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 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.
In some ways it is the same Australia we last saw eighteen years ago. It is a beautiful wide-open country, roughly the same size as the United States with only 28 million people. Old friends look remarkably the way we remember them and we have picked up where we left off without missing a heartbeat with stories and laughter easily bridging the years. Oh, how good it feels to be back.
Yet, as one might expect, it is not the same Australia. Thankfully, the all-white policy that was officially changed fifty years ago has led to a more diverse population, but it seems to have extended mostly to Asian countries. A few friends lamented that Australia still remains a racist country which surprised and saddened me. I was hoping I could look at Australia as an example for the rest of the world, or at least for the United States, as we struggle with our own racism.
The day after we arrived a horrendous knife attack killed six people in an upscale shopping mall in Sydney. A few days later a Christian bishop was injured in a knife attack during worship. Legislation is being talked about to curb nice violence. Australia was successful in ridding the country of guns after a horrendous shooting in 1996. Where there’s a will good things can happen. It would do us well to take notice of how other countries solve issues. In the meantime, a few friends confided that they are too scared to visit America.
Others tell us they are waiting to see the results of our elections before they come for a visit. They know as much about what is going on with our politics as we do, it seems, and many a conversation has led to questions about our political turmoil. It is affecting the world.
Last night we had dinner with a physician who works for Doctors Without Borders and her husband, a dear friend who works for the International Red Cross. Both have served in places like Gaza and Afghanistan and the insights they have on the role of the United States are chilling. We shake our head.
Last Sunday we attended Jenny’s old church and the service was entirely lay-run as the congregation is beginning to look for a new minister. There was one child who was playing with toys in the rear of the sanctuary and on one occasion wandered up to the front only to be gently snatched away by his mom. Before the pandemic, and in the years when Jenny lived here, children were everywhere and a very important part of worship. The absence of children and youth is not only an American issue. Oh, and there was no worship bulletin.
It is the same Australia and yet it isn’t. There are more cars than we remember, more traffic everywhere. Many houses have given way to apartment buildings. Graffiti is prevalent and I wonder the meaning of all the squiggles. At the same time there are beautiful exotic birds flying overhead and sitting in trees sharing their songs and cackles, perhaps like the graffiti trying to tell us something important that we may one day understand. Kangaroos, as prevalent as deer, sit in distant fields in the countryside watching us as we watch them.
After all these years we have been welcomed back.
Grace and peace,
Harry
Recent Letters
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.
I had just mailed a design for youth ministry to all the church families. I was determined to be organized, as the Presbyterian Church is organized, and the many pages of my youth ministry manual had outlines, schedules, roles, responsibilities, elections of officers, and weekly meals prepared by parents, all neatly typed up on a typewriter I had lugged back from seminary.
This mother was not only unimpressed by my hard work but a bit offended. …
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. …
February 10, 2024
Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who often needed to get away from the pressing crowds.
A little history of my upcoming sabbatical after Easter, now termed a vacation and study leave.
Every seven years, pastors in the Presbytery of Santa are entitled to a 3–4-month sabbatical for rest and restoration. For me the seven-year mark was 2019 …