Friends, Many of you know that when I was a junior in high school (back in the second half of Ronald Reagan’s first term), I was an exchange student in the Dominican Republic. Over the years I’ve kept in touch with a few of my exchange student friends, and last week a fellow exchange student and I were corresponding about the COVID…

Friends, I wrote these words just minutes after hearing that a jury in Minnesota found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of the murder of George Floyd. It was a decisive ruling. Chauvin was guilty on all counts and, like a lot of Americans, I was relieved. I also found myself asking, “what next?” and my prayer is that this verdict…

Friends, This is Holy Week, and before I get too far into this letter I want to invite you to join Talitha on Maundy Thursday and me on Good Friday as we lead online services marking Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Information will be forthcoming: keep checking your email and you will see links to the YouTube video play lists for both…

Dear Friends, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you. When it comes to food and other cultural expressions, I am conflicted on the subject of authenticity. On the one hand, it seems pejorative for someone outside of a culture to make changes to dishes and recipes and ways of eating that are not ones own (so, for example, I’d never eat a burrito…

Dear friends, Last week I learned that the season of Lent may be rooted in a Christian tradition the Church formally declared to be heretical at the Council of Nicaea nearly 1700 years ago. It turns out you never know what you will find in history’s attic. I came across this juicy bit of possible historical trivia while putting together a short…

Friends, I wrote these words late in the afternoon of February 2, a day more commonly known as Groundhogs’ Day. It was sunny out of doors and through my window I saw plenty of shadows, lengthening as the hours transitioned to evening. I don’t know if Californian shadows on Groundhogs day even count, or if early February sunshine only matters if it’s…

Friends, I wrote this letter on the evening before the Biden/Harris inauguration, and I imagine you will be reading it sometime after all the pomp and circumstance has come and gone. This means that you know the content of Biden’s inaugural address far better than I do: you’ve heard it and I’ve only heard rumors, but if those rumors are true, then…

Dear Friends, Today (January 6) is the feast of Epiphany, a day that has me thinking about the poetry of stars.  When I was in seminary, I read my first star poem– “Take Something Like a Star” by Robert Frost, and since then I’ve found others. My favorite is probably “Star” by Adam Zagajewski, but returning to my first star poem, at…

Friends, I wanted to give you an update on how Montclair Presbyterian Church is engaging in the life of our denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA). In December and in January our church, through an action of the session, sent two overtures to the General Assembly petitioning the Presbyterian Church to call upon Presbyterians to listen to the better angels of our denomination…

Friends, On Saturday I came across a bit of amazing and tantalizing information in the novel Flights by the Polish Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk. In the book, the protagonist makes reference to a certain race of people called Blemij (also known as “Blemmyes”), who look like humans in every way except that they don’t have heads. Instead, they have faces on their…