I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Five years later…

It has been five years.  Five years since I put on that worn out white robe and climbed those creaky, ancient stairs to the baptismal at the Calvary Baptist Church (only pausing long enough along the way to share with the pastor that I was deathly afraid of water).  Five years ago, for the second time in my life, I was baptized.  This time it wasn't a sprinkle of water, it was baptism by full immersion.  And it was well worth facing my desperate fear of water. I am, quite naturally, a person who remembers anniversaries, and so each year on this date I have stopped to consider my baptism.…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Making an allelluia…

There are times in the life of a community that are for celebration and times that are for sorrow.  And, there are times like this one, that are for both. And it was that smile that I remember from the first time I met Dee.  In those first few moments of conversation, when I sat eating a sandwich in a place I had never been, about to embark on a journey I could not imagine, I learned in a few short minutes of small talk that this woman sitting next to me was a pioneer, an educator,  a worker for social justice, a lover of nature, and a lover of all…
Read More

Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

One year ago today…

One year ago today, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  I thought about this anniversary all day yesterday -- I can't quite decide whether I should commemorate the anniversary as the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, each year, or whether I should stick to the actual date, which is  today, December 13.  Perhaps I shall just commemorate both from now on, as it is a choice and a date that I will choose to celebrate and remember all my life long. If you want to read again or for the first time about my experience of baptism, you can do so here. …
Read More

Why I Became a Baptist, Part 2

When I wrote the first entry titled "Why I Became a Baptist", I never dreamed that I would write "Part 2".  But after the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the choices I've made over the course of my life, and in particular, this specific choice. You see, it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me, what with committee meetings and concerts and a whole host of activities that have kept me running hither and yon, as my mother would have said.  By the time I finished everything that I had to do on Sunday and finally found myself at home, sitting in my…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Five years later…

It has been five years.  Five years since I put on that worn out white robe and climbed those creaky, ancient stairs to the baptismal at the Calvary Baptist Church (only pausing long enough along the way to share with the pastor that I was deathly afraid of water).  Five years ago, for the second time in my life, I was baptized.  This time it wasn't a sprinkle of water, it was baptism by full immersion.  And it was well worth facing my desperate fear of water. I am, quite naturally, a person who remembers anniversaries, and so each year on this date I have stopped to consider my baptism.…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Making an allelluia…

There are times in the life of a community that are for celebration and times that are for sorrow.  And, there are times like this one, that are for both. And it was that smile that I remember from the first time I met Dee.  In those first few moments of conversation, when I sat eating a sandwich in a place I had never been, about to embark on a journey I could not imagine, I learned in a few short minutes of small talk that this woman sitting next to me was a pioneer, an educator,  a worker for social justice, a lover of nature, and a lover of all…
Read More

Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

One year ago today…

One year ago today, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  I thought about this anniversary all day yesterday -- I can't quite decide whether I should commemorate the anniversary as the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, each year, or whether I should stick to the actual date, which is  today, December 13.  Perhaps I shall just commemorate both from now on, as it is a choice and a date that I will choose to celebrate and remember all my life long. If you want to read again or for the first time about my experience of baptism, you can do so here. …
Read More

Why I Became a Baptist, Part 2

When I wrote the first entry titled "Why I Became a Baptist", I never dreamed that I would write "Part 2".  But after the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the choices I've made over the course of my life, and in particular, this specific choice. You see, it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me, what with committee meetings and concerts and a whole host of activities that have kept me running hither and yon, as my mother would have said.  By the time I finished everything that I had to do on Sunday and finally found myself at home, sitting in my…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Five years later…

It has been five years.  Five years since I put on that worn out white robe and climbed those creaky, ancient stairs to the baptismal at the Calvary Baptist Church (only pausing long enough along the way to share with the pastor that I was deathly afraid of water).  Five years ago, for the second time in my life, I was baptized.  This time it wasn't a sprinkle of water, it was baptism by full immersion.  And it was well worth facing my desperate fear of water. I am, quite naturally, a person who remembers anniversaries, and so each year on this date I have stopped to consider my baptism.…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Making an allelluia…

There are times in the life of a community that are for celebration and times that are for sorrow.  And, there are times like this one, that are for both. And it was that smile that I remember from the first time I met Dee.  In those first few moments of conversation, when I sat eating a sandwich in a place I had never been, about to embark on a journey I could not imagine, I learned in a few short minutes of small talk that this woman sitting next to me was a pioneer, an educator,  a worker for social justice, a lover of nature, and a lover of all…
Read More

Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

One year ago today…

One year ago today, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  I thought about this anniversary all day yesterday -- I can't quite decide whether I should commemorate the anniversary as the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, each year, or whether I should stick to the actual date, which is  today, December 13.  Perhaps I shall just commemorate both from now on, as it is a choice and a date that I will choose to celebrate and remember all my life long. If you want to read again or for the first time about my experience of baptism, you can do so here. …
Read More

Why I Became a Baptist, Part 2

When I wrote the first entry titled "Why I Became a Baptist", I never dreamed that I would write "Part 2".  But after the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the choices I've made over the course of my life, and in particular, this specific choice. You see, it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me, what with committee meetings and concerts and a whole host of activities that have kept me running hither and yon, as my mother would have said.  By the time I finished everything that I had to do on Sunday and finally found myself at home, sitting in my…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Five years later…

It has been five years.  Five years since I put on that worn out white robe and climbed those creaky, ancient stairs to the baptismal at the Calvary Baptist Church (only pausing long enough along the way to share with the pastor that I was deathly afraid of water).  Five years ago, for the second time in my life, I was baptized.  This time it wasn't a sprinkle of water, it was baptism by full immersion.  And it was well worth facing my desperate fear of water. I am, quite naturally, a person who remembers anniversaries, and so each year on this date I have stopped to consider my baptism.…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Making an allelluia…

There are times in the life of a community that are for celebration and times that are for sorrow.  And, there are times like this one, that are for both. And it was that smile that I remember from the first time I met Dee.  In those first few moments of conversation, when I sat eating a sandwich in a place I had never been, about to embark on a journey I could not imagine, I learned in a few short minutes of small talk that this woman sitting next to me was a pioneer, an educator,  a worker for social justice, a lover of nature, and a lover of all…
Read More

Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

One year ago today…

One year ago today, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  I thought about this anniversary all day yesterday -- I can't quite decide whether I should commemorate the anniversary as the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, each year, or whether I should stick to the actual date, which is  today, December 13.  Perhaps I shall just commemorate both from now on, as it is a choice and a date that I will choose to celebrate and remember all my life long. If you want to read again or for the first time about my experience of baptism, you can do so here. …
Read More

Why I Became a Baptist, Part 2

When I wrote the first entry titled "Why I Became a Baptist", I never dreamed that I would write "Part 2".  But after the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the choices I've made over the course of my life, and in particular, this specific choice. You see, it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me, what with committee meetings and concerts and a whole host of activities that have kept me running hither and yon, as my mother would have said.  By the time I finished everything that I had to do on Sunday and finally found myself at home, sitting in my…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Five years later…

It has been five years.  Five years since I put on that worn out white robe and climbed those creaky, ancient stairs to the baptismal at the Calvary Baptist Church (only pausing long enough along the way to share with the pastor that I was deathly afraid of water).  Five years ago, for the second time in my life, I was baptized.  This time it wasn't a sprinkle of water, it was baptism by full immersion.  And it was well worth facing my desperate fear of water. I am, quite naturally, a person who remembers anniversaries, and so each year on this date I have stopped to consider my baptism.…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Making an allelluia…

There are times in the life of a community that are for celebration and times that are for sorrow.  And, there are times like this one, that are for both. And it was that smile that I remember from the first time I met Dee.  In those first few moments of conversation, when I sat eating a sandwich in a place I had never been, about to embark on a journey I could not imagine, I learned in a few short minutes of small talk that this woman sitting next to me was a pioneer, an educator,  a worker for social justice, a lover of nature, and a lover of all…
Read More

Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

One year ago today…

One year ago today, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  I thought about this anniversary all day yesterday -- I can't quite decide whether I should commemorate the anniversary as the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, each year, or whether I should stick to the actual date, which is  today, December 13.  Perhaps I shall just commemorate both from now on, as it is a choice and a date that I will choose to celebrate and remember all my life long. If you want to read again or for the first time about my experience of baptism, you can do so here. …
Read More

Why I Became a Baptist, Part 2

When I wrote the first entry titled "Why I Became a Baptist", I never dreamed that I would write "Part 2".  But after the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the choices I've made over the course of my life, and in particular, this specific choice. You see, it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me, what with committee meetings and concerts and a whole host of activities that have kept me running hither and yon, as my mother would have said.  By the time I finished everything that I had to do on Sunday and finally found myself at home, sitting in my…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Five years later…

It has been five years.  Five years since I put on that worn out white robe and climbed those creaky, ancient stairs to the baptismal at the Calvary Baptist Church (only pausing long enough along the way to share with the pastor that I was deathly afraid of water).  Five years ago, for the second time in my life, I was baptized.  This time it wasn't a sprinkle of water, it was baptism by full immersion.  And it was well worth facing my desperate fear of water. I am, quite naturally, a person who remembers anniversaries, and so each year on this date I have stopped to consider my baptism.…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Making an allelluia…

There are times in the life of a community that are for celebration and times that are for sorrow.  And, there are times like this one, that are for both. And it was that smile that I remember from the first time I met Dee.  In those first few moments of conversation, when I sat eating a sandwich in a place I had never been, about to embark on a journey I could not imagine, I learned in a few short minutes of small talk that this woman sitting next to me was a pioneer, an educator,  a worker for social justice, a lover of nature, and a lover of all…
Read More

Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

One year ago today…

One year ago today, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  I thought about this anniversary all day yesterday -- I can't quite decide whether I should commemorate the anniversary as the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, each year, or whether I should stick to the actual date, which is  today, December 13.  Perhaps I shall just commemorate both from now on, as it is a choice and a date that I will choose to celebrate and remember all my life long. If you want to read again or for the first time about my experience of baptism, you can do so here. …
Read More

Why I Became a Baptist, Part 2

When I wrote the first entry titled "Why I Became a Baptist", I never dreamed that I would write "Part 2".  But after the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the choices I've made over the course of my life, and in particular, this specific choice. You see, it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me, what with committee meetings and concerts and a whole host of activities that have kept me running hither and yon, as my mother would have said.  By the time I finished everything that I had to do on Sunday and finally found myself at home, sitting in my…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Five years later…

It has been five years.  Five years since I put on that worn out white robe and climbed those creaky, ancient stairs to the baptismal at the Calvary Baptist Church (only pausing long enough along the way to share with the pastor that I was deathly afraid of water).  Five years ago, for the second time in my life, I was baptized.  This time it wasn't a sprinkle of water, it was baptism by full immersion.  And it was well worth facing my desperate fear of water. I am, quite naturally, a person who remembers anniversaries, and so each year on this date I have stopped to consider my baptism.…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Making an allelluia…

There are times in the life of a community that are for celebration and times that are for sorrow.  And, there are times like this one, that are for both. And it was that smile that I remember from the first time I met Dee.  In those first few moments of conversation, when I sat eating a sandwich in a place I had never been, about to embark on a journey I could not imagine, I learned in a few short minutes of small talk that this woman sitting next to me was a pioneer, an educator,  a worker for social justice, a lover of nature, and a lover of all…
Read More

Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

One year ago today…

One year ago today, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  I thought about this anniversary all day yesterday -- I can't quite decide whether I should commemorate the anniversary as the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, each year, or whether I should stick to the actual date, which is  today, December 13.  Perhaps I shall just commemorate both from now on, as it is a choice and a date that I will choose to celebrate and remember all my life long. If you want to read again or for the first time about my experience of baptism, you can do so here. …
Read More

Why I Became a Baptist, Part 2

When I wrote the first entry titled "Why I Became a Baptist", I never dreamed that I would write "Part 2".  But after the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the choices I've made over the course of my life, and in particular, this specific choice. You see, it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me, what with committee meetings and concerts and a whole host of activities that have kept me running hither and yon, as my mother would have said.  By the time I finished everything that I had to do on Sunday and finally found myself at home, sitting in my…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Five years later…

It has been five years.  Five years since I put on that worn out white robe and climbed those creaky, ancient stairs to the baptismal at the Calvary Baptist Church (only pausing long enough along the way to share with the pastor that I was deathly afraid of water).  Five years ago, for the second time in my life, I was baptized.  This time it wasn't a sprinkle of water, it was baptism by full immersion.  And it was well worth facing my desperate fear of water. I am, quite naturally, a person who remembers anniversaries, and so each year on this date I have stopped to consider my baptism.…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Making an allelluia…

There are times in the life of a community that are for celebration and times that are for sorrow.  And, there are times like this one, that are for both. And it was that smile that I remember from the first time I met Dee.  In those first few moments of conversation, when I sat eating a sandwich in a place I had never been, about to embark on a journey I could not imagine, I learned in a few short minutes of small talk that this woman sitting next to me was a pioneer, an educator,  a worker for social justice, a lover of nature, and a lover of all…
Read More

Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

One year ago today…

One year ago today, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  I thought about this anniversary all day yesterday -- I can't quite decide whether I should commemorate the anniversary as the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, each year, or whether I should stick to the actual date, which is  today, December 13.  Perhaps I shall just commemorate both from now on, as it is a choice and a date that I will choose to celebrate and remember all my life long. If you want to read again or for the first time about my experience of baptism, you can do so here. …
Read More

Why I Became a Baptist, Part 2

When I wrote the first entry titled "Why I Became a Baptist", I never dreamed that I would write "Part 2".  But after the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the choices I've made over the course of my life, and in particular, this specific choice. You see, it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me, what with committee meetings and concerts and a whole host of activities that have kept me running hither and yon, as my mother would have said.  By the time I finished everything that I had to do on Sunday and finally found myself at home, sitting in my…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Five years later…

It has been five years.  Five years since I put on that worn out white robe and climbed those creaky, ancient stairs to the baptismal at the Calvary Baptist Church (only pausing long enough along the way to share with the pastor that I was deathly afraid of water).  Five years ago, for the second time in my life, I was baptized.  This time it wasn't a sprinkle of water, it was baptism by full immersion.  And it was well worth facing my desperate fear of water. I am, quite naturally, a person who remembers anniversaries, and so each year on this date I have stopped to consider my baptism.…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Making an allelluia…

There are times in the life of a community that are for celebration and times that are for sorrow.  And, there are times like this one, that are for both. And it was that smile that I remember from the first time I met Dee.  In those first few moments of conversation, when I sat eating a sandwich in a place I had never been, about to embark on a journey I could not imagine, I learned in a few short minutes of small talk that this woman sitting next to me was a pioneer, an educator,  a worker for social justice, a lover of nature, and a lover of all…
Read More

Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

One year ago today…

One year ago today, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  I thought about this anniversary all day yesterday -- I can't quite decide whether I should commemorate the anniversary as the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, each year, or whether I should stick to the actual date, which is  today, December 13.  Perhaps I shall just commemorate both from now on, as it is a choice and a date that I will choose to celebrate and remember all my life long. If you want to read again or for the first time about my experience of baptism, you can do so here. …
Read More

Why I Became a Baptist, Part 2

When I wrote the first entry titled "Why I Became a Baptist", I never dreamed that I would write "Part 2".  But after the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the choices I've made over the course of my life, and in particular, this specific choice. You see, it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me, what with committee meetings and concerts and a whole host of activities that have kept me running hither and yon, as my mother would have said.  By the time I finished everything that I had to do on Sunday and finally found myself at home, sitting in my…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More

I will, with God’s help…

Seven years ago today, I was baptized into the community known as the Calvary Baptist Church.  Each year since then, on this date, I have taken time to reflect on that day and all that has followed, and generally, I've written something maybe meaningful, maybe...and shared it with all of you.  I really thought that I would let today pass without mention this year, but apparently that will not be the case. If there is any lesson that comes with living a few years, it is this -- that what we think to be constant and solid in our lives almost always proves to be as transitory as the dust…
Read More

Five years later…

It has been five years.  Five years since I put on that worn out white robe and climbed those creaky, ancient stairs to the baptismal at the Calvary Baptist Church (only pausing long enough along the way to share with the pastor that I was deathly afraid of water).  Five years ago, for the second time in my life, I was baptized.  This time it wasn't a sprinkle of water, it was baptism by full immersion.  And it was well worth facing my desperate fear of water. I am, quite naturally, a person who remembers anniversaries, and so each year on this date I have stopped to consider my baptism.…
Read More

Creating a new rumor…

All summer, ever since the end of Calvary's 150th anniversary weekend at the beginning of June, there has been something new....something new just out of reach, not visible, not clearly felt, not yet arrived...but there and clear enough to hold my attention now for a couple of months.  And the only framework my conscious mind seems to have with which to understand that feeling is through a story I heard told by John Bell at a recent conference.  I know that I won't get the details right, but that is how it goes when you repeat a story...you repeat it through the lens that has meaning for you. It seems…
Read More

Making an allelluia…

There are times in the life of a community that are for celebration and times that are for sorrow.  And, there are times like this one, that are for both. And it was that smile that I remember from the first time I met Dee.  In those first few moments of conversation, when I sat eating a sandwich in a place I had never been, about to embark on a journey I could not imagine, I learned in a few short minutes of small talk that this woman sitting next to me was a pioneer, an educator,  a worker for social justice, a lover of nature, and a lover of all…
Read More

Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
Read More

The things our heart remembers most…

Last night in our Maundy Thursday service at Calvary Baptist Church, we sang a lot of music, but most poignant for me was the singing of Mozart's Ave Verum.  You see, Maundy Thursday is, well, my anniversary.  And it was Mozart's Ave Verum that we sang in 2006, the first night I attended a service at Calvary as a substitute singer.  And, it was on another Maundy Thursday that I made my decision to join, a decision that has changed so many things in my life. Maundy Thursday has always loomed large in my life of faith and church; as a child, my parents would always take me to the…
Read More

Sing Alleluia…

I will begin by admitting that, at this moment, I do not really feel like singing Alleluia (okay, perhaps I feel like it more than I did a few days ago when I began this post).  And I will also admit that, the Alleluia sung in our service at Calvary is generally not my favorite portion of the service -- it is generally very hard to sing and somewhat uncomfortable vocally.  This is not news to those I sing with -- if they've heard me say it once, they've heard it hundreds of times. But, having read the book I was working on (Joan Chittister's The Liturgical Year) through the current…
Read More

One year ago today…

One year ago today, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  I thought about this anniversary all day yesterday -- I can't quite decide whether I should commemorate the anniversary as the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, each year, or whether I should stick to the actual date, which is  today, December 13.  Perhaps I shall just commemorate both from now on, as it is a choice and a date that I will choose to celebrate and remember all my life long. If you want to read again or for the first time about my experience of baptism, you can do so here. …
Read More

Why I Became a Baptist, Part 2

When I wrote the first entry titled "Why I Became a Baptist", I never dreamed that I would write "Part 2".  But after the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the choices I've made over the course of my life, and in particular, this specific choice. You see, it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me, what with committee meetings and concerts and a whole host of activities that have kept me running hither and yon, as my mother would have said.  By the time I finished everything that I had to do on Sunday and finally found myself at home, sitting in my…
Read More

Yes, Lord, I guess I really did hear you correctly…

Last Sunday, I was baptized.  It's not that I had not been baptized, I had.  And it was not that I had not been baptized as an "adult", because I was 12 at the time of my first baptism. But during the course of our preaching class this fall, we read parts of Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life.  In that book, she talks about how the preacher is really just someone that a community has decided to support in their full-time study of the Gospel, so that that person can act as a conduit between the community and God.  And part of that job is for the preacher to…
Read More