Riley Howell
Our church and community just suffered the trauma of the death of Riley Howell, a young man raised in our congregation, who hurled himself at a gunman who invaded his …
A Conversation in the Midst of Conflict
As many of you know, my denomination, the United Methodist Church, recently held a special General Conference to try to find a way to enable its far-flung membership in the …
Conversation
[To My Readers: My posting has been delayed while a tech crew repairs my hacked subscriber list. I hope to be up and running by June 26. Stay tuned!] It’s …
Transgender Conversations
I live in the state with the famous “bathroom law” (HB 2) that the North Carolina Legislature, dominated by Republican extremists, passed in a one-day special session last Spring. Because …
A Liturgy from the Roundtable Gathering
As close readers of this blog site already know, I gather every month with about fifteen other people at a round table for a time of circle conversation, prayer, song, …
Climate Change and the Work of Peace
The day after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, we gathered at Lake Junaluska for our seventh annual Interfaith Peace Conference. Our theme this year was “The …
Republican DTs
Like you, I have watched in shocked disgust the ascendancy of one we shall call DT in the Republican Party’s primary elections. For some this means delirium tremens. You know …
Identity and Conversation
Let’s see now. L G B….T…Q?… I?? I. I’ve been thinking a lot in the past few years about the alphabet of identities. If we haven’t been struggling to articulate …
How do you know?
“What do you know?” Who hasn’t uttered this frequent throw-away line in our everyday discourse. Not so usual would be to say “How do you know?” And yet, this could …
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 …
Reconciling Conversations
Readers of this blog will know that I have spent many years cultivating a form of worship that places the circle of reconciling conversation at the center. This Roundtable Worship, …
Moving Midway: Toward Reconciliation
We recently saw an arresting documentary film entitled “Moving Midway,” a story about saving an old North Carolina plantation house and discovering the family histories behind it. Midway was a …
Expanding Marriage
The reactionary impulses of the 2010 elections propelled the North Carolina Republican Party into control of the legislature for the first time in a century. One result was that we …
Tsunami Wings
The earthquake and tsunami that devastated Sendai, Japan, last March continues to reverberate in our minds and hearts, just as the painful task of recovery continues for the Japanese people. …
A New Table
This table was commissioned by the District Superintendents of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church to honor their Bishop, John Schol. The pedestal of walnut and cherry creates …