The year after Mrs. Her-Name-Withheld read my best dyslexic sentences aloud to her class, my mother coaxed me into repeating the fourth grade at a new school. At Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary I found community, structure, love, and friends. I loved it! Sometimes we chanted like monks at lunch, “Would you trade your […]
June 28, 2019 Dear Belmont friends, I am not really sure just where to start with the good news from our Tennessee Annual Conference 2019. I might start by mentioning our youth reading an open letter to the Tennessee Conference, five Belmonters being elected to General or Jurisdictional Conference in 2020, the Conference voting in […]
I think someone gave me Anne Lamott’s “Traveling Mercies” years ago. Grace comes as a gift. I first read it 10,000 feet from the Earth, next to strangers, in the window seat. Around page 49, I found myself weeping. What makes a story resonate deeply? Anne Lamott defines grace as “the force that infuses our […]
I am filled with gratitude for every person who typed my number 114 into your electronic voting device. I am so deeply thankful for the young clergy and laity who led us and gave Tennessee our most diverse and progressive delegation ever. I am humbled to help represent the people of the Tennessee Annual Conference […]
What joy- to weep as I helped Rev. Shirley Renee Franklin place a stole over our beloved Jefferson Furtado. Tears welled up as Margaret Williams placed the stole on Nancy Parker: linking us all again to her beloved Rev. Michael Williams, who now dwells with the Great Cloud of Witnesses- no doubt swapping tales with […]
For 47 years, we Methodists have “held the line”: marching in place, as God’s world spins away from us. We linger again- in a critical moment. Will the Methodist church stand in place, trudge backwards, or risk progress? The Cross came as an outside the box move. The Incarnation, Golden Rule, Reformation, Methodist Class […]
Jesus ministry begins with the words, “Change your hearts and lives!” (Matthew 4) The theme of “hearts” has infused my recent reading and preaching. While reviewing my 2017 sermon for the Bishop’s Advisory Committee on uniting the Memphis and Tennessee Conferences, I discovered my insight about hearts did not come from me: “As we wrestled […]
