By Jessica Brodie. Growing up, race wasn’t a big deal to me. Maybe it was growing up in Miami—where the swirl of Spanish mingled with the tropical breeze, where your bare arms on the beach were just a shade darker or lighter than your friends’, and no one could tell who was Latina or white or “mixed” or what—but it seemed like no one cared about race in the least. But now...
By Bishop Jonathan Holston. I’m guessing that everyone has a scar story. In some peculiar way, they help shape us and serve as a visible reminder. I believe there is a story behind every scar.
By Jessica Brodie. There I was, at the United Methodist Men’s spiritual retreat, surrounded by literally hundreds of men who were committing themselves to Christ, some for the very first time. I saw grown men with tears running down their cheeks, grown men laying on the floor or with their heads in their hands, ashamed that it had taken them this long to make that leap, excited about what was ahead of them. And it blew my mind.
By Jessica Brodie. My husband once told me he had big plans for me. He told me this when we were first dating, and his words naturally made my heart go pitter-patter and I began to dream of all sorts of wonderful future romantic what-ifs. God also has big plans for us, as he says in Jeremiah 29:11...
By Bishop Jonathan Holston. It was in 1896 that Professor George Washington Carver received a letter from Dr. Booker T. Washington. It was a plea for help from the president of one institution of higher learning, Tuskegee Institute, to a well-known professor of agriculture at another institution, Iowa State College.
By Jessica Brodie. Lately, I’ve been struggling with an overwhelming urge to simplify my life. Clutter, which has always bothered me, now seems downright wrong.
By Bishop Jonathan Holston. Some years ago, Dionne Warwick recorded a popular song written by Hal David and Bert Bacharach, which stated these simple words; namely, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love, it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”
By the Rev. Elizabeth Murray. On Sunday, Feb. 8, I had the opportunity to attend a Latino LARCUM prayer service at St. David’s Lutheran Church in West Columbia.
By the Rev. Elizabeth Murray. Have you ever been in a space where you were not familiar with the traditions, customs, or language? What were the emotions you felt—anxious, stressed, uncomfortable?
By the Rev. Elizabeth Murray. Christmas is over and we are in the season of Epiphany, but Ash Wednesday will soon be upon us.
By Jessica Brodie. As I write this column, so many are in anguish across the nation and the world—about the grand jury’s decision not to indict the officer who killed Michael Brown, and the still-fresh scars of long-seated racism and prejudice the shooting elicited. About the 132 schoolchildren the Pakistani Taliban shot and set ablaze, citing religious and political motivation. About the scores of Christian martyrs, adults and children alike, beheaded by ISIS in the Mideast. About the hatred, intolerance and rampant bullying of gays and lesbians.
By Bishop Jonathan Holston. So we’re at that place where we’re checking our resolution list again. Unfortunately, just like last year and in previous years as well, we notice that there were some resolutions we achieved with excellence while others left much to be desired.