Community
Feed your spirit with these stories and reflections about living in relationship.
Time to reflect
—by Linda Post Bushkofsky There’s something so compelling about the Ash Wednesday liturgy. It begins with the extended confession of sins where we acknowledge our unfaithfulness, pride, hypocrisy, self-indulgence, indifference, and prejudice, to name but a few of the...
A woman’s place 500 years hence
by Barbara Berry Bailey In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Gather is carrying out a series of conversations with 21st century women who offer perspectives on the role of churchwomen. We hope to add some new images to those we instantly think...
A true, blue Christmas
by Kathleen Kastilahn Betty Landis recalls the December some dozen years ago when, as a seminarian, she struggled with four diagnoses of cancer in her family. It’s also when she first attended a Blue Christmas service. “I soaked it in,” Landis said. Now pastor of St....
Walking fools
by Christa von Zychlin-- The elderly gentleman gave me the once over as I raced into the hospital lobby looking for a bathroom. It was decades ago; I was a freshly minted pastor, a pioneer among the mostly male leaders of every Christian denomination. I had driven a...
Thankofferings: A season of gratitude
by Emma Crossen Gratitude is popular in November, though it usually goes by another name--Thanksgiving. Giving thanks often turns into giving other gifts. Charities raise most of their money at this time of year. Volunteers observe the holiday by serving a meal at a...
Love Language 2.6
by Sue Gamelin— I answered the phone and a voice said, “I can’t believe that you fixed meals for us for all those years!” One of our adult kids, whose first child had just reached table-food time, had arrived at a stage of new awareness. It wasn’t the awareness that...
They remembered the Cool Whip
—by Twila Schock It was November 1994. I was a brand-new missionary in Slovakia, and I was homesick. Our trainers in missionary orientation had warned us missionary novices about culture shock. But I had cavalierly dismissed it, judging it to be for the faint of...