Have you noticed that group of middle school aged boys who dart around the streets and sidewalks of Langhorne Borough on their skateboards, sometimes with little regard for motorists and pedestrians? Almost heaven. Let me explain.

I use the Daily Office of the Book of Common Prayer as a guide for personal reading of the Scriptures and find it very helpful.  During the two-year cycle of the Daily Office you read the New Testament twice, the entire Psalter once every seven weeks, and most of the Old Testament at least once. I would recommend it to any who are looking for a systematic way to read the Bible. Continue reading →

In last week’s E-Pistle I mentioned our partnership with Bethana and Bucks County Housing Group to provide Christmas presents for kids in our community who for all sorts of different reasons might not have many or any presents under the tree this year (in fact, may not have a tree this year).  I told you that on Friday our toy count stood at about 75 and wondered if we might make 100 by Sunday’s deadline.  Why wonder about generosity when you’re dealing with LPC people? The final count is inexact, but looks to be just about 150.  Again, I tell you this not so that we might brag, but so that we might rejoice at the privilege of sharing the Good News in every way we can. Continue reading →

There’s a part of me that wants to grumble “Bah, humbug” every time I hear mention of someone, usually a little boy named Tiny Tim, who won’t “have Christmas,” by which they mean won’t get presents – or presents of sufficient quality or quantity to meet the definition of “having Christmas.” Christmas isn’t something you “have.” Christmas is something you experience.  And I don’t mean the grumpy Christian insistence on the “real meaning” of Christmas.  I mean Christmas also in its all its cultural glory: silver bells; chestnuts roasting o’er and open fire; Frosty, Santa and Rudolph; It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street; ghosts of Christmases past, present and future. Christmas isn’t something we have, it’s something we experience. Continue reading →

Do the rest of you do small group sharing?  The church became an important part of my life during my college years and I have been employed in one form or another by the church since 1975. I long ago lost count of the conferences I have attended and the presbytery committee meetings I have been a part of.  Conferences and committees; “small group sharing” has been a feature of way too many of them. I wonder if the rest of you do small group sharing.

Thursday’s meeting was no exception to the small group sharing rule. It happens to have been a gathering of one of the standing committees of the Presbytery of Philadelphia.  It is a very large committee and Thursday’s agenda was long and the items on the agenda important. I was there as a member of a panel invited to present some information on a particular topic. Not my committee. But since our panel presentation was first up on the docket, we were there for the opening of the meeting. Continue reading →

I’m feeling grumpy this morning.  I read the President’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, and I don’t like it at all.  I will tell you why I don’t like it in a minute.  First, let me tell you that I always read the President’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation and I like some better than others. Over the years some have been, well, turkeys while others have soared like an eagle. If you’re interested, you may read every single one of them here. Let me say, too, that among those turkey and eagle proclamations have been both Democrat and Republican authors.

Pity the poor White House writer who has to compose these things. Continue reading →