Animal Interruptions
Deer and Canada Geese aren’t exactly favorites of the animal world, at least not in urban settings where ecological imbalances enable their proliferation. We’ve lost quite a few young trees and too-many-to-count landscaping plants to deer. Geese have never met a sidewalk they didn’t poop on. But lately I’ve found…
Considering Baptism
I’ve been thinking recently about baptism. But not by myself. This month Lawrence N (this Sunday) and Sarah M (June 21st at the outdoor service at Highbanks) will be baptized, and we’ve been meeting to discuss baptismal vows, scripture, and baptism stories. A couple of those stories have come from…
Apartment News, Designing for Hospitality
For the last half year, we’ve had two guests in our church refuge apartment space – an Algerian woman named Tafsout, and Nafi, a Liberian woman. Both came to the US through legal channels but struggled to get established financially. Ever since Edith Espinal lived in sanctuary in that apartment…
Hope’s Evidence
Jim Wallis, longtime leader of the Sojourners community in Washington, DC, would often write: “Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, then watching the evidence change.” I was tasked with giving the summary and closing prayer at the end of the BREAD Nehemiah Action last night, and included this…
Membership Toward A Center / VOTE! Nonpolice Crisis Response
This week’s blog is a twofer. 1. Membership toward a center Article V of our church constitution discusses membership (now I know I have your eager attention). Section A includes this sentence: “We choose to focus on a center that draws us in rather than sharply defining and defending a…
Earth Day Beauty
Today is Earth Day. This is a strange thing to say for those of us utterly dependent every minute of our lives on the cooperative systems and generative cycles of this, our only home in the cosmos. But we forget. In our relatively new-found powers of industry we relate with…
Lent 2026 – Composting Faith
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Our theme this season is “Composting Faith.” That could refer to the act of faith one undertakes through composting – trusting unseen forces to turn debris into soil. And, faith itself can be the thing we’re composting – letting worn out…
A Morning at the ICE Office
This morning nine of us from CMC joined 25 others at the ICE office in Westerville in support of M. During the years E lived in sanctuary in our building, M lived in First English Lutheran Church near downtown. She has two teenage daughters, both US citizens, one of whom…
Anabaptism at 501 -OR- Coarse Mennonites Unite
Last year we celebrated the 500-year anniversary of the Anabaptist movement. Now we’ve cycled again past that January 21st date marking those first adult baptisms. So here we are: Anabaptism at 501. I’ve been reading a bit in Anabaptists: From the Reformation to the 21st Century by German historian Astrid…
Progress, or Not
I’ve been thinking some about progress. It’s hard not to when you have a medical emergency and receive a highly technical surgery that likely sets you on a path toward full recovery. It’s not hard to imagine a different life trajectory – or rapid decline – had the same physical…