These letters from Pastor Harry and church leaders explore the challenges we face as people of faith in a complicated and fearful world, not unlike the world that Paul faced, and not unlike the world that Dr. King faced down.
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April 27, 2024
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ!
Photos and some random Aussie thoughts.
Pictures down under paint 1,531.26 words (the conversion rate for 1,000) so I am sending some to you since it is such a great deal. So is the exchange rate!
Since I wrote to you last, we said goodbye to our friends in Melbourne but not before a big party of some 30-40 old friends who attended the Uniting Church in West Brunswick when Jenny did. That congregation has informed my ministry more than any other and the lasting friendships and sense of community it engendered there was truly profound, and very evident that night. Jenny was truly loved there, and it showed in the people who gathered to see her again.
Two days later we spent the morning and afternoon with Alistair McRae, the pastor during those years, and his spouse Claire Boyd-McRae. Alistair was the one most responsible for this amazing church. He went on to be the President of the Uniting Church of Australia and one of Christianity’s world leaders.
We arrived in Perth the next day to visit Jenny’s son Hans who was born in Melbourne and lived in the US until he moved to Perth 18 months ago. Western Australia, with Perth as its capitol, is the wealthiest of Australia’s six states, all due to mining. It is a beautiful and clean mid-size city with towering trees lining the streets. In Perth I have never been so far from home. And it’s the first time I ever saw the Indian Ocean.
Once again, like Melbourne, folks here are on top of American news. The Trump trial, the NFL draft, the violence, absurd comments by our politicians—they hear it like we do. And they find most of it hard to fathom and worry that the United States is not what it once was. We don’t have a ready answer or many words of comfort, yet.
So, my thoughts wander back to you, dear friends in Santa Fe, and other far-off places, and hope you are well, as we are well here.
Grace and peace,
Harry
Oh, and when you cross the street always look to your right first. And when you walk always stay to the left. That’s the only advice I have at the moment. Cheers!
Recent Letters
April 20, 2024
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ.
Australia, after eighteen years . . .
Jenny and I have been in Australia for more than a week now, arriving without incident or delay after a 25-hour trip, from take-off in Albuquerque to touch-down in Melbourne. …
April 6, 2024
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who rose again this year.
One mother of a junior high student made an appointment with me not long after I arrived at my first church in 1984, walked in, sat down, and asked if I was serious. No, it was probably more like whether I was out of my mind. …
March 30, 2024, Easter message
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who has had a tumultuous week.
What Mary saw.
There was a moment of recognition and relief as Mary Magdalene stood before Jesus. A single point in time, didn’t last long, perhaps just a lifetime or so.
We might imagine what Mary saw before that moment. …
March 23, 2024
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who rode into Jerusalem at the start of Passover.
No one knew what it meant at the time.
The crowd waved their branches and loved this peculiar spectacle and the more shouting they heard the louder they shouted. Save us! Save us! As if a poor man on a donkey could do any such thing.
The Scribes scoffed …
The Pharisees were amused …
March 16, 2024
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ.
Christian. Athletic. Easy-going.
These were the three words listed next to my photograph in the College of Wooster’s Freshman Directory back in the fall of 1977, affectionately known at the “Baby Book.” Little did I know that we would be saddled ever since with the words we chose to describe ourselves.
March 9, 2024
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ.
“It went by so fast.”
These were some of the last words my mom said before Parkinson’s took away her ability to speak, and then eventually her life. I still remember her eyes when she said them, looking at me with some astonishment that her life was almost over, a life that was so well spent…
March 2, 2024
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ.
Dreams often baffle me and alarm me, and sometimes they open a way forward.
With the start of spring training my mind has turned once again to baseball, and memories of my playing days start to spill in. I share with you, then, that for 35 years since my last at bat in college I would have recurring dreams of realizing I have one more year of eligibility…
February 24, 2024
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ.
“These are the most radical, political, revolutionary words ever uttered.”
The words spoken on the pitcher’s mound in the spring of 1979 were not these. I was a catcher for the College of Wooster baseball team, we were playing Wittenberg University and, at that point in the season we had the best record in all of college baseball, 30-1. …
February 17, 2024
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who holds compassion for all God’s creation.
A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.
These words by poet Carl Sandburg have stayed in my mind, word for word, for some forty years and they come back to me every time I think of our new Infant Care Center on the third floor. …