Dear Friends: Last week, the message in worship was about seeking--seeking purpose, seeking meaning, seeking one another and, most of all, seeking God. We considered wise men and shepherds and angels and gleaming stars; we considered, also, a frightened tyrant, a...
Union Chapel is moving into the future. To appreciate where we are going, it is helpful to understand where we've been. Our own Sharon Moore has graciously researched the church's history. The origin of the church can be found here. This is the second installment: In 1897, two couples joined...
Dear Friends: With the New Year, we have seen the efforts of many to "self-improve." At the YMCA, for example, the parking lot is crowded, new faces flash on the check-in screen, the steps of the unfamiliar fall on treadmills and, of course, shiny new work-out clothes...
Union Chapel is moving into the future. And, to appreciate where we are going, it is helpful to understand where we have been. No story of Union Chapel Church can be separated from Union Chapel Cemetery. In 1822, Jacob and Elizabeth Whitinger began clearing land in north-central Marion...
Dear Friends: Miriam passed away last week. She died on a Friday, leaving her two days short of her ninetieth Christmas Day. The world is diminished by her passing. Miriam was a member of a church I served before, in the past. But she was more--so...
Dear Friends: The season is upon us--Christmas is here. I write this on the first day of Winter, after the longest night of the year. I read a story--and we have to be careful today in knowing what is reliable--but the story said that last night was the longest and darkest...
Dear Friends: I marvel at my daughter, Katie, as I watch her "mother" her four sons. My grandsons came into her life in different ways, the older two via her marriage to Patrick and the younger two through more conventional means. She is a remarkable mother to all four...
Dear Friends: Fear not! Words shared by angels on dark nights, in encounters where God's plans are shared, when a heart is being invited to open to a new way of life. Fear not. Why not? Aren't there times when fear is warranted, natural, even necessary?...
Dear Friends: I mentioned during worship Sunday that my wife Donna and I had gone to the Christmas concert by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith the night before. In addition to those two well-known stars of contemporary Christian music, a fellow named Jordan Smith, who had been a...
This is one of my most favorite days of the year. I suppose it goes back to my childhood, to my love of food and, perhaps, to a time when the family of my origin called a temporary truce and began to act more like the Waltons and less like the Bunkers. The night, particularly, held a...