The Gift of Mother Emanuel
Last week Sylvia and I went on a long-planned visit to Charleston, South Carolina, a beautiful and historic city we had not seen in twenty-five years. Founded in 1680, its …
Reflections on the Lake Junaluska Peace Conference
Last Sunday we concluded four days devoted to the Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, we have been involved in for the past seven years. This year’s theme was “Longing for Peace/Exploring …
Remembering Jim Fowler
My dear friend of fifty years, James W. Fowler III, died on October 16 after a struggle with Alzheimer’s disease that lasted over 12 years. Jim was famous for his …
Restoring our Memories, Restoring Ourselves
The work of remembering takes patience, persistence, and an attention to detail. So I am finding out as I painstakingly sort through almost four hundred photographs from my mother’s stay …
Journeying Toward Reconciliation
Last October I wrote about the development of Reconciling Conversations at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville, here in western North Carolina. At the time, we had put together a …
Searching for Identity on Cyprus
We returned almost a month ago from two weeks on Cyprus after a rich tour of Egypt’s ancient sites. As we flew over the Mediterranean from Cairo to Larnaca, Cyprus, …
Of Patriots and Matriots
For us Northern Hemisphere folks who follow the Greco-Latinate calendar, this is a time of endings and new beginnings, of passage into darkness and out into light, from the dying …
Mining Memories on Cyprus
My co-author John de Gruchy and I have sent off our book Sawdust and Soul to our publisher (to the “typesetter,” our editor said!). If all goes well it will …
Ruminations of a Seasoned Life
As Spring creeps northward, coaxing up the daffodils, forsythia, and redbud, I am back into routines after times of travel and our work at the Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, which …
Generations in Mesilla
They call it Old Mesilla – the tightly settled grid of one- and two-story adobe buildings gathered around the central plaza and its church. There is a “New Mesilla” stretching …
The Bells of San Albino
We are spending the month of February in the little town of Mesilla, adjacent to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Mesilla (pronounced “Meh-SEE-yah”), which means “little table,” was formed shortly after …
Desert Reflections
The electronic world makes it easy to forget the real world expanses of this planet. We just completed a 2400-mile road trip from the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina to …
A Tale of Two Capes
Last week Sylvia and I visited North Carolina’s Cape Fear region, the southern tip of the series of islands, shoals, and lagoons that form an elbow into the Atlantic, nudging …
Abiding in Hope
For some years I have been involved in circle conversations in my Methodist church about ways we as a congregation and as a global church might welcome ALL people and …
The Learning Curve
You’re never too old to learn something. In the midst of more sober reflections (meaning of life, planetary destruction, state of American politics…), it’s good to focus on the simpler …