Weekly Message

Dear Friends,  This coming Sunday, and two Sundays after that (October 4), we will be celebrating two of the All Saints’ “high holy days”—the Backpack Blessing and the Pet Blessing. You may be asking, “but how is this possible if we aren’t all together, in person? It won’t be the same without having someone throwing […]Read more “September 20, 2020”

Dear Friends, As I write this on the morning of the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I am struck by how the memory of that terrible day has shifted and evolved. For some, especially those who lost loved ones, who were living in New York or Washington, or whose health has been permanently impacted […]Read more “September 13, 2020”

Dear Friends, Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune reported that 30 million migrating birds were predicted to fly over Illinois on Thursday night, with some 180,000 passing directly over the city. Local birding organizations encouraged us to shut off our lights to keep from disrupting the birds’ migration and to keep cats indoors. I left my windows open to see […]Read more “September 6, 2020”

Dear Friends, This past Ascension Day, I talked about how the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is a gift to us so we are enabled and empowered to do God’s work in the world. During the season after Pentecost (the summer and early fall) we hear stories in Scripture of what doing God’s […]Read more “August 30, 2020”

Dear Friends, One of my most favorite fall activities is the purchasing of school supplies. Even though our kids are high school students, I still love perusing the ads, seeing who has the best deal on that TI-84 graphing calculator (I have no idea how these work), who has BOGOs, the lowest prices on pens, […]Read more “August 23, 2020”

Dear Friends, Many years ago – when she was in elementary school – our eldest, Elizabeth, participated in a poster contest. The contest was, “Who could make the best tornado warning poster?” It was spring in Southern Ohio – the start of tornado season – and whoever was sponsoring the contest wanted to make sure […]Read more “August 16, 2020”

Dear Friends, I normally would feel bad about being a broken record (telling you the same information over and over again), but I’ve always been told that if something is important then you cannot over communicate its importance. Similar to how I really only preach one or two basic sermons, with the gist being God […]Read more “August 9, 2020”

Dear Friends, Each week, I receive an email from the webpage Journey with Jesus (www.journeywithjesus.net), a webzine which features essays on the week’s lectionary readings, poetry, and blog posts on our variety of topics. This past week’s poem continues to capture my heart and imagination. Voices From Lemnos by Seamus Heaney (b. 1939) History says, […]Read more “August 2, 2020”