I welcome this opportunity to respond to the tragic shooting in Orlando, Florida from our perspective as a Reconciling Congregation in our denomination, the United Methodist Church. As a Reconciling Congregation, we stand in opposition to our denomination’s statement that, “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” As a global and connectional denomination, […]
Summer’s here! At least it feels like it. 93 degrees in June? This past week I took a little time off and it really felt like summer vacation. And, accordingly I took some time for summer reading… accordingly for me. Whenever I get some time one of the things I do is read books. I […]
On Pentecost I shared my initial feelings about General Conference; about Rule 44, which would have provided opportunity for delegates to talk about contentious issues outside of parliamentary procedure. As I said, that’s what we Methodists are all about, right? We gather and share – openly. When it was turned down the spirit of the […]
I read an op-ed article in The Seattle Times this morning (Monday) by Dick Meyer about “truthiness” (this is the only time I will put quotation marks around the word; according to Meyer the word has been accepted into Webster’s Dictionary). The word originated from Stephen Colbert some years ago reflecting on our attraction to […]
The General Conference of the United Methodist Church meets in Portland, Oregon, May 10-20. This is as close as General Conference gets! I will be going to visit General Conference during the first week; it may be the only chance I have to witness it – God knows I would never be elected as a […]
While my son Kenneth and I were hiking last week while on vacation in the Olympic Mountains, and taking pictures, of course, I said to him: “You know when we take pictures we aren’t taking pictures of things but of light – photography is all about light.” This illustrates metaphorically what I was trying to […]
What do we feel when we hear the word, “revelation?” My assessment is that most of us feel uneasy, or are repelled. And why not, when we usually hear about it, the context is some charismatic preacher shouting about the end of the world and how only a few will be saved. It comes across […]
Our worship professor at the Claremont School of Theology was an eccentric person. The Right Reverend Jon Olson ordered 16 ounce bottled Coke by the crate and drank it warm; he never drank any other soda and never out of a can. He was an Episcopalian cleric and his worship service was high church – […]
In the March 6 issue of The New Yorker I read an article about an alternative school – it’s called AltSchool, as a matter of fact. Started by a former Google executive it focuses on the use of technology to target each students needs and passions. Each preschooler is issued a tablet and much of […]
I’ve always been a reader. My whole family of origin are readers still; both of my parents were educators. Imagine my frustration when I came to understand that compared to most people I read more slowly. I believe my brother learned to read by what was then called the Whole Language Method – where one […]
