Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places— Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! Jet lag, church lag, and Pentecost. Before I go there, I want you to know that Jenny and I are home for a few days to regroup before we head off to Spain and the Camino, then on to Germany as the final stop on our vacation and study leave time. I am spending these days preparing for the last of my four classes in my Trauma and Spiritual Care course and will be up in the middle of the night attending class on zoom while we are in Germany. Two all-nighters, in fact. Thank you, time zones! ...

Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places: Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! We are in one of those far-off places. Margaret River, a four-hour drive south of Perth, then five hours by plane from Melbourne, seventeen hours from Dallas, and another couple hours from Albuquerque, then the hour drive home to Santa Fe.  Yes, it’s a far-off place and as “far off” as I have ever been.

Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far off places— Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! Worship two ways. Last Sunday morning we attended worship at a Uniting Church in downtown Perth. The Uniting Church began in 1977 when Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians came together to form a new denomination based on social justice and inclusion.

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.  ...

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. In some ways it is the same Australia we last saw eighteen years ago.... 

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. ...

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. ...

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 ...

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.

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...