As I have traveled to churches, presbyteries and conferences since the last General Assembly, I have shared news of the denomination, telling..
The first time I put on a clerical robe I felt as if I was wearing a costume. It was a classic..
According to Masha Gessen, a Russian-American journalist and staff writer for the New Yorker, “We’ve lost the ability to have political conversations.”..
Lately my prayer has been to be useful: Make me useful, God. Where this plea originates during days overflowing with unending tasks..
I attended Catholic school for the first three years of elementary school. I appreciated Mass, even though the wafer and the cup..
Every church, every neighborhood, every committee, every organization of which I have ever participated has had unheralded, unofficial leaders. I can picture..
Andrew Jackson, whose presidency is marked by the Indian Removal Act, was a Presbyterian. He was also a slaveholder. One might, of..
I remember my first fervent, desperate, I-will-do-anything-if-you-answer-this-prayer-God prayer. When I was 8 years old, my little brother’s life seemed to hang in..
We are in the home stretch of 2017 and we at the Presbyterian Outlook are looking with excitement toward 2018. Plans are..
Sappy sentiments about “home” pervade this season no less than cheesy Christmas music and relentless advertisements telling us to buy things. The..
I love the used book sales that local libraries hold in basements and back rooms. The smell of musty pages, the multicolored..
I’m listening to the silence. The rest of the country seems to be on fire with revelations involving sexual misconduct, violence and..
The Bible surprises sometimes. Even passages read and re-read reveal connections unwanted and unsought. While digging around in the second chapter of..
How can people of faith respond to the to the national #MeToo and #ChurchToo conversations? Here’s a sampling of ideas, opinion pieces,..
This is the day that the Lord has made! We will rejoice and be glad in it. This is also the day..
“People connect around a cause and they get tired. We need community while we work on cause.” That’s what my friend, Kermit..
For years Frederick Buechner’s quote about vocation both haunted and inspired me. You likely have heard it: “The place God calls you..
Wear your vestments. Clergy will sit together at the front. Faith leaders are needed in the park. We want the clergy to..
“I can’t believe he said he was lucky.” My 16-year-old is processing our cab driver’s story. Wasim is a native of Libya..
Banana bread, coffee, a glass bowl of mixed nuts. These treats welcomed us into the large, cinderblock classroom. Every week a comforting..
Many groups, two sides, one right response Many groups converged on Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, but only two sides were represented: good..
AIDS, homelessness, wars fought at a distance and quickly, famine in far-off countries, marriages, deaths, cocaine addiction and alcoholism, divorce, youth struggling..
Fewer and fewer people I encounter have any idea what “Presbyterian” means. When, upon meeting someone, I am asked, “What do you..
This year’s Big Tent conference took place in St. Louis and had the theme, “Race, Reconciliation, Reformation.” As I prepared to go,..
I recently came across this quote attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold..
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