Watching the Friday morning chapel service from Hunting Park Christian Academy in Philadelphia has become a helpful habit during this year of the pandemic.

Raising a child in the Hunting Park neighborhood of North Philadelphia can be difficult. For more than twenty years, HPCA has offered “an affordable, quality, Christian education that celebrates a diverse community and leads children to know and serve the Lord” to the Hunting Park community. Getting to know HPCA and its work and some of its people was a great joy for Becky and me during our time in the Philadelphia area.

Pre-covid, I might make it to an HPCA chapel service once or twice a year. I would leave thinking I ought to go more often, and then I never did.

HPCA quickly and amazingly adopted a virtual education strategy last spring at the beginning of the pandemic and has been using a creative hybrid model for its classes throughout this academic year.  Only half the students are in the building on any given day, so chapel has remained a virtual event which is particularly good for people who live 600 miles away. Continue reading →

With apologies to Robert Frost,
Two routes diverged on Google Maps, and I—
I took the one less traveled by.

I attended a presbytery-sponsored workshop Saturday, and it was well-worth the 85-mile drive to get there. I had not been to the church in northwest Ohio where the workshop was held, so I asked Google Maps to show me the way. Instead of the closest 85-mile route, however, Google recommended a 101-mile route that would save ten minutes of travel time. Once I hit I-469 north of Fort Wayne, my journey would be mostly by interstate or four-lane highway. 70 MPH.

Two routes diverged on Google Maps, and I— I took the one less traveled by. County roads and state highways, I never saw four lanes, and the best I could do was 55 MPH. Or so. But I had to slow down as I drove through Hicksville and Ottawa, Ohio, pretty little towns. Mostly, though, my road less travelled took me through farm country.  White framed farmhouses, red painted barns, and tall silos. And fields, mile after mile of fields. Some of the fields were still littered with the dry remains of last year’s corn crop, others were freshly plowed, and a few of them shimmered green in the early spring sunshine – a new crop, soybeans maybe? Continue reading →

Given my wandering mind and my frequent failure to focus, I find a form of praying the Psalms helpful in keeping my prayers from being hopelessly scattered or unnecessarily shallow. My list of long-term prayer concerns is intentionally short, fewer than a dozen people and their situations for which I pray day by day.  Remember, I have a wandering mind and am prone to frequent failure to focus.

I use the Daily Office of the Book of Common Prayer (it can  be found online at Bible Gateway and other sites).  The Daily Office offers readings from the Psalter for morning and evening.  I tend to use both in the morning.  So, two or more Psalms per day.  You go through the entire Psalter in about seven weeks.  Not completely random, there seems to be some logic to the ordering of the readings, but I have never fully figured it out.

Among those for whom I pray, difficult situations have recently risen.  Some of those situations have to do with serious health issues, some have to do with evil seeping through the cracks of a loved-one’s life.  Another has to do with the difficult consequences of a tough decision well made.  The band of friends for whom I pray, unknown to one another, is going through hard times. Continue reading →

Like many people, I have been thinking of the year-ago week that seems so long ago. This past Monday, March 8, marked a full year since I preached from the pulpit at Langhorne Presbyterian Church. I had already announced my July 1 retirement.  Who could have known as we locked the doors after the second service, that March 8, not June 28, would not only be my final Sunday in the pulpit from which I had preached for over twelve years, but also the last time I’d see many members of our congregation.

We did not know many things that second full week of March, 2020. Who could have known?  Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on 60 Minutes March 8, and told us, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”  On Tuesday, March 10, New York Mayor DeBlasio said, “I don’t want to see Broadway go dark if we can avoid it. I want to see if we can strike some kind of balance.” On Thursday, the NBA canceled the remainder of its season and on Friday the NCAA canceled the rest of March madness. No governor had yet issued a stay-at-home order, but news began to spread about school districts canceling classes – but just for a week or two.

What a crazy week, and in recalling it, no fault or blame is implied. It was a crazy week. Continue reading →

Shall we allow democrats in the church?

That is, is democracy appropriate for the church? Presbyterians have been cautious but early in saying yes.

Following talk radio host Rush Limbaugh’s death last month, a Christianity Today podcast dealt with questions of Limbaugh’s influence and impact on Christian radio. I found it fascinating, much more so than I anticipated. Limbaugh’s influence especially on media directed at American Evangelicals was huge. A genre of Christian talk radio, as with so many other forms of talk radio, evolved in the wake of Limbaugh’s success.

I don’t listen to any talk radio (or many podcasts), but those who do say that Christian talk radio has produced its own brash Rush wannabes and also expanded access to some good Christian thinkers and commentators.

I’ve been thinking about something one of the guests on the podcast said. Quoting another writer, she said talk radio has made the discussion of issues in the church more democratic. That seems like a good thing, doesn’t it?  But, really, shall we allow democrats in the church? Continue reading →