At this time of intense political and social polarization when constructive change seems a distant hope, I find myself reflecting on experiences in Richmond, Virginia. In 1980, when my wife and I became new residents of this former center of the interstate slave trade and capital of the Confederacy, we found a city in transition and turmoil. The first Black […]

(I wrote this blog five years ago. It seems even more relevant today.) In the summer of 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered one of the greatest speeches in US history. Just two years earlier, Congress had passed the Fugitive Slave Act which required that escaped slaves be returned to their owners even if they were in a free state. Douglass himself had […]

The winter edition of Governing Magazine headlines a story, “How one city cut its poverty rate by more than a third.” Ten years ago Mayor Dwight C. Jones of Richmond, Va., set a goal some believed to be impossible to achieve. Nearly 27% of Richmond residents lived below the poverty line, twice the national average. The goal was to cut […]

In an op-ed column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Paul Williams writes about Collie Burton III who died November 11, just six days before he would have turned 94. “Whether he was hosting international gatherings, helping to create a more equitable voting system in Richmond or bringing Black and white clergy together to break bread, Collie devoted […]

“Today, for some people it is morning in America. For others it is America in mourning.” This was how our rector, Eileen O’Brien, opened the service on Sunday after the election. Trump’s victory was not unexpected but the scale of it was stunning. Many who are working for justice, healing and constructive community change are exhausted. Columnist Margaret Renkl writes […]

I was very moved by reading and listening to interviews with Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, who described how he continued to write notes for his memoirs even in the most brutal prison conditions in Western Siberia. In 2020, after being poisoned with a nerve agent, he recovered in Germany, and then returned to Russia knowing he would […]

I first posted this in 2017. It seems even more relevant for today. In 1908 a socially conscious and ambitious young pastor from Allentown, PA, overcame deep resentment against his colleagues and decided to lay aside his ego by admitting his own wrong.  The simple but difficult decision to ask forgiveness and start the change process in his own life […]

“Planning falls under the department and jurisdiction of the Holy Spirit.” I read this sentence in Klaus Bockmuehl’s book, Listening to the God who Speaks*, which Susan and I have been using for our morning time of quiet. It stopped me in my tracks! Yes, I believe in looking for God’s guidance in my life in terms of values, purpose and […]

For those of us who are appalled at the widespread support – even among so-called Christians – for a presidential candidate who has been convicted of financial fraud and sexual abuse, a habitual liar without any moral boundaries who encouraged attempts to overturn a national election, I find it encouraging to recall the words of my father-in-law, the pastor and […]

May 14. Remembering my parents, Duncan and Lucy, today. May 14 was my Mom’s birthday and they were also married on this day in 1948 in LA California by Frank Buchman, the initiator of MRA, now the Initiatives of Change movement. They were a remarkable and very diverse couple who were together for 50 years and raised three children. Mom […]