ReversedSingularity

[I wrote this a year ago, after the June 2022 meeting of the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. Synod 2023 was even uglier, which is why I am now with the United Church of Christ. I wrote it originally for our local congregational newsletter. This still hurts.] June 18, 2022 As I wrote to my pastor, well, this is awkward. It appears that I am now officially a heretic. I have been a member of the Christian Reformed Church in North America for as long as I can remember. The majority of that has been at the Rochester CRC. My parents were looking for a church home after they moved to Framingham, Massachusetts. Someone pointed them in the direction of the CRC Home Missions church plant. When Dad moved to Rochester ahead of the rest of the family while I was in second grade, he checked out the Rochester CRC. Brothers Pete and Barney took him under their wings, and here I still am, six plus decades later. I signed the Form of Subscription after we moved back to

[I wrote this essay for our church newsletter. It is an essay that has been percolating for a long time.] Why am I still a Christian? It’s a fair question these days. Folks who identify as Christians have been loud hateful noises of late and aligning themselves on the side of the oppressor rather than the oppressed. Even my home church has declared that I am no longer quite orthodox enough, me being an LGBTQ+ supporter and all. I cannot remember a time when I was not a member of a Christian Reformed Church somewhere. When the church that has nurtured me all my life no longer has a place for me and my friends, it calls everything into question. So, why am I still a Christian? The short answer is that the Bible refuses to let me go. When I was in Army flight school fifty years ago, I hooked up with the Navigators, a very fine organization whose mantra is, “To know Christ and make him known.” They challenged me to read the Bible all the way through each year. I have been doing so ever

In answer to Nadine "What motivates you?", asked Nadine. Have to think about that. Been a challenge of late. Solitude motives me. Not the whole answer, part of the answer. Loneliness makes me hunger for others. Solitude leads me within myself. Solitude leads me to God. Solitude sets me free, turns me loose, lets me think, lets me be. I don't take photographs when I walk when another. Unless it is a photograph of the other. I take photographs when I walk alone. I listen to the woods and water. They motivate me. They beg for portraits. Come, sit with me a while, tell my story. Solitude lets me write. The empty page waits. It motivates me. Come, sit with me a while, tell my story. Even here. In this place. People all around. Doing what they do. I sit here and think and write. Life is a photo-op; I carry the camera. Life is a writing-op; I carry the pencil. Finding solitude. Finding the other. Thank you, @nakovalnya-artist, for asking a question.