I was asked to do a reflection on my involvement with GLBT issues for the Presbyterian Promise Newsletter.

Here is what I wrote

Back last August Dick Hasbany asked me to consider writing some sort of reflection piece on my involvement with LGBT issues in the 11 years that I have been a member of this Presbytery. Since my tenure with First Presbyterian Church is soon coming to an end (February 1, 2009 is my last day) and I will be leaving Connecticut within another few months, I guess I cannot delay meeting this request much longer. (I do not plan to terminate my membership in the Presbytery until I have voted YES for the “change B” overture at the May 09 Presbytery meeting.)

When I went to Florida in 1990 I was already firmly committed to full equality for GLBT people in the Church and in society. I knew this was not a widely shared commitment in a Presbyterian church in a small town in north Florida and decided that support for this issue would not be a part of my ministry. I felt I had been called to grow this Church located in area with booming population growth and that is what I did. Before the end of my tenure at this Church my views had been revealed in a number of ways including the fact that I spoke and voted against the adoption of the original B overture. The last year of my ministry in that place was a very unpleasant experience. As I was seeking a new call I discovered this Church in Hartford that said on its Church Information Form that they had welcomed people who differ by age, race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, family status, economic situation and theological viewpoint. This sounded more like the kind of place I belonged and I determined that I would not ever again try to disguise my views on this issue, or any other issue of importance.

Being in this Church and having made this commitment to transparency has made it possible for the Church and I to be partners in the cause of justice for LGBT people, as well as other justice issues. During my tenure here we have brought the Shower of Stoles to our sanctuary twice. We have brought or supported several overtures to the Presbytery to change our ordination standards and to recognize marriage equality. I attended the 2006 General Assembly as an overture advocate to support deleting B. This was an opportunity to meet with leaders in the equality movement from across the country. We were among the first Churches to join Presbyterian Promise and the second Church in the Presbytery (by one month) to become affiliated with More Light Presbyterians, to which I had belonged for years. Jane Spahr, Michael Adee and Heather Reichgott have all preached in our pulpit at the invitation of session.

I have been part of the steering committee of Connecticut Clergy for Marriage Equality, and have presided at one Civil Union service. Among my closest friends in ministry are the local Metropolitan Community Church pastors.

In many ways my support for these causes has been an extension of the same commitment to equality that led me to Washington in 1963 as a college senior to demonstrate with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and onto the streets of Louisville with his Brother A. D. Williams King to march for open housing in 1966. All of us regardless of race, ethnicity, income, religion, gender orientation or age are children of one loving creator. When one of our brothers and sisters is diminished because of discrimination we are all diminished and I feel we are all called to work for the equality of all people.

“In our obsessive wish to arrive, we often forget the most important thing, which is the journey.”
The Pilgrimage
Paulo Coelho
http://www.paulocoelhoblog.com/


I have read several more books by Paulo Coelho since writing about The Alchemist back in August. I find his writing absolutely fascinating, a wealth of the world’s wisdom, and a source of inspiration. As you may know he is Brazilian, his writings have been published in dozens of languages. On a world wide basis his works are best sellers, and I am told that he is very widely read and highly regarded in Brazil. Although he had a Jesuit education his spirituality draws from multiple sources, including magic and earth religions which have brought much criticism by the Brazilian Catholic Church. In The Pilgrimage he writes about his experience as a pilgrim on the road to Santiago.

In The Valkyries, another autobiographical book he writes some about his experiences in the world of Magic. His quest to become a Magnus, a spiritual master, took him into the desert southwest in this country where he was aided in his quest by the Valkyries, a group of women on motorcycles who go about preaching about the dawning of a new age, an open door to paradise.

Valhalla, the leader of the Valkyries is preaching in the following passage which should strike a familiar chord to those who have read Coelho.

“Have Courage. …Open your heart, and listen to what your dreams tell you. Follow those dreams, because only a person who is not ashamed can manifest the glory of God.”

“There is no sin but the lack of love…. Have courage, be capable of loving, even if love appears to be a treacherous and terrible thing. Be happy in love. Be joyful in victory. Follow the dictates of your heart.”

… “Remember that you are a manifestation of the absolute, and do only those things in your lives that are worth the effort. Only those who do that will understand the great transformations that are yet to be seen.”

Paulo wants the Valkyries to teach him to see angels. He knew how to speak to his guardian angel but he wanted to see his guardian angel as well. (In The Alchemist Santiago learns to speak the "language of the soul of the world"). Coelho describes the way that he speaks to his angel as “channeling”. This is a form of ecstatic speech, perhaps the verbal equivalent of automatic writing. Paulo teaches his wife Chris to listen to her second mind until it becomes silent, and then in the silence to began to speak without words, to speak the sounds that come to you. She at last makes a break through: “She began to move her head back and forth, wanting to do all that, and suddenly she wanted to make strange noises. And she did so. It wasn’t ridiculous. She was free to do as she pleased.” He describes it as the joy of a warrior entering into an unknown world. She needed to speak the pure language of the heart. “…she had to continue to speak, making the gestures that came to her, singing the strange melodies. Yes, everything must make some kind of sense because she had never heard these sounds before, these melodies, these words and movements.”

One thing that struck me as I read this was the parallel with speaking in tongues, which plays a prominent part in Coelho’s next book that I will review (soon, I promise) By the River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept.

Forty Years Later

In 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in the spring. In August that year Kathleen and I were in Chicago for the Democratic Convention, protesting the war in Vietnam. She had gone back to Louisville to work but I was still there in Grant Park the night of the “police riot” that filled the air with tear gas and the Chicago jail with protestors, many seriously injured by the police. Last night as over one hundred thousand people gathered in that same park to see Barack Obama proclaim victory in the presidential election it was a great day for the United States and for the world.

I would not possibly have believed forty years ago that I would see the United States elect a Black President. Not in my life time, but yesterday we did.

We said then “The whole world is watching.” Last night the whole world was watching this unprecedented, historic moment.

Thanks be to God!

We traveled to Richmond, VA for Kathleen's ACPE conference; we were gone from October 18-28. We actually spent more time in Sterling Virginia with Sabrena and Arthie and our granddaughters. Getting ready for Halloween we visited a pumpkin patch to pick out their gourds. They had a great time. For more pictures CLICK HERE.

I had an op-ed article published last Sunday, October 12, 2008 in the Hartford Courant. On October 12, 1998 Matthew Shepard died, brutally attacked and tied to a fence because he was Gay. The article marks this occasion and calls for action against Hate Crimes. Read the article.



Last week Connecticut became the third state in which same sex marriage is allowed. The State Supreme Court ruled under the equal protection of the law provision in the CT constitution that same sex couples have the right to marry. Same Sex Unions are not enough. This is what Love Makes a Family has been saying all along, and what Clergy for Marriage Equality has been working for. I am proud to serve on the steering committee of this organization. Our Church hosted a worship service celebrating the long awaited decision on Monday Evening, October 13. Unfortunately I was not able to be there since I was at a wedding reception.



Last week Presbyterian Promise and First Presbyterian CHurch, Hartford co-sponsored a display of 50 liturgical stoles the Shower of Stoles Project. See Pictures.

The Last Lecture

I just finished reading this extraordinary book by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zazlow.

I cannot overestimate the value of this book by an obviously brilliant professor whose “Last Lecture” was not an academic exercise in what you would say if you had one last lecture to give, but was in truth his last lecture, he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had an estimated 6 months to live. It is not a sad “be sorry for me” lament, but a joyful celebration of life entitled “Fulfilling your Childhood Dreams”. The book is about preparing and delivering the lecture, but really about living your life well however long you have. Randy admits, no brags about being Tigger, not Eeyore.

Click on the picture above to get to the book’s web page with links to actually view the video recording of the lecture itself, as well as reviews, news reports, etc. Click on the title of today’s Blog to get to the publisher’s web site for the book.

.

This is a book that I bought and took on vacation, but didn't get to until I got home. I still will share with you my list of books I did read while on vacation and some comments about them, if not full reviews.

A Wonderful Vacation

We had a great vacation, spent some time with Sabrena and Arthie and our grandbabies. I haven't uploaded pictures to Flickr.com yet, but will put up a link when I do.

.

Most of our time was spent in North Carolina with our friends. We found a builder for our retirement home, and chose a house plan that seemed closest to what we want. We talked with the builder about what changes we want, he said they were all possible and is sending the project to a draftsman. From there he will be able to price out the project, and if it exceeds our budget he said he will suggest where we can cut back.

.

The whole thing is very exciting. We retire at the end of January, but do not intend to put our present home on the market during the winter, probably in April. If it sells fairly quickly we would hope to ready to move to NC in May, and that is the builder's goal for completion. (Having built a Church building and rennovated two others I know that construction delays are the norm, not the exception.

.

We did do a lot of reading, I will share the list here within the next week and have some comments on the most interesting ones.

.

We of course have been watching the Democratic Convention, quite exciting. I am looking forward to Obama's speech tonight.

More about the Alchemist

More about the Alchemist

It has been interesting that I have received three comments on my initial blog about the Alchemist since I usually receive none.

I finished the book and immediately went back to the beginning to read it again, finding much that I missed the first time through. It is truly a marvelous work. I went looking for other of his writings at Borders Bookstore and was surprised to find nothing shelved under fiction/Coelho. I wondered why not and on a hunch went over to philosophy where I found six or seven titles on an end cap display. I bought The Fifth Mountain and By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. to read on vacation (starting Saturday!!!)

A few gems from The Alchemist. “There is one great truth on this planet; whoever you are, or what ever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth…. The Soul of the World is nourished by people’s happiness…. To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation.” The speaker is an old man who calls himself Melchizedek and ends up charging the boy Santiago one tenth of his flock of sheep in return for his help. He also gave him two divination stones that he called Urim and Thummin. (Biblical references keep recurring through out the book.)

A camel driver tells the boy the secret of happiness. “If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. You’ll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.” The camel driver also said: “To die tomorrow is no worse than dying on any other day.”

A seer also talks to the boy about the present: “How do I guess at the future? Based on the omens of the present. The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better."

The Alchemist several times echoes works we have heard from the lips of Jesus. “It’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil. …it’s what comes out of their mouths that is.” On the same page he says “Remember wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”

At the end the boy can speak the Language of the World. He spoke to the wind, and to the sun and to the hand that wrote all. To the sun he said “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”

I am looking forward to the other books I bought and you may read more book reviews while I am on vacation, or when I return.

The Alchemist

.

Over the weekend I picked up The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian author described on the back cover as "One of the bestselling and most influential authors in the world." The blurb names 8 books which he has published "and others have sold more than 65 Million copies in 150 countries and have been translated into 60 languages."

.

I have had a hard time putting the book down and am already half way through. It is a simple tale of a shepherd boy who sets out in the world to find his goal in life, his personal legend. Along the way he meets a variety of people who impart wisdom to him.

.

It is extraordinarily rich in such wisdom from the boy himself and others. One quotation may whet your appetite: "intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it's all written there."

.

I will write more when I have finished, and I intend to start again at the beginning when I have come to the end. I keep feeling there is even more here than I can appreciate in a single reading.

.

His spirit and philosophy remind me of Kahlil Gibran, the poet from Lebanon, author of The Prophet, Jesus Son of Man and others.

Do I have any readers who are currently reading or have read this volume? Love to receive your comments.

Surprises Around the Bend

I just finished reading Richard Hasler’s new volume entitled Surprises Around the Bend. Richard is a former associate pastor of this congregation, 1960-1965. The book consists of stories and quotations from 50 Adventurous walkers. Most of them are people whose names we would recognize starting with Carl Jung and ending with Dietrich Bonhoeffer who continues to walk even when imprisoned in a tiny cell with only a half an hour a day in the prison yard. Hartford Native Wallace Stevens is on the list along with Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. Also included are Soren Kierkegaard, Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa whose life was changed when she went walking among the poor in Calcutta, and William Booth, founder of the Salvation army who discovered the worst slums in London on one of his walks that changed the direction of his life. Social prophets Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez not only walked themselves, but also used mass marches as a means of publicizing their causes.

Again and again these adventurous walkers praised the practice of walking for its benefits both for physical health, and for mental and spiritual health. Many reported that walking provided meaningful moments for prayer and meditation. Poets and authors repeatedly said that walking opened up for them the channels of creativity. Several said that if the circumstances prevented their walking they were unable to do their best and most creative work.

Dick includes as an after word a program for daily walking with a goal of 10,000 steps (about five miles) a day. I have followed this practice for several years and found that in good weather it is not difficult at all to log 10,000 steps a day by taking the dog walking two or three times a day and trying to walk sometime in the middle of the day as well. Parking in the most distant spot in the grocery parking lot helps me know where my car is and increases the length of the walk. I certainly feel better and sleep better when I get my daily exercise, and seem to accomplish more each day.

In a recent sermon on rules for daily living the first rule on my list was to take a walk every day, even better take several. (The other two rules were to spend less than you earn, and to give yourself to a cause greater than yourself.)

I have a copy of the book I would be willing to loan someone else, and a second copy is in process of being catalogued for the Church Library.

What have you been reading for the summer, or any time recently? I would love to hear from you at revtdavis@sbcglobal.net.

One of the most interesting books I have read lately is entitled, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle with the sub title “A Year of Food Life.” by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver is the author of the widely read Poisonwood Bible and numerous other books and essays. In the present volume she tells the story of her family moving from the Arizona desert to property her husband owned in southern Appalachia determined to live for one year raising most of their own food and buying what food they did not produce from their neighbors. The few things they could not find grown within 100 miles of where they lived included coffee, flour (an essential since her husband Steven made all the bread and Pizza dough for the family). They found that although some of their neighbors grew wheat that all of the local flour mills had gone out of business and all the flour in the country was produced by a half a dozen giant corporations. They also found that there were some spices that they needed that were not local. They did do with out all tropical fruits, and anything that was out of season. They ate food as it came into season, when they canned or froze everything that they produced. Quart after quart of tomatoes and tomato sauce, along with dried tomatoes and frozen everything carried them through the whole winter. Her youngest daughter Lilly raised chickens that graced the Sunday dinner table and eventually produced enough eggs to feed the family and to sell to the neighbors. They raised turkeys and actually kept them long enough to breed (did you know that every broad breasted white sold at thanksgiving is less than 6 months old and bred by means of artificial insemination.) She said when one of hers finally hatched some chicks that the mother was one of the oldest turkeys in the country (about a year old).

Along with her narrative, the book also includes a variety of her husband Steven’s essays on everything from the high cost to the environment of shipping food across the country, not just the cost of transportation but the damage to the ecology of the planet, the reduction of food quality, flavor and nutrition, the downside of genetic modified foods, the danger of the loss of agricultural variety and heirloom varieties. I could never understand what was wrong with Genetically Modified foods, I certainly do now.

Barbara’s older daughter Camille has also contributed her reflections to the book, about the advantages of organic, and about cooking and about leaving home for college and trying to apply what she had learned in that environment. There are loads of recipes and meals in the book, and they are available on line at www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com.

I found it inspiring, enlightening, occasionally emotionally touching. It has moved me from casual interest in local foods, mostly because of taste and price, to a person who is and should be more a champion of eating local. I have not become convinced that I want to grow our own food, although we did a lot and canned and froze food early on in our marriage. We still grew tomatoes up until a few years ago, and I have potted herbs growing on our deck. We finally quit the tomatoes when I realized that we were mainly feeding our neighbors since we were on vacation at the peak of the harvest; and my tomatoes came in at the same time that they became abundant in the farmer’s markets. At 65 I don’t intend to go back into farming; but here and where we will be retiring next year there is an abundance of farmers markets and farm stands, and others tell me that there are places to buy local all year long close to Hartford. An added advantage to moving to costal North Carolina is being able to get fresh seafood right off the boats when they dock. Just a sampling of what is available to us includes a wonderful market at Billings Forge on Broad Street, Hartford, south of Capitol Ave – open about 11 AM to 2 PM Mondays and Thursdays. Monday, Wednesday and Friday is a market at the Old State House, about the same hours. I was there today and got a quart of Strawberries and a cucumber. The greens that probably looked wonderful at 10 AM did not look so fresh at 1:30 PM so I passed them by. I will be at Billings Forge soon after they open tomorrow. One or two farmers will be in our parking lot at the Church on Mondays beginning July 7, 2008. I know there is a market on Laurel Street in Hartford and another at the United Methodist Church at Farmington and Whitney. We often go to the West Hartford Market on LaSalle Road in the Center, it is Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. A quick internet search did not turn up a complete and current list of farmer’s markets but here is last year’s Department of Agriculture List. Of course this doesn’t include a multiple of farm stands that become numerous as you get outside the central Urban area to places like Granby, Simsbury, South Glastonbury, Manchester, etc.

Eating local has suddenly become immensely popular perhaps outstripping the interest in eating organic. For the best of the best find organic farmers and organic farmers markets, and they are not hard to find. One of the farmers who was at the Church last year was certified organic, and the one who will be back engages in many organic practices and uses little or no non-organic pesticides on most of their crops.

I recommend the book as a marvelous read, and the local foods movement as strongly as I can. Reading the book can be an adventure and education that could change your life.

First Presbyterian supports the Walk Against Hunger

More pictures (the folks without Hands ON tee shirts were also sharing lunch with the walkers prior to participating in an "appreciative inquiry" as part of the revitalization process we are involved in.)

Let me brag, even if belatedly, (the walk was May 4) about our Church's support for the Walk Against Hunger. As we have done for years we led the way among the Churches designating their support for Hands ON Hartford. We raised over $7500 for the walk. I personally raised over $1200 of this total and I was not the top fund raiser for First Presbyterian. That honor goes to Holly Billings who passed me on her walk total, and also solicited from Robin Roberts a $25,000 challenge gift to match the first $25,000 raised by Hands ON Hartford. (Robin is one of the Hosts on CBS's Good Morning America program and a member of First Presbyterian Church.)
.

One of the things that gave me particular pride was that not only did the current confirmation class all raise money and participate in the walk (we did tell them it was a class requirement) but also that most of the previous class also participated again this year.
.

Last Sunday, which was Pentecost, was a marvelous service. We used red ribbon to block off many of the pews, forcing worshippers to sit closer to one another in the front middle section of the sanctuary, the children formed a rhythm band with a variety of world instruments to duplicate the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and seven players presented a dramatic reading as part of the message for the morning.

Talking about Race

Much has been made in the news and the debates about some inflammatory remarks made by the former pastor of Trinity UCC church where Barak Obama is a member. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a widely popular preacher who has preached many sermons at Trinity UCC (The Nation’s largest UCC congregation) and in other churches and conferences across this country. Hundreds of them have been videotaped. I personally have a video of his keynote presentation at a conference I attended. Kathleen has heard him speak on several occasions. Out of his hundreds of sermons some few have contained language that white folks have considered over the top, as when at Howard University, to an almost entirely African American gathering a few days after 9/11 he said that instead of singing God Bless America he would say, “God Damn America.”

.
We ask “How in the world could anyone not love America?” “Why in the world would anyone want to harm and humiliate the United States on a major scale?” “Aren’t we the greatest and most free nation in the whole history of human civilization?”

All Americans do not agree that the United States is the greatest nation on earth, the most moral, the most prosperous, and certainly not the nations which is most just and fair and careful of the rights of its citizens. We have been poisoned by our history of chattel slavery, and by pervasive racism that persists over 150 years after the end of slavery. Many African Americans are more than bitter, often angry because of the limitations and insults that they have lived with all of their lives. Fifty years after Brown versus Board of Education we still have segregated schools. School systems like Hartford which serve the minority community do not provide education equal to what is offered in suburban schools. The horrifically low graduation rate for Hartford’s youth would not be tolerated in any suburban school. On April 17 I went to an event at the legislature highlighting the health disparities in our state. I was shocked at some of the facts presented. In our state per 1000 live births of white babies five die before the age of one, over 14 out of 1000 Blacks babies die in the first year of life. Ten percent of white adults are uninsured in the state, 21.4 % of Black adults are uninsured. For Pediatric Asthma the hospitalization rate for whites is 90, it is 263 for Blacks. The same kind of disparities exists for poverty, education, housing etc. Blacks are behind in every measure of social and economic health as a result of persistent and pervasive racism.

But white folks do not get it; even those of us who have had African American friends for many years still do not get it, because we do not personally experience these disparities. Our African American friends seldom share their experiences and their rage with those of us who are white. We can dismiss the few stories we hear about our friends being detained for driving while black as the result of a few bad cops. In Memphis I picked up a book entitled Gracism, The Art of Inclusion by David Anderson, an African American Pastor. He said he was detained three times on his first day on his job as associate pastor at a predominantly white church in a ritzy Chicago neighborhood. Those of us who live in white skin don’t get it! We do not hear about more than a fraction of the discrimination and insults that our African American, Latino and Muslim friends experience daily.

Our society will not change if we continue to remain silent and pretend that racism is not a problem in this country and that we are not racists. Other people may be racists, but we want to think we are not, and we are. Racism and the myth of Black inferiority have poisoned all of us, what ever color our skin is. Barack Obama broke the conspiracy of silence that has gripped America; now it is time that the rest of us join in the conversation about race and racism.

A Week in Memphis

Kathleen and I spent the past week in Memphis, TN. Actually we spent Monday and much of Saturday at O'Hare Field, the Chicago Airport.

The Racial Ethnic Multicultural Network of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education was meeting there for an Annual Meeting, and Kathleen’s associate was meeting a committee to receive full certification as a CPE Supervisor. She did receive this certification, which was cause to celebrate on Beale Street where we ate Barbecue and listened to Blues. Memphis is famous for both.

The conference was centered around remembering Dr. Martin Luther King who was gunned down in Memphis on the balcony of the Loraine Motel on April 4, 1968, forty years ago. We heard a panel of REM founders all talk about how Dr. King’s life and ministry effected them, attended seminars, worshipped and participated in City Wide Events remembering Dr. King.

He had gone to Memphis in 1968 to support the garbage workers who wanted union recognition (AFSCME), decent wages, and to be treated with dignity as men. They claimed that the city of Memphis was treating them like dogs and their signs read, I AM A MAN.

A few more pictures from the March.
On Friday we joined hundreds of others in walking the route the marchers took on April 4, 1968 with Dr. King at the lead. It was 6:01 PM that evening that shots rang out and Dr. King fell dead on the balcony of the Loraine Motel. The march ended at the Motel where everyone spoke. Both Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton passed us by in the crowd and we saw John McCain on the Motel Balcony. He now wants to apologize for voting against making Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday. A little late, don’t you think?

We toured the National Civil Rights Museum with included the Loraine Motel, STAX Records Museum, and attended a huge gala celebration where Harry Belafonte was Honored (and spoke 20 or 30 minutes). He was supposed to make a brief response, but took the time allocated for Dr. Joseph Lowry, who gave him a very hard time, but them spoke briefly and to the point.

If there were any Clinton supporters on the platform that night they were certainly undercover, most of the speakers were clearly supporting Barak Obama.

The food, by the way was awful, overdone tough steak. A terrible choice to try to serve a big crowd. The tickets were $100 full price, although REM had a much cheaper price by buying multiple tables.

Easter Sunday was Wonderful -- Except

More photos from Easter

.

The Lilies were beautiful, the Church was full, (well not really since the sanctuary can hold over 300 and our attendance was 125, but it looks much fuller than the usual 75 people) and a few ladies had on their Easter bonnets. Actually very few had on Easter bonnets since straw hats and wool clothing just doesn’t go together and it was a very cold and very early Easter. I thought that the sexton with his cap on might be the only hat I had to photograph, but then more people showed. If you look at the picture set, however you will have seen all the hats there were.

The choir was in its best form following a prelude for Organ and Piano with Dianne Ney on the organ and Tonya Spears on the piano, and then Ray Gonzales came in with the trumpet on the first Hymn. Dianne invited all the singers in the congregation to join with the choir in singing the Halleluiah chorus from the Messiah after the benediction and over a half a dozen did. It sounded spectacular. I thought I had a good sermon, and it was brief.

There were just the two of us for dinner and we had pistachio encrusted rack of Lamb, it was delicious!

It was a Wonderful Easter – Except, Except, on Easter Sunday on the other side of the world the 4000th officially recognized casualty to an American serviceperson took place in Iraq. On Easter, the holiday of life, resurrection, hope, renewal we go on with business as usual in Iraq, and business as usual involves killing and being killed.

Photos from Holy Thursday service at Westminster

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary
of the war in Iraq.

I was among 200 plus protesters on Main Street in Hartford on a cold and rainy day. After over five minutes of conversation with a Hartford Courant reporter I got one sentence quoted. "As nasty as [this weather] is, I could not, not be here. Other people are making much worse sacrifices than walking out on a cold day," said Terry Davis, pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Hartford. Link to full article. (Pictures from Courant Web Site)

The protest started on the steps of Center Church (UCC) and ended at the Federal Building. At the Federal Building five of the protesters blocked the employee entrance to the building (leaving the public entrance open for those needing to conduct business with the immigration or other offices and courts in the building). They were eventually arrested by city police, although from conversations I overheard at the edge of the crowd the city police at first insisted that they should not make arrests on Federal Property. They wanted the private security officers guarding the building to call the federal Marshals to make the arrests.

Among those arrested were two people over 80 years old. The Rev Kathy McTigue, senior minister at the Unitarian Society in New Haven, said moments before she and the others were taken into custody. "It is a way of putting our bodies in the way of business as usual and business as usual is killing people.”

The cost of the war have been tremendous, nearly 4,000 dead American Soldiers, and no counting how many have been injured physically, mentally and spiritually. It has cost over $3 trillion to pursue the war according to Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic strategist who also estimated that over 150,000 Iraqis have died. This war has now lasted longer than World War I, World War II, or the Civil War.

Barack Obama asked in a recent fund raising letter: “And where are we for all of this sacrifice?

We are less safe and less able to shape events abroad. We are divided at home, and our alliances around the world have been strained. The threats of a new century have roiled the waters of peace and stability, and yet America remains anchored in Iraq.

Enough!”

Palm Sunday was a great day at
First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, CT

Click Here for More Pictures

In every way Palm Sunday was a wonderful time to celebrate the goodness of God at First Presbyterian. We started off with a Breakfast planned by Parish Life with a speaker arranged by the Multicultural Team. The speaker was Heidi Hadsell, president of Hartford Seminary who spoke about Multiculturalism in Church and Society.

The historic sanctuary was beautiful as always, enhanced by live palm trees and two large Salvador Dali prints, one the last supper, the other the crucifixion. (I bought the eight foot live palms from BJ’s Discount Warehouse at the bargain price of $19.99 each) Choir and worshipers carried palm fronds and processed around the sanctuary singing “Hosanna, Loud Hosannas…” The choir sang “Ride on King Jesus” and “Sing Hosanna!”. Both were beautifully done. I thought I had a very good sermon which you can read on line. Carl Dudley was at both the breakfast and service, back at the Church for the first time in four months. Carl has been and continues to fight a very serious disease.

The Bluest Eye

.

On Sunday we saw The Bluest Eye at Hartford Stage. This is a stage adaptation of Toni Morrison’s novel of the same name. It was a tremendously powerful production, had a great cast, and obviously a very good director as well as a creative set designer. I recommend it to anyone. Looking around the nearly filled theater on Sunday (not usually not a prime time for attendance at Hartford Stage) it was obvious that the play has great appeal to African American audiences, but all of us who seek to understand racism in our country will benefit into this look at the psyche of African American folk in a white world. The protagonists are children, honest in their expression of their feelings and experience.

Their ways of dealing with a white world are very different, Claudia tears up and destroys her blue eyed and blond hair doll, while Percola wants to be that doll, someone no longer looked at as ugly and invisible.

Go to the Hartford Stage website to view two reviews, both excellent and far more descriptive than anything I could write, or better still run out and get tickets and see this outstanding performance yourself.

Three Church Retreat

.

.

.

More pictures from the retreat

Last Saturday we hosted a Presbytery sponsored retreat for leaders of the three Churches participating in a revitalization consultation. Our Consultant, Ann Philbrick from the Heartwood group did a presentation about the life cycle of Churches, like our own lives Churches move from their founding (birth) growth and development, (she calls this incline), then a Church reaches its prime, membership and program development plateau, these are the Church’s golden years (she calls this recline, besides rhyming it symbolizes a leaning back being satisfied with maintaining the good thing we have going). She says no Church stays at this point forever, at some point decline sets in, and eventually will end with death with out a new birth, without a resurrection. Churches call this redevelopment or revitalization or the new in word is transformation. I like the resurrection image since that went with the scriptures for the following day, the dry bones (Ezekiel 37) and the resurrection of Lazarus (John chapter 11).

I suggested Sunday (read the entire sermon) that this was our hope as a Church since First Presbyterian peaked near its 100th Anniversary when there were purportedly 600 to 800 members. The Church has been in a 50 year decline, although we have halted the loss of members over the past 10 years adding 75 new members to replace the 75 we have lost. I said that death was not the inevitable end, but when the spirit blows and when Christ’s power intervenes, and when we engage fully in the revitalization process resurrection is a possibility.

I also noted in thinking of the resurrection of Lazarus that there was a strangeness about the story, although the emotions of grief and pain, crying and anger are vividly portrayed as John tells this story that what is missing is that there is no picture of great joy and gladness and no expression of gratitude toward Jesus when Lazarus is raised. The shepherd has a party for his friends when he finds the one lost sheep, the woman invites others to rejoice with her when she finds her lost coin, the Prodigal’s father throws a banquet complete with veal and wine, music and dancing, but it is many days later before Martha and Mary have a dinner party for Jesus.

The women seemed to still be in shock, so overwhelmed by their grief over their loss that they cannot rejoice. I suggested that we also might be focused on our losses, those who have moved away, drifted away or passed away and be missing signs of hope and joy that we have received so many new members and families into the Church. Our newer members are younger and more racially and ethnically diverse than those who are gone.

.
What I believe that these passages challenge us to do is to deal with our losses, but also to see what God is doing and what God will be doing in our midst and to celebrate the hope and the already present reality of resurrection and new life, in our personal lives, and in our life as a Church.

Was Lethal Force Necessary?

The Hartford Courant reported this morning that a man was shot by state police within a five minute walk from my office (and even closer to the State Capitol). Did he have a gun? Was he holding a hostage captive? Had he committed a capital felony? Did the confrontation take place in the dark of night? Did two trained and highly experienced state troopers have a reasonable fear for their lives? No, no, no, no, no. He had left the stolen auto at the corner of Russ and Broad Streets and was running from the police. In the parking lot of the Firebox Restaurant he pulled a knife and refused to drop it; both of the troopers, members of the state police SWAT team, fired their weapons and the suspect was taken to Hartford Hospital where he was pronounced dead. All this took place shortly before noon yesterday. It is a wonder that no one else was injured by the gunfire, the last time I was at the Firebox there were lots of people around at noon.

There is no doubt, the man who was shot was one of the bad guys; in a short period of time he had committed sexual assault, auto theft, & bank robbery. He was on probation after committing first-degree robbery and he did lead police on a chase during which he had been involved in a traffic accident. He needed to be stopped and arrested, but is it not reasonable to expect that two trained and experienced members of a SWAT team could disarm and arrest a single man with a single knife. Where was the Tazer? Where are the other non-lethal means of subduing a person?

I am not buying that this was a necessary use of force.