Who has the Keys to our Churches? While we can think of a set of keys tangibly as a physical privilege and responsibility of leadership, they can also be symbolic of capabilities, power, and access. Many Church memberships are declining, younger generations are faced with competing activities on Sunday mornings (and Wednesday evenings), and our congregations are aging. In a…
PACHAMAMA PONDERING, 2022 By Rev. Ellie Stock, Honorably Retired One more time the alarm shrieks! (Ironically, paralleling folks’ being attracted to Halloween week’s scary, shriek-filled haunted houses and horror flicks, and faux death skeleton and ghost yard décor, while, simultaneously, shying away from engaging with life’s real scary issues) Another mass school shooting! This time, it happened (well, it doesn’t…
Guest blog post by Rev. Ellie Stock, Honorably Retired On this day, we Christians find ourselves in the second week of Lent, the liturgical season, remembering Jesus’ journey to the Cross and reminding us of our own calling to be followers of the Jesus Way, even to the Cross—the Way of giving one’s self intentionally, radically, fully, and unconditionally. Today…
EARTH DAY 2021: A reminder that we are not just on Earth for a while, but we are of Earth Blog Post by Rev. Carleton Stock, Honorably Retired Presbytery Earth Care Team I was fortunate to be exposed to nature early on in life when I spent time on my grandparent’s farm during the summers of the Fifties in upstate…