A week ago from last Sunday, I arrived home after our monthly Session meeting just in time to see the veteran African-American actress, Cicely Tyson, receive a Tony Award for her performance in “The Trip to Bountiful.” The Broadway play is about an elderly woman, Mrs. Carrie Watts, who desperately wants to return home to [...]

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My granddaughter, Ella, a first grader, is a good reader. But reading and following hymns, especially at a good clip, is challenging for her. When she sits next to her grandmother in church (which is pretty often), “M’ma,” (that’s what Ella calls her) often points to the beginning of each line and then sometimes to [...]

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This last Sunday something happened during our second service that’s never happened here before, at least to my recollection.  We had just begun the fourth stanza of the opening hymn when the organ cut out completely. Now you would think that if the organ stopped abruptly, people would stop singing. But that was not the [...]

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Every year at this time I start wondering if I can still spell the word, baccalaureate. Fortunately, it’s on my spell-checker and as soon as I type it in Microsoft Word, I get redlined if I get it wrong. But this year, I got it right on my first attempt! As you may recall, I [...]

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A week or so ago, church member Guenter Petermann handed me a slip of paper.  “It was written by my pastor in Germany,” he told me.  “He is 96 years old and sent it to me for my birthday.  I translated it for you; maybe for your top left drawer.” But the brief poem on [...]

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I have to admit it; Pentecost isn’t the most popular Christian holiday.  It pales in comparison to Christmas and Easter.  And yet, it is the third most significant festival in the Christian Year.  It is the day when we remember how the first disciples were transformed by the Holy Spirit and empowered to be witnesses [...]

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As promised, here is more information on the new Presbyterian hymnal called “Glory to God.”  You might be interested to know about the committee responsible for putting the hymnal together.  Out of 220 applicants willing to serve, fifteen were chosen, representing all the geographical regions of our country, with racial ethnic diversity, men and women, [...]

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Oliver Christopher was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, on April 23, 2013, but will eventually call the city of Minot, North Dakota, “home!” Oliver will be the newest family member to occupy the home that our eight person Mission Team had the privilege to work on this past week in Minot. Oliver’s parents, who we [...]

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Perhaps you will recall that, a few years ago, our church was a test congregation for hymns to be included in a new Presbyterian hymnal published by our denomination.  We sang each hymn on several Sundays and invited your evaluations, which were submitted to the New Hymnal Committee. An added task was for our church [...]

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From the Back Page Richard Moore, Senior Pastor I spotted an intriguing book title a while ago: “Just Call Me Bob.” I couldn’t resist picking up a copy after finding out a little more about it. The book is a collection of brief writings by Robert W. Funk who was a leading New Testament scholar [...]

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