Singing Along the Journey

community

A Nostalgic Kind of Holy Day…

I find myself, each Maundy Thursday, feeling, well -- nostalgic.   Yes,  I am moved deeply by the invitation to walk alongside Jesus through this most difficult and yet most glorious part of his story and our story together.   This day, however, forms an intricate piece of my own story as a person and as a disciple, one of those places where my own story intersects with the story of the Christ in unusual ways. Let's go back to the beginning --  my own beginning, that is.  You see, my parents had a difficult relationship with the idea of church after the death of my brother.  My earliest memories…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

The storm is passing over…

This morning my musical brain is full of the sounds of Charles Tindley's hymn (recast in its popular gospel arrangement), "The Storm is Passing Over" and this is not a random soundtrack for this day.  It is, in fact, a welcome, blessed message from my soul that I have been waiting a long time to hear, a message that as recently as yesterday seemed impossible. You see, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my seizure while travelling in Israel, the first recognizable symptom of the congenital heart valve defect that I had been living with for all these years.  It was the beginning of the long journey through doctors…
Read More

Wherever two or more are gathered…

I read that quotation again this morning as I read Pastor Amy's amazing article about the importance of community in the new book Gathering Together:  Baptists at Work in Worship, but the truth is, I have been thinking about it for weeks and in particular these last few days.  Because right now I am in a unique position to testify to the power of  a community of worship. You see, on Sunday, as I attended what will be my last worship service for a while, people of my community gathered around me and sang songs and prayed over me and laid hands upon me and hugged me.  They cried with…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves…

It is the rare moment for me when I am uncertain about sharing my thoughts (those who know me well know that I live to have an opinion about things).  But I have struggled over these last twenty-four hours about whether or not to write what follows.  At first, I started to add it only to my private journal.  And then I decided to write it where at least a few stout souls might see it.  I do not intend what follows as a political commentary; for me, it is a simple answer to a question of faith that I was asked yesterday.  I only write these words because over…
Read More

A Nostalgic Kind of Holy Day…

I find myself, each Maundy Thursday, feeling, well -- nostalgic.   Yes,  I am moved deeply by the invitation to walk alongside Jesus through this most difficult and yet most glorious part of his story and our story together.   This day, however, forms an intricate piece of my own story as a person and as a disciple, one of those places where my own story intersects with the story of the Christ in unusual ways. Let's go back to the beginning --  my own beginning, that is.  You see, my parents had a difficult relationship with the idea of church after the death of my brother.  My earliest memories…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

The storm is passing over…

This morning my musical brain is full of the sounds of Charles Tindley's hymn (recast in its popular gospel arrangement), "The Storm is Passing Over" and this is not a random soundtrack for this day.  It is, in fact, a welcome, blessed message from my soul that I have been waiting a long time to hear, a message that as recently as yesterday seemed impossible. You see, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my seizure while travelling in Israel, the first recognizable symptom of the congenital heart valve defect that I had been living with for all these years.  It was the beginning of the long journey through doctors…
Read More

Wherever two or more are gathered…

I read that quotation again this morning as I read Pastor Amy's amazing article about the importance of community in the new book Gathering Together:  Baptists at Work in Worship, but the truth is, I have been thinking about it for weeks and in particular these last few days.  Because right now I am in a unique position to testify to the power of  a community of worship. You see, on Sunday, as I attended what will be my last worship service for a while, people of my community gathered around me and sang songs and prayed over me and laid hands upon me and hugged me.  They cried with…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves…

It is the rare moment for me when I am uncertain about sharing my thoughts (those who know me well know that I live to have an opinion about things).  But I have struggled over these last twenty-four hours about whether or not to write what follows.  At first, I started to add it only to my private journal.  And then I decided to write it where at least a few stout souls might see it.  I do not intend what follows as a political commentary; for me, it is a simple answer to a question of faith that I was asked yesterday.  I only write these words because over…
Read More

A Nostalgic Kind of Holy Day…

I find myself, each Maundy Thursday, feeling, well -- nostalgic.   Yes,  I am moved deeply by the invitation to walk alongside Jesus through this most difficult and yet most glorious part of his story and our story together.   This day, however, forms an intricate piece of my own story as a person and as a disciple, one of those places where my own story intersects with the story of the Christ in unusual ways. Let's go back to the beginning --  my own beginning, that is.  You see, my parents had a difficult relationship with the idea of church after the death of my brother.  My earliest memories…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

The storm is passing over…

This morning my musical brain is full of the sounds of Charles Tindley's hymn (recast in its popular gospel arrangement), "The Storm is Passing Over" and this is not a random soundtrack for this day.  It is, in fact, a welcome, blessed message from my soul that I have been waiting a long time to hear, a message that as recently as yesterday seemed impossible. You see, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my seizure while travelling in Israel, the first recognizable symptom of the congenital heart valve defect that I had been living with for all these years.  It was the beginning of the long journey through doctors…
Read More

Wherever two or more are gathered…

I read that quotation again this morning as I read Pastor Amy's amazing article about the importance of community in the new book Gathering Together:  Baptists at Work in Worship, but the truth is, I have been thinking about it for weeks and in particular these last few days.  Because right now I am in a unique position to testify to the power of  a community of worship. You see, on Sunday, as I attended what will be my last worship service for a while, people of my community gathered around me and sang songs and prayed over me and laid hands upon me and hugged me.  They cried with…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves…

It is the rare moment for me when I am uncertain about sharing my thoughts (those who know me well know that I live to have an opinion about things).  But I have struggled over these last twenty-four hours about whether or not to write what follows.  At first, I started to add it only to my private journal.  And then I decided to write it where at least a few stout souls might see it.  I do not intend what follows as a political commentary; for me, it is a simple answer to a question of faith that I was asked yesterday.  I only write these words because over…
Read More

A Nostalgic Kind of Holy Day…

I find myself, each Maundy Thursday, feeling, well -- nostalgic.   Yes,  I am moved deeply by the invitation to walk alongside Jesus through this most difficult and yet most glorious part of his story and our story together.   This day, however, forms an intricate piece of my own story as a person and as a disciple, one of those places where my own story intersects with the story of the Christ in unusual ways. Let's go back to the beginning --  my own beginning, that is.  You see, my parents had a difficult relationship with the idea of church after the death of my brother.  My earliest memories…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

The storm is passing over…

This morning my musical brain is full of the sounds of Charles Tindley's hymn (recast in its popular gospel arrangement), "The Storm is Passing Over" and this is not a random soundtrack for this day.  It is, in fact, a welcome, blessed message from my soul that I have been waiting a long time to hear, a message that as recently as yesterday seemed impossible. You see, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my seizure while travelling in Israel, the first recognizable symptom of the congenital heart valve defect that I had been living with for all these years.  It was the beginning of the long journey through doctors…
Read More

Wherever two or more are gathered…

I read that quotation again this morning as I read Pastor Amy's amazing article about the importance of community in the new book Gathering Together:  Baptists at Work in Worship, but the truth is, I have been thinking about it for weeks and in particular these last few days.  Because right now I am in a unique position to testify to the power of  a community of worship. You see, on Sunday, as I attended what will be my last worship service for a while, people of my community gathered around me and sang songs and prayed over me and laid hands upon me and hugged me.  They cried with…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves…

It is the rare moment for me when I am uncertain about sharing my thoughts (those who know me well know that I live to have an opinion about things).  But I have struggled over these last twenty-four hours about whether or not to write what follows.  At first, I started to add it only to my private journal.  And then I decided to write it where at least a few stout souls might see it.  I do not intend what follows as a political commentary; for me, it is a simple answer to a question of faith that I was asked yesterday.  I only write these words because over…
Read More

A Nostalgic Kind of Holy Day…

I find myself, each Maundy Thursday, feeling, well -- nostalgic.   Yes,  I am moved deeply by the invitation to walk alongside Jesus through this most difficult and yet most glorious part of his story and our story together.   This day, however, forms an intricate piece of my own story as a person and as a disciple, one of those places where my own story intersects with the story of the Christ in unusual ways. Let's go back to the beginning --  my own beginning, that is.  You see, my parents had a difficult relationship with the idea of church after the death of my brother.  My earliest memories…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

The storm is passing over…

This morning my musical brain is full of the sounds of Charles Tindley's hymn (recast in its popular gospel arrangement), "The Storm is Passing Over" and this is not a random soundtrack for this day.  It is, in fact, a welcome, blessed message from my soul that I have been waiting a long time to hear, a message that as recently as yesterday seemed impossible. You see, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my seizure while travelling in Israel, the first recognizable symptom of the congenital heart valve defect that I had been living with for all these years.  It was the beginning of the long journey through doctors…
Read More

Wherever two or more are gathered…

I read that quotation again this morning as I read Pastor Amy's amazing article about the importance of community in the new book Gathering Together:  Baptists at Work in Worship, but the truth is, I have been thinking about it for weeks and in particular these last few days.  Because right now I am in a unique position to testify to the power of  a community of worship. You see, on Sunday, as I attended what will be my last worship service for a while, people of my community gathered around me and sang songs and prayed over me and laid hands upon me and hugged me.  They cried with…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves…

It is the rare moment for me when I am uncertain about sharing my thoughts (those who know me well know that I live to have an opinion about things).  But I have struggled over these last twenty-four hours about whether or not to write what follows.  At first, I started to add it only to my private journal.  And then I decided to write it where at least a few stout souls might see it.  I do not intend what follows as a political commentary; for me, it is a simple answer to a question of faith that I was asked yesterday.  I only write these words because over…
Read More

A Nostalgic Kind of Holy Day…

I find myself, each Maundy Thursday, feeling, well -- nostalgic.   Yes,  I am moved deeply by the invitation to walk alongside Jesus through this most difficult and yet most glorious part of his story and our story together.   This day, however, forms an intricate piece of my own story as a person and as a disciple, one of those places where my own story intersects with the story of the Christ in unusual ways. Let's go back to the beginning --  my own beginning, that is.  You see, my parents had a difficult relationship with the idea of church after the death of my brother.  My earliest memories…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

The storm is passing over…

This morning my musical brain is full of the sounds of Charles Tindley's hymn (recast in its popular gospel arrangement), "The Storm is Passing Over" and this is not a random soundtrack for this day.  It is, in fact, a welcome, blessed message from my soul that I have been waiting a long time to hear, a message that as recently as yesterday seemed impossible. You see, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my seizure while travelling in Israel, the first recognizable symptom of the congenital heart valve defect that I had been living with for all these years.  It was the beginning of the long journey through doctors…
Read More

Wherever two or more are gathered…

I read that quotation again this morning as I read Pastor Amy's amazing article about the importance of community in the new book Gathering Together:  Baptists at Work in Worship, but the truth is, I have been thinking about it for weeks and in particular these last few days.  Because right now I am in a unique position to testify to the power of  a community of worship. You see, on Sunday, as I attended what will be my last worship service for a while, people of my community gathered around me and sang songs and prayed over me and laid hands upon me and hugged me.  They cried with…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves…

It is the rare moment for me when I am uncertain about sharing my thoughts (those who know me well know that I live to have an opinion about things).  But I have struggled over these last twenty-four hours about whether or not to write what follows.  At first, I started to add it only to my private journal.  And then I decided to write it where at least a few stout souls might see it.  I do not intend what follows as a political commentary; for me, it is a simple answer to a question of faith that I was asked yesterday.  I only write these words because over…
Read More

A Nostalgic Kind of Holy Day…

I find myself, each Maundy Thursday, feeling, well -- nostalgic.   Yes,  I am moved deeply by the invitation to walk alongside Jesus through this most difficult and yet most glorious part of his story and our story together.   This day, however, forms an intricate piece of my own story as a person and as a disciple, one of those places where my own story intersects with the story of the Christ in unusual ways. Let's go back to the beginning --  my own beginning, that is.  You see, my parents had a difficult relationship with the idea of church after the death of my brother.  My earliest memories…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
Read More

The storm is passing over…

This morning my musical brain is full of the sounds of Charles Tindley's hymn (recast in its popular gospel arrangement), "The Storm is Passing Over" and this is not a random soundtrack for this day.  It is, in fact, a welcome, blessed message from my soul that I have been waiting a long time to hear, a message that as recently as yesterday seemed impossible. You see, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my seizure while travelling in Israel, the first recognizable symptom of the congenital heart valve defect that I had been living with for all these years.  It was the beginning of the long journey through doctors…
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Wherever two or more are gathered…

I read that quotation again this morning as I read Pastor Amy's amazing article about the importance of community in the new book Gathering Together:  Baptists at Work in Worship, but the truth is, I have been thinking about it for weeks and in particular these last few days.  Because right now I am in a unique position to testify to the power of  a community of worship. You see, on Sunday, as I attended what will be my last worship service for a while, people of my community gathered around me and sang songs and prayed over me and laid hands upon me and hugged me.  They cried with…
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What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
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We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves…

It is the rare moment for me when I am uncertain about sharing my thoughts (those who know me well know that I live to have an opinion about things).  But I have struggled over these last twenty-four hours about whether or not to write what follows.  At first, I started to add it only to my private journal.  And then I decided to write it where at least a few stout souls might see it.  I do not intend what follows as a political commentary; for me, it is a simple answer to a question of faith that I was asked yesterday.  I only write these words because over…
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A Nostalgic Kind of Holy Day…

I find myself, each Maundy Thursday, feeling, well -- nostalgic.   Yes,  I am moved deeply by the invitation to walk alongside Jesus through this most difficult and yet most glorious part of his story and our story together.   This day, however, forms an intricate piece of my own story as a person and as a disciple, one of those places where my own story intersects with the story of the Christ in unusual ways. Let's go back to the beginning --  my own beginning, that is.  You see, my parents had a difficult relationship with the idea of church after the death of my brother.  My earliest memories…
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At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
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Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
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What I’ve Learned So Far….the Graduation Blog

The night we gathered as a graduating class to talk about the work of our Capstone projects and theses was a celebratory one.  Congratulations, hugs, tears...a chance to spend time with our faculty advisers (even though they were in the throws of the final grading needed to get us all to graduation).  And in the midst of that, a friend who had witnessed many times my opening introduction of "I'm not from a diocese, I'm a Baptist" whispered in my ear, "The Episcopal Church welcomes you."   And the Episcopal church did welcome me.  It did not try to convert me, it did not try to change my theology.  Instead,…
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The storm is passing over…

This morning my musical brain is full of the sounds of Charles Tindley's hymn (recast in its popular gospel arrangement), "The Storm is Passing Over" and this is not a random soundtrack for this day.  It is, in fact, a welcome, blessed message from my soul that I have been waiting a long time to hear, a message that as recently as yesterday seemed impossible. You see, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my seizure while travelling in Israel, the first recognizable symptom of the congenital heart valve defect that I had been living with for all these years.  It was the beginning of the long journey through doctors…
Read More

Wherever two or more are gathered…

I read that quotation again this morning as I read Pastor Amy's amazing article about the importance of community in the new book Gathering Together:  Baptists at Work in Worship, but the truth is, I have been thinking about it for weeks and in particular these last few days.  Because right now I am in a unique position to testify to the power of  a community of worship. You see, on Sunday, as I attended what will be my last worship service for a while, people of my community gathered around me and sang songs and prayed over me and laid hands upon me and hugged me.  They cried with…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves…

It is the rare moment for me when I am uncertain about sharing my thoughts (those who know me well know that I live to have an opinion about things).  But I have struggled over these last twenty-four hours about whether or not to write what follows.  At first, I started to add it only to my private journal.  And then I decided to write it where at least a few stout souls might see it.  I do not intend what follows as a political commentary; for me, it is a simple answer to a question of faith that I was asked yesterday.  I only write these words because over…
Read More