Many years ago when I was on sabbatical I attended the State of the Planet conference at Columbia University in New York City. The gathering was convened by the well-known economist and scholar Jeffrey Sachs, whose work influenced theUN’s Millennium Development…
Several people have asked me about our policies regarding COVID. Currently the cases of the latest variant are increasing in the Boston area. Given the number of local people who travel between here and Europe and Southeast Asia, we have…
Imagine for a moment that all commercial media outlets in the United States are shut down summarily by our government. Both CNN and Fox News go dark and almost every newspaper is prevented from going to press. And then imagine that the…
Sometimes our humanity is brought out by times of extremity. That appears to be the case right now all over Europe and all over the world. For example, the BBC had a report yesterday about the organized effort by people…
Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself. ~ Desiderius Erasmus I am not sure how many of you have driven by the church at night over the last day or so. Those of you who have no doubt…
Like most of us I’ve been monitoring the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, WI. This afternoon the jury released their verdict finding the now 18-year-old Rittenhouse innocent of all five charges by virtue of self-defense. This included a charge…
Over the last many years I have developed an odd ritual that helps me to put things into perspective. Sometimes we choose rituals; other times they emerge by accident, or by serendipity. My ritual involves a rumpled newspaper clipping featuring…
Join us this Sunday outside for church – in person – for real. You did not read the last sentence incorrectly. As the pandemic recedes (in this area) and our outlooks brighten, we have decided to move our services…
I remember once many years ago meeting a man who had served honorably as a Ranger in the Special Forces/Army for many years. He was not particularly tall but clearly very strong and had distinguished himself as one of the…
This is how the “arc” of these holidays function : we experience the weight and plagues of the world and then mercifully realize that these difficulties are not the last line of the larger story.
