by Teri McDowell Ott I laid in bed full of anxiety, needing to sleep, dying for sleep, but sleep would not come for a long time and I knew it. My husband was away at a conference and a 96-year-old church member was close to death. I expected the family to call at any moment. [...]
Sanctuary Art
by Bethany Devos Editors note: It may seem a little early for Advent, but since it takes time to create, it seemed appropriate to publish this idea well in advance. This method involves not only personal creativity in planning a way for a congregation to experience Advent visually, but also facilitating communal creativity, as members [...]
Keeping in Touch
by Laura Jean Torgerson photo by Christine McIntosh My husband, our two-year-old daughter and I are moving to Nicaragua in a week, to serve a three-year term as missionaries with Global Ministries (the UCC/ Disciples overseas presence). The past few weeks have been overloaded, stuffed with the events, tasks, and emotions of packing up our [...]
Walking in Tiny Shoes
by Maria Bergius Kramer She is concentrating deeply. She holds the doll and bends over the bowl. She then looks up at me with a question in her eyes. “I baptize you in the name of the Father…” I say. “The Father” she echoes me, and splashes the doll liberally with water. “…and the Son…” [...]
Commissioning
by Lee Hull Moses The assembly hall was packed, but I had managed to get a front row seat, so I had a clear view as my good friend and her family were commissioned as missionaries in the Christian Church. Later this month, they leave for Nicaragua, where Laura Jean will teach theology and Tim [...]
An Unmentionable Grief
Name Withheld I had originally planned this article under the banner ‘Last (Single) Woman Standing.’ Before I get mown down in the stampede of other young, single, female clergy (for I know I’m not really the only one), I suddenly realized, while driving to meet a single, male (and gay) friend, that among the network [...]
A Spirituality of Exhaustion
by Lara Blackwood Pickrel This summer has been no different than any of the other summers experienced in the decade I’ve spent as a youth minister: campfire smoke, bug spray, a few thousand miles packed sardine-style inside rental vans, silly bands (this year both on the radio and on teenagers’ wrists), mandatory abuse reporting, saggy [...]
The Lilith Fair
by Bromleigh McCleneghan Fumbling Toward Ecstasy provided the soundtrack for my first major mourning period following a high school break-up. Every night of that fall, I put the tape — dubbed off a friend’s CD — in my Walkman and curled up, staring out the window, letting Sarah McLachlan’s richly ethereal voice sing me to [...]