On Trinity Sunday, Rev. Derek van Gulden finds a new way into a hard doctrine through Sophia, the Wisdom who dances with delight in Proverbs, and through the weathered sign out front: show up, stand up, speak up for justice. God the creator calls us to show up, Christ to stand up, and the Spirit of wisdom to speak up.

On Pentecost, everyone hears the good news in their own language. Rev. Derek van Gulden remembers an interpreter who heard Mass in her native Spanish for the first time in twenty years, and asks whether the Old Sloop would still be the church without its building, since the first church was people sharing meals, scripture and food with their neighbors.

In Luke’s Ascension story, Jesus opens the disciples’ minds to the scriptures and sends them out. Rev. Derek van Gulden remembers a doctor in El Salvador, calm through earthquakes and war, reading the passage to a boy in a wheelchair: Jesus ascended with wounds of his own. We find hope in our calling, and in knowing others share it.

Jesus asks a man who has waited thirty-eight years by the healing pool whether he wants to be well, then simply tells him to pick up his mat and walk. Rev. Derek van Gulden remembers shipmates leaving invisible baggage in a dumpster on the pier after the Gulf War, and finds hope in the invitation to set some of our burdens down.

On Mother’s Day, Rev. Derek van Gulden remembers a seminary assignment to draw God (the result had long curly hair) and a childhood morning when a friend’s grandmother told the story of the risen Jesus cooking fish for breakfast on the beach. Jesus is always there to feed you and welcome you home, and, as she put it, he’s a good cook.

On a communion Sunday, Rev. Derek van Gulden keeps it brief: Luke’s road to Emmaus says it all, and the first communion he took at eighteen changed something he is still figuring out. Pay attention to that moment when you take the bread and the cup.

This post is a placeholder. It will be updated with more information following the meeting. But for now, annual reports can be found here.

“Never delete the rainbow. Never delete the rainbow.” – 10 year old boy atop Sulphur Mountain in Canada’s Banff National Park.

If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

The passage from Isaiah that Jesus read in Nazareth summarized the essence of his faith. Because Luke shared the story of Jesus’ mission of good news to the poor and the release of those captive and oppressed, Luke spread the social teachings of Jesus into nascent Christianity. New England fall colors suggest hearts aflame with faith.