Phillips Brooks was a young, promising Episcopal clergyman in Philadelphia. His six-foot-nine frame and his outgoing manner made him popular with the young people in his church and the community. In 1865, the church sent him on a trip to broaden his horizons. After some time traveling in Europe, he planned his schedule to end […]
In our family, my special assignment in preparing the Thanksgiving meal is peeling potatoes. After years of practice, I’m really good at it, and I don’t have to concentrate. That gives me a chance to think about deep subjects. So, last Thursday morning, I spent my peeling time thinking about — peeling potatoes. I thought, […]
You may remember enough elementary school English grammar to know what a preposition is. It’s a helping word that tells us how a noun or pronoun is connected to the rest of the sentence. Common prepositions we use every day include in, on, with, about, under, after, for, from, before, near and outside. The Bible […]
Sometimes I find myself deeply involved in an on-line search and totally forget how I got started. So, I have no idea why I was reading a Wikipedia article on comedienne Fanny Brice, whose voice I listened to on the radio as Baby Snooks, back in the 1940s. She was already a fascinating public figure […]
GEORGE VAN ALSTINE: I’m not sure when it dawned on me that affirming the full equality of women was an issue I should do something about as a Christian leader. I was aware of the history of change over the last few decades, and was supportive of all of them, including the modern Feminist Movement, but […]
Believe it or not, there are three English-language poems that are entitled The Hippopotamus. All are by famous poets. Two, by Hilaire Belloc (1896) and Ogden Nash (1920), are short and silly. The third, by T. S. Eliot (1919), is longer and makes some serious points about the institutional church through metaphor, irony and satire: […]
While I was thinking about Homecoming Sunday, I was going through some records of previous ABC Homecomings over the years. I was struck by names of people from the church’s past who are no longer with us. Where are they? Well, we have commemorated them at funeral services, which we often refer to as “Homegoings.” […]
Hello to all friends and family of Altadena Baptist! “THE MIRACLE OF UNITY” will be the theme of this year’s ABC HOMECOMING SUNDAY, November 4. · The sermon, in our continuing study of Paul’s letter to the Church at Philippi, will be about the MIRACLE OF UNITY that he was believing could happen to two strong […]
There are a lot of ways my dad set a good example for me, and one that stands out is the picture of him helping with the dishes after supper. It seems to have been an important part of the family’s mellowing out in the evening, at least before we got our first TV when […]
Widows and orphans were very vulnerable in Biblical times. Unless their extended family was particularly gracious and caring, the loss of a nuclear family’s male breadwinner could leave his wife and his children with no way to pay for their day-to-day living expenses, housing and food. In order to make sure they would not be […]