There are so many things that I wanted to say on today, the day of the Reformation. On Halloween - but last Sunday’s Gospel and the images from the New York Times Sunday paper are still floating around in my head. “...and the truth will make you free.” That Gospel quote from Sunday and the faces of grief and horror blanketing the cover and insides of the paper - not to mention the images on social media and the evening news - remain with me even today. Just how can the ‘truth’ set us free? Simply asking that question makes me feel like I am quoting Pilate at the trial of Jesus when he asks him: “what is truth?” Perhaps we need to ask the Church Universal: “what is your truth?” What is the ac

On Sunday we celebrated St. Stephen's 130th anniversary. I know there were times we weren't sure we would make it! At the start of the service we did a quick survey to determine when people arrived at St. Stephen's. I was standing at the back, so I could see people as they rose. Roughly 1/3 of the people rose to indicate that they started coming to St. Stephen's during the 2010 decade. And most of them were within the last five years. That is a great statement about St. Stephen's overall strength. It also means it's time for us to listen. To each other. You've hopefully heard about the LEAD (Living Everyday as Disciples) program that St. Stephen's is participating in. The team members are An

I wonder...does anyone know what the traditional gift is for a 130th Anniversary? I mean the first year is paper, the fifth wood, the twenty-fifth silver, fiftieth gold...and the furthest I know is stone for the ninetieth. 130 years ago, if you Google ‘Wilmington 1888,’ you will see we were cleaning up from ‘The Great Blizzard.’ In March. MARCH! I do hope snow is not the traditional gift for 130 years. However, blizzard or not, St. Stephen’s turns 130 years young...and it seems to me that God still has some work left for us. But let’s look back a bit...did you have a chance to check out the chapel filled with historical artifacts and a lovingly created timeline about our 130 years of ministr

I'm a pretty black and white person when it comes to viewing things. Things are true or false. They are, or they aren't. They work, or they don't. I can influence something, or I can't. The Serenity Prayer works for me. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Philosophy does not work for me. I don't like arguing what-ifs, I want to know what is. Except that I love negative space, or things unseen. I love taking pictures of reflections: something that is there, but not really. In publishing, blank space is used to draw the eye to a particular place on the printed page. In art, negative sp

God said, “Let the earth produce every kind of living thing: livestock, crawling things, and wildlife.” And that’s what happened. God made every kind of wildlife, every kind of livestock, and every kind of creature that crawls on the ground. God saw how good it was. Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.” - Genesis 1:24-26 CEB It comes as no surprise that I have always loved animals - I have never really been without a companion of sorts for very long. I truly can never imagine what it would be like not having some furry frie