by Erica Schemper Late that Saturday afternoon, my daughter’s well-being was the farthest thing from my mind. I had 30 teenagers spread across the front of the church, and we were frantically pulling together the details for a youth-led worship service. The musicians needed a piece of music transposed for a saxophone, the projected technology [...]
Reflections on the Sacred Center
by suzanne l. vinson This month we feature an engaging meditation through word and image on what (and who) centers us in our roles as women and as ministers. The prayer here was inspired in part by news that the founder of The Young Clergy Women Project, Susan Olson, has been united with her new [...]
Why Can’t We Be Friends?
by MaryAnn McKibben Dana I’m about to lose about 60 friends on Facebook. Or am I? After six years as an associate pastor, I recently took a call at a new church. The last few weeks have been filled with all that betwixt-and-between stuff. I slowly began telling people who needed to know, swearing them [...]
In Sickness and in Health
by Stacey Midge Editor’s note: This sermon on Ezekiel 34 and Matthew 10, delivered in the preacher’s congregation on August 30, 2009, is an example of preaching that is personal, and political. It serves as an elegant example of the instances when one’s personal life collides with timely topics and we feel called, as preachers, [...]
Still a Writer
by Bromleigh McCleneghan “Pastor” did not top the list of my dream professions as a child, or even into junior high and high school, when the upper-middle class world I grew up in begins encouraging kids to firm up their vocational plans. Broadway star, lawyer, host of a show on National Public Radio about religion [...]
Dinner for Two?
Name Withheld I was just trying to be nice. Pastors are supposed to be nice, right? And to listen; pastors are supposed to listen, especially to their elderly parishioners who have just suffered the tremendous loss of a spouse’s death. I was trying to be empathetic, to be present in pain, to offer support. To [...]
Hope Does Not Disappoint Us (part two)
by Stephanie Sorge Wing (continued from August’s column) The pastor then informed me that the Session felt that they were unable at this point to move me on to Candidacy, and felt that I lacked some “clarity” and showed “confusion” about the Biblical witness. I asked what would happen if, in 6 months or a [...]
Monstrous Regiment
by Kate Macneil I will declare my bias here and now – I adore Terry Pratchett, and have done for years. I’m afraid you will find little of objective critique here, just unabashed admiration. If you haven’t yet met him and the world of characters he has created, I highly recommend them to you. In [...]