“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 […]

Today I turn 75! It’s hard to believe I have reached this milestone, although frequent visits to the physiotherapist reminds me that my body needs more care.  “Slow down, you are not Superman!” is a frequent instruction. I share this birthday with my twin sister, Ann, who lives in the UK. We celebrated together last year when she and her husband […]

“Finding hope in the practice of walking through the worst.”  This was the theme of a sermon by our rector, the Rev. Eileen O’Brien, as we celebrated Founders Day at St James’ Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas last December. “There’s no pretense that injustice and torture and murder are anything other than injustice, torture, and murder.” However, “within the same […]

A special guest column featuring a talk by Prof. Gerald Pillay, President of Initiatives of Change International (IofC), at a global forum in July on Healing the Wounds of the Past at the IofC conference center in in Caux, Switzerland. Pillay was born in South Africa where he taught ecclesiastical history at the University of South Africa. He also taught […]

This month, I joined colleagues for an Initiatives of Change fellowship call when we reflected on the life of Mary McLeod Bethune, the pioneering educator and civil rights activist. The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, she became one of the most important Black educators and civil and women’s rights leaders of the twentieth century. In 1904 she started the Daytona […]

In 2001, the University of Michigan published Intergroup Dialogue: Deliberative Democracy in School, College, Community and Workplace.  With case studies edited by David Schoem and Sylvia Hurtado it offered one of the most comprehensive reviews of the role of dialogue as an essential tool for healthy democracies. A chapter by Karen Elliott Greisdorf describes the early formation of the Initiatives […]

Today marks the 30th anniversary of Richmond’s first “walk through history.” On a sweltering June 18 afternoon, people from 50 cities and 25 countries joined Richmonders of all backgrounds to mark places that had been too painful or shameful to acknowledge. The walk was the highlight of the Healing the Heart of America conference, “an honest conversation on race, reconciliation, […]