Category: Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care and Connections Message
February 6, 2023
The Theme of the Month is “Life and Death”
In Sunday’s sermon, February 5, I encouraged people to break down the barriers that prevent us from talking about dying and death. I proposed that the strong cultural and religious fears come from our personal … read more.
Pastoral Care and Connections Message
The Theme of the Month is Courage, yet it is hard to be courageous while holding our breath.
We are all holding our breath this week. We are inhaling as we watch each other engage in one of the most important rights in our Democracy, voting. … read more.
Pastoral Care and Connections Message
Guest writer: Susan Brown
Welcome, all you saints! Yes! You are saints, all of you are saints, for it is not by perfection that we are sainted; rather, it is by our actions.
It is not by perfection that we are sainted; rather it is by our presence. … read more.
Pastoral Care and Connections Message
Have you looked up at the stars recently?
Hey Universe!
I see you
From atomic dust to star dust
You exist
And
I exist in and through you
This I do not doubt
From eagle’s view to mouse
What do you see?
Am I mere food
For thought?
Does my existence
Bear meaning?
For you?
Or only me?
And my beloved?
Do … read more.
Pastoral Care and Connections Message
The Theme of the Month for October is Intention, which may come as a surprise to you because I, ironically, unintentionally forgot to tell you. Ah, the gap between intent and outcome, the valley where we, all too often, lose all sorts of hope.
In that … read more.
Pastoral Care and Connections Message
The Dory Fish and Stressful Times: By Sunshine Jeremiah Wolfe
Have you noticed that you forget things more now than you remember doing before? Or perhaps you have communicated events and decisions in your congregations or communities, and folks … read more.
Pastoral Care and Connections Message
I have what I call “red light” days. They arrive with a series of red lights on streets that I think should be sequenced with green lights (to help the flow of traffic and aid my travel). With those stop-go red lights, comes a series … read more.
Pastoral Care and Connections
Each season offers opportunities to choose what we do with our energy along a spectrum of “doing” and “being.” We can engage in a constant and unrelenting level of activity and hectic doing, or we can do a full stop and be in our skin, … read more.
Pastoral Care and Connections Message
Our culture can get obsessed with boxes, with little reflection on the value of what is in the box. Office supply stores, “Big Box” stores, moving companies, and home décor stores all seem to focus on the container, with little emphasis on the contents. Yet, … read more.
Pastoral Care and Connections
“Here is a mystery: If sweeping through the door of my heart there moves continually a genuine love for you, it bypasses all your hate and all your indifference and gets through to you at your center. You are powerless to do anything about it. … read more.