Dear Friends, The highlight of summer was our trip to Switzerland where I officiated at the wedding of Laura Macdonald, who grew up in our congregation. Her husband, Eric, is from Lausanne, where they had their ceremony, outside, overlooking Lake Geneva with the Jura mountains in the distance.

Dear Friends, In early July I got a message from Jorge’s daughter, Raquel, telling me about her father’s illness. Jorge and I have been very close friends for nearly 40 years. Though I hadn’t heard from him for about six years – he, living in Puerto Rico, and me in Connecticut – it wasn’t unusual.

Dear Friends, Yesterday, Father’s Day, was my final sermon for this church year. It was a rich, full service, in every way. We had a dedication service for Ellery Price and she melted my heart. My emotional response was heightened by the fact that I officiated at Lauren and Aaron’s wedding, Ellery’s parents, four years […]

Dear Friends, I just got back from my 50th college reunion at Salem State University, formerly known as Salem State College.  When I enrolled in 1958 it was Salem Teacher’s College, and before that it had been Salem Normal School.  The designation ‘normal school’ was for training teachers, so called because the first school so […]

Dear Friends, Parenting is one of the great joys in life. Grandparenting is one of life’s great gifts.

Dear Friends, We’re planning an adults-only Boston trip.  We’ve been talking about doing another adult trip for a few years – this will be our third, October 19 and 20.  We do the same thing that our Coming of Age class does – including having some fun!

Dear Friends,  After the early service yesterday someone handed me a New Yorker cartoon that showed people filing out of church holding up signs in the shape of baseball gloves on which is painted # 1. The man in the white collar holds one of the signs and has a huge grin and has both […]

Dear Friends, The news of Perry’s announcement – that he is leaving the position of Director of Religious Education – hits hard.

Dear Friends, When I was young – very young – I wanted to be older. 

Dear Friends, In Woody Allen’s film, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Alan Alda’s character, Lester, a rather crass but very successful television producer, defines comedy in an equation: comedy is tragedy plus time.