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'spirituality' Tagged Posts

Hark what's that?

‘Tis the season for angels, angels, angels! We sing songs about angels, read stories about angels, we make angels in the snow, and of course, we put angel images everywhere. On cookies, in frames, frozen in sculpture, molded in chocolate, and then we even impale them on decorated trees.

Mandela and the Power of Silence

In last Sunday’s sermon I “outed” myself as a mystic. Clearly not a FAMOUS mystic, but I do have mystical tendencies, value the teachings of Christian mystics (in particular) and I have embraced a number of spiritual practices that are often labeled “good for mystics”.   My journey with mysticism began when I was introduced to the great medieval Christian mystic Hildegard…

What are you waiting for?

Like most Americans, I don’t really like to wait. Not in line, not in traffic, not really for anything. And waiting to get on the freeway, or into a movie, or for coffee in my favorite bistro really is sort of pointless. When the waiting is done, the payoff is pretty small.   Unfortunately, my lack of being able to wait for…

Why Church?

Why ChurchThere are a lot of options in the Bay Area when it comes to community groups, spiritual paths, and places to be of service. What makes a church different? What can we do together as a group that cannot be done in other ways? Last week, we looked at “why church” from the perspective of what an individual or family can gain from being part of a church. This week, we will explore “why church” in the larger scheme of things. Do churches such as Montclair Presbyterian have a particular to role to play in the community? in the culture? Do join us at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday.

Silence Still Equals Death

In honor of National Coming Out Day (NCOD), here’s a portion of a chapter from my doctoral thesis, Bringing the Refugees Home: Faith Formation for the Dechurched.  This chapter chronicles some of my own history with HIV/AIDS and my participation in creating the very first National Coming Out Day back in 1988.  For my friends who do not identify as LGBTQQI or…

Preaching What You Practice

If  you have read any of the posts on my personal blog, you will at once notice that I have written a number of posts on practice. Spiritual practice, musical practice, ethical practice, best practice:  practice, practice, practice!  It certainly seems obvious that a longtime musician is committed to practice, but there is a deeper historical and theological component to my fascination…

Commuting Fear

Anything scares me, anything scares anyone but really after all considering how dangerous everything is nothing is really very frightening. – Gertrude Stein in Everybody’s Autobiography (1932)     My first two weeks of commuting to Montclair from our home in San Francisco have been way more interesting than we might have expected!  The first week, the Bay Bridge was closed and…

Walking Together

When I interviewed with the Session of Montclair Church about the possibility of becoming your Temporary Supply Pastor, they asked me a great question: “what do you need from us?”  I told them the usual things about “setting priorities” and “giving good feedback” and then I told them that my biggest personal concern about becoming your pastor is that I would find…