If you followed my blog as I found my birth family, you might remember my half sister Carol. My birth mother didn’t want to meet me when I first contacted her, but she did give me the name of my birth father. He had died in 1996, but I tracked down his daughter Carol. I…
Here is the statement we shared in worship this morning at Calvary Presbyterian Church. Last week, we spoke these words together from the Confession of Belhar: —that the church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering and need, which implies, among other things, that the church must witness against and strive against…
This is the statement I recorded to air at the beginning of Calvary’s worship service for Jan 10, 2021. I didn’t change the sermon I had already written and recorded. Maybe I should have. Who knows. But I know that I’ve preached about these things before, and will preach about them again. Here’s the statement:…
Today is Epiphany, the day the church marks the journey of the Magi to find Jesus. Every year in worship, we choose star words to follow, reflect on, ponder in the coming. year. January 2020 seems like another lifetime somehow, but the word I drew last year was “overflowing”. It’s not an unknown word to…
This is the letter I just emailed to the Southminster congregation today. To my Southminster family, It is with a full heart that I tell you I have just been called to be the pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco today. I am both excited about this new call and heartbroken at the…
My birth mother died this morning. She had been in failing health for a while. I don’t know what I am feeling. I am sad. And I’m sure I will feel more sad at some point. I’m also grateful, not to replace or ignore the sadness, but as a companion to it. Before Washington State…
Here’s the prayer I offered in our modified, live streamed worship service tonight. (The words are mine. It was inspired from a prayer in the Reform Jewish Prayer book, Mishkan T’filah—A Reform Siddur.) Let us pray: O God, we are in uncertain times. And we are adapting our schedules, our practices, our sports, our meetings,…
With apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who wrote Love in the Time of Cholera, the world we’re in feels like it should be re-written by a magical realist. Because actual reality stinks. The World Health Organization has declared pandemic status for Covid-19, the coronavirus. The WHO Director General said, “WHO has been assessing this outbreak…
This is the letter being sent to the church today. In the hopes of catching people the email might miss, here it is again: Southminster Boise Health Plan March 12, 2020 As the news and concern over the COVID-19 situation continues, we at SPC are taking prudent steps in order to keep our community healthy.…
February 25, 2020, a committee of the Idaho House heard public testimony about Bill 465, which would put doctors in jail FOR LIFE if they offer medically standard care for transgender youth. It is a truly awful bill that would lead to harm for Idaho’s transgender community. It will also cost the state a lot…
Glass Overflowing 