This past weekend I was invited to attend Shabbat at a local synagogue as the guest of one of the members. It was the first Shabbat since the tragic events in Pittsburgh the previous Saturday, and it was a privilege to show my support for...
Last week was a low point in American life. Thirteen homemade pipe bombs mailed to prominent U.S. citizens, all mercifully intercepted before they could achieve the carnage for which they were intended. Then Saturday morning, another mass shooting, this time at a Jewish synagogue, and before...
Last week I was RAK’D, and it made quite an impression on me. Not familiar with being a RAK recipient? Let me explain…. Last month my family did a three-way car swap. As part of the intra-family horse-trading, my mother and brother drove a vehicle from...
Have you ever been overwhelmed by a task before you? Have you ever felt certain you lacked the skills to do the job you’ve been given? Have you ever left a role you felt capable of for an unknown and uncomfortable future? Have you ever...
Tomorrow we will live out our faith by worshiping through serving our community. Twice a year, Calvary gathers at our normal time and place, Sunday, 10:00 a.m., for “Be the Kingdom Sunday.” We show up in jeans and tennis shoes, wearing Presbyterian-blue Calvary t-shirts. After...
No matter how or when it happens, the news of someone taking his or her own life is shocking and horrifying. As a society, we have made important strides in mental health education and treatment, but suicide remains greatly stigmatized and misunderstood. The recent deaths...
It is finally here. After two and a half years of praying, planning, raising money, moving and washing pipes, pursuing county permits, enduring the noise and inevitable mess of renovations and converting the balcony to a pipe chamber, and overcoming numerous obstacles and setbacks, this...
On Tuesday I awoke with a start, realizing it was the 17th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Seventeen years. Enough time for a baby born that year to now be a high school graduate. Enough time that for most people, life is very...
I have been in church all my life. That means, among other things, that there are certain scriptures that I have heard, read and studied dozens, if not hundreds, of times. Yet one of the fun and significant aspects of scripture is that no matter...
I have been thinking a good bit about community lately. Because human beings are created with a need to belong, community is vital. We cannot, in fact, learn who we are or what is authentic for us without community, beginning with the first community we...