Dear Friends, One of the benefits of working with a large staff is the opportunity to occupy a place in the pew to listen to Margie and Debra’s sermons.  You, too, benefit from hearing a variety of voices from the pulpit, of course.

Dear Friends, Tom Brokaw’s latest book, Boom! Voices of the Sixties, is more than a trip down memory lane for me.  It’s a penetrating, powerful exploration of the connections between what happened then and what’s happening now; the parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, for example.

Dear Friends, Last week I went to see two of my favorite actors, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, in the dramatic comedy The Bucket List.  It’s a simple, straight-forward story of an unlikely pair of terminally-ill guys who meet in the hospital. Freeman’s character, Carter, tells Nicholson’s character, Edward, about his philosophy professor’s suggestion that […]

Special handwritten letter.

Dear Friends, The world is changing, and the pace of change has quickened.  In the brief course of my own lifetime there have been lots of changes, and many of those changes have been positive.

Dear Friends, I have a new hat.  It was a Christmas present.  I’ve been wearing my new hat on my winter-morning walk at Compo Beach.  It’s a nice, warm hat, and to look at it you would think it was just another knitted hat.

Dear Friends, Winter means many things, including cancellations due to snow and ice.  Robert Burns wrote, “The best-laid schemes of mice and men / Gang aft a-gley.” Yes, our plans in winter, and all the other seasons, often go astray.  ‘The branch that doesn’t bend will break.’

Dear Friends, In the Christian calendar this is the Advent season, with the first of the four candles lighted for hope.  Chanukah candles are now placed in the menorah , one each night for eight nights, representing the miracle of a day’s worth of oil lasting eight days; stamina!

Dear Friends, Charles Reed has been in failing health for some time, so it was not surprising to get the call from his nephew, Joseph, that he died last Friday.  Not surprising, but still shocking.

Dear Friends, The Coming of Age ceremony is a public recognition of our children’s transition into adulthood.  Of course it doesn’t happen all at once – neither they, nor their parents could handle the shock!