Years ago high on the bluffs of the Mississippi River a chance encounter with a stranger brought an insight that transformed my worldview. She said to take time … time to gaze up at the stars, time to look deeply into a flower and breathe in its aroma, time to lie on my back and observe the morphing shapes of the clouds. She said it would keep my life’s work in perspective and ensure that I always have meaning. Her wisdom was clear, but the practice of such mindfulness has often proved elusive. It’s a practice I am continually working at and something I am encouraging others to embrace.
This practice – not necessarily its results – has informed my career both as a journalist and as a Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Christian tradition. My passion for prayer and the spiritual practices that enable me and others to discern or rest in the heart of God stem from this worldview. I love to teach and explore in community these practices that some rightly call disciplines. I love to take time to watch and wait even though time seems so finite and much clutter fills my hours. I love to preach the Gospel of God’s great love for humanity and all creation. I guess you could say that I am a student of Love, of God’s love expressed so clearly in Christ Jesus and across many religious traditions.
From this love stems my commitment to social justice and peacemaking. A core element of my ministry is building peace and inspiring reconciliation among people and factions who have been divided by rancorous conflict. I am particularly interested in how religious rituals and symbols can be employed in conflict situations and I have seen the transformational possibilities these can bring to conflict within religious institutions.
Conflict resolution was a core focus of my Master of Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, which in turn drew on the work I did in Christian social ethics, pastoral care and counseling, and shame theory as part of the Master of Divinity degree I obtained from Andover Newton Theological School. I consider myself an ethicist and theologian, working practically at present in the parish on conflict management and resolution and church revitalization.
I serve a lovely church a few miles north of Boston, Massachusetts. It’s The Congregational Church of West Medford and the community has responded to my ministry in exciting ways. I love the people I serve and cherish the moments we share together. It’s not always easy, especially given the history of conflict in the community. Yet I marvel each day at the graces and love people share with each other and me. Christ is alive in our midst even as we seek to be transformed more faithfully into the Body of Christ. Transformation is a key word to describe my ministry. It’s not so much transformation of institutions into more effective institutions or rancorous conflict into creative energy, but the transformation of each person through prayer, study, work in the world and on issues of social justice and peace. I take my cue from the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God–what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
As a journalist I had the great privilege to cover my country’s transformation from apartheid to a truer expression of democracy, one that values the inherent value of each person irrespective of color, heritage, and economic status. I was born and raised in South Africa and continue to be passionate about my nation even though I live in the United States. While writing for The Pretoria News and The Eastern Province Herald from 1995 to 2000 and then The Christian Science Monitor from 2001-2003 I became acutely aware of the impact of the “isms” on individuals, families, institutions, and society. Classism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, and numerous other systems of oppression work together to stem the tide of good flowing into the world and the bonds of love that bind us together. I am therefore passionate about economic, racial, gender, and LGBTQ issues and seek to understand better what a just and peaceful society will look like and how it may be achieved. I realize that this is all moot if we do not care for the environment on which all life depends. I leave the technical and scientific debates to the experts but value deeply the need for each individual to take responsibility for their own actions and attitudes and to treat the earth gently and tend lovingly this marvelous world of ours.
I live in Medford, Massachusetts with my wife, Nanette, and our two cats Miss Molly Malone and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who respectively go by Molly and Emerson.