Letter from the Pastor

There is an old movie based on the beginnings of the Chinese communist revolution. A Chinese mob breaks into orphanage run by a Catholic priest. The communist officer, a big bully type, tries to assault a pretty young orphan girl. The priest, at the risk of his own life, tries to defend her. While two or three soldiers were holding the priest, the man slaps him saying: “Your Christ recommends turning the other cheek”. The priest complies. The officer slaps him on the other cheek too. The priest then in great anger lands a carefully armed punch at the belly […]

One of the marks of a learned person is that he knows he doesn’t know very much. Isaac Newton was that kind of a person. He was one of the major scientific minds of the last 300 years, and yet he once described himself as a small child on the sea shore, picking up a few pebbles, all the while surrounded by a vast ocean of the unknown. Albert Einstein was like that, also. In our modern world, his name is a symbol of genius; and yet he said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious, the […]

What is God’s intention for families? What part does God mean families to play in human life? Only when we understand what God has revealed about the family can we hope to find solutions to the problems families face today. The clearest statement of God’s plan for our family is the one that comes right at the beginning of the Bible in the account of the creation of man. We often miss the point of this account. Living as we do in a highly individualistic society, we’re used to thinking of humanity as a mass of individuals. Consequently we read […]

Does it appear to you that all of us are embroiled in that ongoing conflict between the old and the new? Sometimes it seems that nothing ever stays the same. Everything around us is in a constant state of transition. The world is changing; our community changes; our home changes; the Church changes; even we, ourselves, change. If you don’t believe that, well, go dig out an old high school or college picture. Take a look at yourself then and compare it with the way you look now. Change is a fact of life. So what does this mean to […]

This weekend will be the 4th of July, a date of historical significance because it marks the birth of our nation. It was on that day in 1776 that representatives of the thirteen colonies signed a document declaring themselves to be a free and independent nation. Most of us are familiar with the contents of that document. We, of course, know it as “The Declaration of Independence”. In clear and concise language, it avows that the colonies are no longer connected with or controlled by the British Empire. That part of the story is common knowledge, but I wonder how […]