here are pictures from a McCormick Joint Bridal Shower:
the engaged couples:
anna & jonah being awesome:
yummy lunch:
our little beacon of love & some flowers:
Betsy & Me, Getting Married this summer (not to each other):
showering:
practicing for the wedding:
the brides-to-be and the shower hosts:
Thanks to Sarah & Terra for a great time! & thanks to all for coming~
on the 40th anniversary of his assassination, we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
here's the tail-end of Martin Luther King Jr's last speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8
In Ethics class last night, we talked about how America treats our prophets. 40 years after MLK Jr's assassination, here we are threatening and hating on Jeremiah Wright...
My seminary has a close relationship with Trinity UCC, and everyone who's met or heard Jeremiah Wright recognizes his ability to speak truth to power.
But that's the thing about prophets, their society is never really ready or willing to repent and accept their message of truth.
by the way, the week before MLK Jr. died, he was working on a sermon entitled: "Why
America May Go to Hell." sometimes tough (but nonviolent) love is necessary.
The following statement is made by Rev. John Buchanan, the senior
pastor of the congregation where i'll be serving as a pastoral resident
for the 2 years of my life following graduation from seminary:
John Buchanan: “On Jeremiah Wright”
A statement made during morning worship
at the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago
on Sunday, March 30, 2008
I want to take a moment and think together about the continuing
controversy surrounding Trinity United Church of Christ; its former
pastor, Jeremiah Wright, a friend of mine; and its new pastor, Otis
Moss III, also a friend and a new board member of the Christian Century.
Trinity Church has been in the news every day for the past two weeks
because one of its members is Senator Barack Obama. Jeremiah Wright was
pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side for
thirty-six years. During his ministry, the congregation grew to 8,000
members, the largest in the United Church of Christ. More importantly,
the church, under Wright’s leadership, reached out to the community
with mission programs, education, social services, AIDS education and
treatment, and health care. Trinity Church shares with us a worldview
and commitment to mission in the world. When you drive north on Stony
Island Avenue, from the South Side toward downtown, you pass by a large
community health center sponsored by Trinity United Church of Christ.
One way to evaluate and measure a ministry is by the mission it
generates and the organization that supports and enables it. Among
Chicago churches and Chicago clergy of all denominations, Jeremiah
Wright’s ministry is widely admired as a model of what a public church
can and ought to be, and he, himself, is widely respected.
I wish he had made his point without saying “God damn America,” but not
for a moment do I wish he had been less prophetic. In fact, the great
biblical prophets did and said outrageous, controversial things, which
consistently got them in trouble and occasionally in jail. One thinks
of Jeremiah, for instance, or Amos and the Amaziah affair. I wish
Jeremiah Wright had not said “The chickens are coming home to roost”
about the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, even though he was
referring to a speech made by Edward Peck, former Ambassador to Iraq
and President Reagan’s Terrorism Task Force Deputy Director. Wright was
paraphrasing Ambassador Peck, who went on to list America’s domestic
and foreign policy decisions that had put the nation in peril. I wish
he hadn’t suggested that the government were responsible for AIDS. But
then again, the government never deliberately—and misleadingly—left
untreated members of my race who had late-stage syphilis simply so it
could document the disease’s deadly toll.
Senator Obama’s critics wonder how the senator could have remained in
Wright’s congregation and under his leadership for twenty years. The
answer is that Wright didn’t say “God damn America” every Sunday. In
fact, Wright’s sermons were biblically based, relevant, literate, and
eloquent, week after week. When the preachers of the land decide whose
sermons and lectures or preaching they want to hear, Jeremiah Wright’s
are near the top of the list.
I’m distressed that the Chicago Tribune continues to regard Jeremiah
Wright’s sermons as front-page news and led us yesterday to, of all
things, a report on his retirement home.
I’m distressed by white people, out of a very different religious, cultural, racial, theological/ecclesiastical
Most of all I deplore CNN’s and other networks’ decisions to play a few
seconds out of thirty-six years of preaching, several-sentences-long
sound bites over and over again. It’s no wonder people who don’t know a
thing about Trinity Church or Jeremiah Wright come to wrong
conclusions. I’m not the only preacher in the land who knows how
vulnerable any one of us is should ill-chosen words lifted out of a
sermon be played and replayed, over and over again as Wright’s were.
So let’s all settle down and put the whole matter of Jeremiah Wright
and Trinity Church and Barack Obama’s membership into the context of
the 365-days-a-year life of an extraordinary and faithful Christian
congregation.
Katharine Moon, a professor of political science at Wellesley, a Korean American, in a
March 25, 2008, Chicago Tribune editorial remembered the church in which she was nurtured:
"Churches, synagogues, mosques, prayer meetings are . . .
communities of mutual help, support, and practical guidance. As social
scientists know, they are instrumental to building and maintaining
social capital. For new immigrants, as well as racial and ethnic
minorities, they serve a particular purpose. Often, the immigrant or
ethnic church is the one public place where a common language, food,
and humor particular to one’s cultural heritage can be shared. . . . It
is through the congregation that we ask for help—to look after our
children or elderly parents. . . . Often it is the people in the
worship hall who . . . help us paint our houses and visit us in
hospitals. . . . A house of worship is much more than a pastor."
Sensible, valuable words about pastors and congregations, one of which
happens to count among its members a candidate for president and his
family.
And I ask you to join me in reaching out in friendship to our brothers
and sisters at Trinity United Church of Christ and to pray for them,
their former pastor, and their new pastor:
Lord of the church in all its magnificent expression, the
body of Christ in all the world, we pray for our neighbors, our
brothers and sisters of the Trinity United Church of Christ, with whom
we share a passion for justice and for mission and reconciliation
across all the barriers that divide.
Continue to bless them by your own Spirit.
We pray for their newly retired pastor, their pastor for
thirty-six years, Jeremiah Wright. We thank you for his strong and
faithful ministry, his outspoken advocacy for justice, his passion for
your kingdom. Bless him and keep him in these difficult days.
And we pray for Trinity’s new pastor, Otis Moss III. Bless and
keep him and his family. Give him the gifts he needs to serve you and
his people with love and commitment, patience and good humor.
And bless us, O God, as we seek to be your faithful church here in this place.
Startle us again with the news of a risen Lord, of hope and love, not defeated by death, but alive and vigorous among us.
Amen.
a reflection on cruising
after ann, jenny & i returned from our cruise in october, we all decided that the next time we go to the bahamas, we're just flying there. none of this weird, quirky cruise-ship business. the best thing about our cruise, we decided, was the times we were on land, oh- and, of coarse, the constant food.
after 5 harsh months of winter here in chicago, i have inevitably gotten the itch again for warm weather and nights spent under the open sky. and that made me think of our nautical journey from orlando to nassau.
what i miss now is not the buffet, but the nights we spent outside on top of the ship feeling the ocean breeze on our faces. we could see the moon in the sky, and its light reflected off the waters. it was all so still and all so beautiful.
and there we were, three tiny human beings on a this seemingly huge boat which, compared to the expansive universe all around us, was also just this tiny thing floating on open water.
... there's just something really special about being on a boat at night surrounded by water and God's big sky ...
It has come to my attention that an appalling # of my friends (including my fiance) do not know what Chacos are.
Because I recently bought my first pair, I thought I should share my satisfaction with the world.
Chacos are (and I quote my roommate) an "atheletic sandal".
They have incredible arch support; strong, durable soles; wrap around your feet comfortably so they don't fall off; AND are machine washable.
Chacos are great for hiking, long walks, climbing trees and other fun outdoorsy activities.
I wished I had a pair when we were in Hawaii last year, but since we're going back for our honeymoon, I thought I'd just go ahead and buy a pair!
They usually run about $100, but b/c I fit into kids' sizes, and everything's still frozen here in chicago, I got them for $35! =) what a steal!!
Ladies and Gentlemen: my new shoes (that I can't wear until April):
Chaco should pay me for advertising for them.
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