A weblog by Rev. Beth Buckingham-Brown, interim pastor for MPC.
Don’t you just hate those times in your life when you completely lose it and turn in to someone you would rather not know exists? Come on, you know what I am talking about…at least I hope you do because if you don’t it means I am even worse than I imagine! People have asked me what are my pet peeves. Here…
As I was driving home today I was listening to NPR. The reporter said that hundreds of people are lined up on the steps of the Supreme Court, hoping to get seats for the opening arguments tomorrow in the Proposition 8 case regarding marriage. Sunday night it snowed in Washington, D.C. and Monday night it was supposed to rain – freezing rain…
During this season of Lent, our church is focusing on Lamenting. We have explored a variety of forms and kinds of lament. We have talked about and experienced the need for lament. We have examined how when we don’t lament, we often create conflict instead. Yesterday we participated in personal lament. We spent time considering how we destroy ourselves and others. We…
On Saturday I was at a Women’s Retreat and we started talking about saying “grace” before meals. Some of the women were remembering how their fathers used to say the prayer at every meal and the prayer was always the same. Even 40 years later they can remember the rote prayer that was prayed at each meal. While they are not exactly…
Yesterday in church we focused on gun violence prevention. The city of Oakland, CA, where Montclair Presbyterian Church is located, has seen escalating gun violence over the past few years. Some blame it on fewer police officers, some blame it on fewer jobs, and others blame it on gangs. Wherever the blame gets put, one thing is certain. Every single person living…
For years I have watched our daughters’ friends make very different choices regarding food. Emily, our older daughter, had a friend in middle school who organized a whole group of kids in a protest against eating chicken. They stood on a very busy street corner in Napa, trading off on who got to wear the hilarious chicken costume and they shouted at…
During December I tried to stay out of the shopping frenzy that is often a part of the Christmas season. Try as I might, though, I did go to Target one evening to look for toys for our “adopted” niece and nephew. She is 3 and he is 5. They are the children of some of our best friends who are in…
Yesterday in church I talked with our children about MLK Jr.’s idea of the Beloved Community and Jesus’ instruction that we love our enemies. One of the kids volunteered to be my “example” and I asked all of the other kids to imagine he was as different from them as someone could be and then to describe those things to me. They…
Someone asked me recently how it is to have a whole congregation of people who I am responsible for caring for in a variety of ways, particularly when some of the people are experiencing deep pain. My response was to say that one of the things I love about being a pastor is that I get to experience the whole gamut of…
While Facebook and blogs and online news outlets have been full of posts regarding the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre last Friday, I was not ready to say or write anything. The horror and overwhelming grief were too much to process while trying to figure out how to say something coherent. Even though my daughters are both in college, this is the…