I am part of a clergy-sister prayer group. There are four of us in the group. We started about a year ago. Then we lived close together and could meet in our homes once a month, conference-calling each other on the weeks we did not meet face-to-face. But now, being the United Methodist clergy that […]
Painting “Dorothy Day (after Richard Alvedon)” by Tim Lowly Dorothy Day has appeared on people’s radar after Pope Francis spoke of her in his address to the U.S. Congress on his visit in September. I’m glad. Dorothy has been my heroine and mentor for many years. My daughter Temma bears her family name “Day” as […]
My friend Ginny and I made a trip via Amtrak train from Chicago to Denver in the middle of May. An overnight train trip on The California Zephyr” in our own roomette with a steward who pulled down our bunks when we were ready for sleep, meals in the dining car, all of it was […]
I am reading this book by Sharon Betcher, slowly, since she is confronting me with my own entanglement in the religious and economic systems of capitalism, prosperity-Gospel, and the need for healing to be made normal. She writes: Perfect love casts out fear. “If perfect love casts out fear, including the fear that we hide […]
Yesterday was Baptism of Jesus Sunday. The sermon that I prepared is here. In worship the sermon was followed by a ritual of renewal of our baptism. Waiting in what she remembers as being a very small room at the Emergency area of the hospital, a mother just two days still in her bathrobe and […]
I’ve been silent here for awhile. I’ve been working on Advent sermons and special services for Christmas. But now things have become silent, a pause has descended. Today I’ve returned to my book project, writing my daughter Temma’s story. I’m sitting next to her on the couch, in silence except for the occasional airplane passing […]
I wish that you could have known this extraordinary man, John Fridlund. John and his wife C’Dale have been members of Bethany Church, where I’m currently the pastor, for 59 years. John died the evening of October 17. I had the amazing honor of being at his bedside when he breathed his last breath. I […]
One of the many joys of being a Pastor is facilitating the marriage ceremony of two persons who are “in love.” This weekend Tim and I traveled to Galena, Illinois where I presided over many, many weddings when I was pastor of The First United Methodist Church there from 1998 – 2002. This was my […]
July 13, 2014 Series on Compassion, Number One Romans 8;1 – 11 Compassion derives from the Latin patiri and the Greek pathein, meaning “to suffer, undergo, or experience.” So “compassion” means “to endure [something] with another person,” to put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes, to feel her pain as though it were our own, and […]
The cover of Sonali Deraniyagala’s book “Wave” is black with the simple title printed in the center a turquoise color fading to white on the “v” and “e” letters. The cover image reminds me of a Tim Lowly painting, titled “Face of the Deep.” The painting is of a young Temma Lowly sleeping and two […]
Writing From the Margins 