Communal expressions of grief have been shaped over time by religion, gender and power in ways that leave us with few ways to express mourning in public. In response to the #NamingTheLost, a vigil in which over 24 hours people impacted by the pandemic read names of those lost to
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My spiritual care to patients with COVID-19 began, unbeknownst to me, on February 26, 2020. It was Ash Wednesday. A chaplain at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, I was paged at the beginning of my work day to a patient on the Medicine ICU for the imposition of ashes—a
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They have closed the schools for three weeks.
The children who are resilient go to their houses
(if they have them) to annoy their parents (if
they have them) because no one has explained that
it is okay for the world to change, that does not
mean it’s ending. We realize that that is
It was 1966 when, after taking the bus from New Jersey to the Port Authority bus terminal and the 1-train downtown, I found myself at the Café Au Go Go, the legendary subterranean club on Bleeker Street. The YOUNGBLOODS was the band on stage that night and I clearly remember
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I wanted to walk down the aisle to “Of The Father’s Heart Begotten,” not because of some particular affinity for the hymn, but because I love how singer-songwriter Jason Harrod ends it by going cosmic, as I call it, singing in falsetto “forever more and evermore,” straining toward the eschaton.
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A wise former Pastor and Presbytery Executive, John L. Williams, has written “A Theological Essay on Vision” that contrasts the Bible’s dream and vision accounts with those of management consultants and the tamed goals of self-interested organizations. I confess I have seen little of his work reflected in the Vision
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As we celebrate Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on this day, it is imperative to remember not only his triumphs for humankind, but also his trials and tribulations that taunted him along the journey. As a scholar of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Leadership Institute and a
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We arrive at Apartment 309 breathless from the sprint up two flights of stairs, carrying our full complement of equipment: the 40-pound backpack with an oxygen tank and one of every item we might conceivably need on a call; the 50-pound cardiac monitor; and the 10-pound tackle box containing the
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During Montreat College Conference 2020, Unbound partnered with the Young Adult Volunteer Program to have an open conversation with young adults about the future of the church and where they would like to see the church in the future. Having the perspective of our siblings who will inherit the mission of the
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For tyrants do much for themselvesHerods among the nations that dwell for selfWhen bombs cloud the star that moves and shinesDust and fire skew where the Christ child sighs War and death are no gift from GodEven when they are clothed in god-like garb The wise ones follow the star so
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