We sing “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” the poem by James Weldon Johnson set to music by John Rosamond Johnson, but I’m not sure it is good today to… Read More
Saturday Prayer: Winnie the Pooh Day
You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes. AA Milne God, take me on a walk today with my feet or heart or fingers across the newsfeed — not with my own purpose, (as if I have set my Waze… Read More
Saturday Prayer: Two Days Out
God, we are two days out from epiphany and my view is backside of a camel, the road is a blister-maker, the night-sky is cloudy, and I think I am going to make a bad decision. I know that being wise involves avoiding the bullies, in families, communities, schoolyards, prison yards, nursing homes, work places,… Read More
