“Where ya headed, cowboy?” “Nowhere special.” “Nowhere special. I always wanted to go there.” —Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles)   Almost nine years ago, not long after I’d retired from a job I’d held with a large, multi-national corporation for around 20 years, a friend contacted me with news of a position the Ministry Council was […]

Moving. It’s a chore many of us have had to do at least once or twice in our lives, and I imagine that most ministers have practiced the ritual even more than that. As a veteran of ten or twelve moves myself, I’ve come to regard it as an experience only slightly more appealing than […]

There’s battle lines being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong. –Stephen Stills While it wasn’t originally intended as such, the Buffalo Springfield track, “For What It’s Worth”, became an iconic anthem of the 60s. For many, it came to serve as a frank and pointed commentary on a conflict between people with passionately-held but very […]

As we were preparing the October issue of The Cumberland Presbyterian for delivery to the printer, Hurricane Irma had just fled the state of Florida, leaving it to survivors and to those committed to helping them rebuild shattered lives. Less than two weeks prior, Hurricane Harvey did much the same in southeast Texas. Between these […]

Like many of us, I suspect, there comes a time in the 24-hour news cycle following a tragic event—particularly an event that speaks of little but the human capacity for evil and ugliness in the world, as we witnessed in Charlottesville—when I just begin to feel weary. It’s a weariness that springs from a deep-seated […]

There was a moment during the Friday morning business meeting at General Assembly recently when an all-too-familiar wave of something akin to nausea swept over me. Perhaps you’re familiar with it, too: that gut-cramping, face-flushing moment when you realize you’ve been caught in sin; that moment when you know you’ve done something really bad, and […]

The collard greens were done almost to perfection on that crisp October afternoon. Tender, scented with a bit of side meat, and slightly bitter—just the way I like them. The pinto beans needed only a few more minutes of simmering, and the cornbread had just come out of the oven. I was slicing some onions […]

In a few days, several hundred Cumberland Presbyterian elders and ministers, along with many of their family members, will gather for 187th General Assembly. This year’s Assembly will be gaveled to order in Palm Harbor, FL, and as usual, we will worship, and then conduct the business of the church. We will learn of the […]

“We do not know… how can we know the way?” Courageous master of the awkward question, You spoke the words the others dared not say And cut through their evasion and abstraction. Oh doubting Thomas, father of my faith, You put your finger on the nub of things We cannot love some disembodied wraith, But […]

This Lenten season had been underway for less than two weeks when news of the administration’s budget outline for the next fiscal year hit the streets. Predictably, the airwaves and internet were immediately filled with both the acclamations of strident supporters and the criticisms of passionate opponents. It seems that once again, we may be […]