Journal

Helene

We knew it was brewing in the spawning grounds of the Caribbean. Five days in advance, as it began its move to the Gulf of Mexico, the  storm trackers put …

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A Death Adorned

Plucked from out the cowering sprigs huddled on the sidewalk at the Walmart,          the little redbud shoot had promise, form,         a single stalk that might …

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Coming to the Table

Three strands of my life have coalesced in the recent publication of two books. First, in 2000 I built my first round communion table, which was followed by several more …

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Meeting Roger Williams (again)

I have long known that one of my distant ancestors is Roger Williams, the seventeenth century founder of Rhode Island. (For you genealogists: Roger, Daniel, Peleg, Daniel, Thomas, Mary (Hoag), …

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What is Pravda?

When the Communist Party of Russia came to power in 1918, they set up a newspaper that would be their official organ of propaganda until the collapse of the Soviet …

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Eyeless in Gaza

Eyeless in Gaza we strike out   bringing down the temple of our gods,  turning into ashes bodies of our dreams,   the tender offspring of our hope. Was not …

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Buried at the Keyboard

You haven’t seen any new postings from me for the past month because my fingers have been busy typing up two books that I probably mentioned sometime earlier. This is, …

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In the Dark time…a Light

As we move through a season of stark contradiction between the happy music in churches and the violence and horrific death in Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, and Sudan, between the fervent consumption …

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Baratunde Thurston in Oregon

In the past year Sylvia and I have become fans of Baratunde Thurston’s ”America Outdoors,” which airs on your local PBS stations. Others may know him for his wit and …

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Ketoctin Grace

As long-time readers of this blog know, a small brick church in Virginia’s Loudoun County has been a singular presence in my entire life. Ketoctin Baptist Church was founded in …

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Spalting

Over the past two months I have been back into theology, worship, and the practical work of sustaining life-giving conversations in our church. And so nothing suitable for journaling has …

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Poetics, Liturgy and Lent

At the invitation of the pastors at my church, I provided the opening call and prayer for our worship services from Ash Wednesday to Easter this year. It became a …

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Twenty Years of Roundtable Worship

Last Sunday was the twentieth anniversary of the Roundtable Worship Gathering at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville, North Carolina. Whether by dogged perseverance, habit, or the winds of the …

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A Prayer from Ukraine

In response to my previous posting, my long-time friend Gerd Decke, a retired pastor in Berlin, sent me a prayer he had received through a German church-relief agency from the …

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