Deer and Canada Geese aren’t exactly favorites of the animal world, at least not in urban settings where ecological imbalances enable their proliferation.  We’ve lost quite a few young trees and too-many-to-count landscaping plants to deer.  Geese have never met a sidewalk they didn’t poop on.  But lately I’ve found…

I’ve been thinking recently about baptism.  But not by myself.  This month Lawrence N (this Sunday) and Sarah M (June 21st at the outdoor service at Highbanks) will be baptized, and we’ve been meeting to discuss baptismal vows, scripture, and baptism stories.  A couple of those stories have come from…

For the last half year, we’ve had two guests in our church refuge apartment space – an Algerian woman named Tafsout, and Nafi, a Liberian woman.  Both came to the US through legal channels but struggled to get established financially.  Ever since Edith Espinal lived in sanctuary in that apartment…

Jim Wallis, longtime leader of the Sojourners community in Washington, DC, would often write: “Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, then watching the evidence change.”  I was tasked with giving the summary and closing prayer at the end of the BREAD Nehemiah Action last night, and included this…

My upcoming sabbatical is quickly approaching, and so one of the main questions I plan to explore is at the top of my mind: How do we pass along the core teachings of our faith and tradition? As the “Pastor of Christian Formation” this question lies at the heart of…