Monthly Archives: August 2018

Reflection on James 1: 23-24

Posted on August 31, 2018 by Maren

For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. I’m at the … Continue reading →

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Guest post from Aotearoa / New Zealand by Ana Lisa de Jong

Posted on August 30, 2018 by Maren

This poem by Ana Lisa de Jong and the accompanying photograph by Alexander Harding have moved me today, not Sunday, but the Sabbath in any day. SUNDAY SONG The bird song has broken down the temple walls, that the life might … Continue reading →

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Prayers for Jacksonville, Florida

Posted on August 27, 2018 by Maren

For family and friends of three who died, we pray for comfort and peace. For gamers of all kinds, shocked and frightened, we pray for community. For Floridians sad in their souls after Pulse and Parkland Ft. Lauderdale airport, and … Continue reading →

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Remembering John McCain, 1936-2018

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Maren

Tonight I give thanks for the uprightness this man represented serving a party with which I so often disagreed, but believing in reaching across that “aisle” to form coalition and to solve problems. He weighed with integrity rather than self-interest, … Continue reading →

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International Overdose Awareness Day — Ephesians 6: 10-17

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Maren

August 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day. The churches of New Hampshire have both felt the pain of our state’s addiction crisis and have supported a diversity of recovery-related ministries. The NH Council of Churches encourages your congregation to set … Continue reading →

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Hymn by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette on Clergy Abuse

Posted on August 24, 2018 by Maren

I take permission from the fact that Carolyn wants her hymn to be shared and we need to sing these sorrows.  By Carolyn Winfrey Gillette 8-23-2018 Author’s Note: This new hymn is in response to the latest news of abuse … Continue reading →

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Guest Post from A Child Laughs by Carolyn Venema

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Maren

Carolyn Venema wrote this piece for A Child Laughs: Prayers of Justice and Hope: SIMPLEST BEAUTY by Carolyn Venema Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all … Continue reading →

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Remembering Kofi Annan

Posted on August 18, 2018 by Maren

“We need to keep hope alive and strive to do better.”Kofi Annan Today we celebrate this Elder of Ghana and the world who gave forty-five years to the United Nations, reforming it, speaking for peace, working tirelessly for human rights, … Continue reading →

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Prayer for Yemen

Posted on August 18, 2018 by Maren

God, I pray all week in sorrow for boys killed in Yemen, their holiday shattered by death, for their reception in Jannah, for friends continuing in fear and pain, for the parents’ desperate loss, for a world cheated of a … Continue reading →

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For Aretha Franklin, 1942-2018

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Maren

I know now she stood on a chair to sing her first solo at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, but what I knew when I was a girl in Des Moines was that the Queen of Soul belted … Continue reading →

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