(231)-889-4081 | Worship every Sunday @ 10 a.m
(231)-889-4081 | Worship every Sunday @ 10 a.m
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Mar 05, 2026
Pastoral Ponderings
It is March. This month always reminds me of Lewis Carroll’s classic book Alice in Wonderland. Partially because kids in school used to call me “Alison Wonderland” and partially because cabin fever at this time of year can drive me a bit “mad” like the March Hare and his friend the “Mad Hatter.” Besides which, for the March Hare, it is always teatime! And, for me, except for my two cups of coffee in the early morning, it is always “iced teatime!”
The March Hare is mostly a bit off his rocker in March, but Alice has also remarked that, “The March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won’t be raving mad – at least not so mad as it was in March.” Ah, in March we often think that it would be lovely if it was that other month that begins with “M!” . . .
Jan 16, 2026
Pastoral Ponderings
Many holiday gifts came my way during the Christmas season. I want to thank you all for thinking of me and I am grateful for the generous monetary gift that you gave me, as well as all the other goodies (BTW who gave me the beautiful musical snow globe? No card was attached?) I feel so blessed by your love and generosity.
My trip to Cleveland was also a great blessing as I was able to get re-acquainted with my grandsons, Henry and Joey, and my granddaughter, Maya.. . .
Nov 10, 2025
Pastoral Ponderings
Advent and adventure come from the same root. It means something is coming and in the case of adventure, it means one is going out to meet something that is coming and is anticipating new experiences. What is coming in Advent, of course, as we begin the church year is Christmas, the birthday of the Christ Child. I think it would be wonderful if we also thought of this time of preparation as a time of adventure!
My sermon series throughout Advent this year will be focused on the question “What Child Is This? Beyond the Lullaby.” . . .
Nov 10, 2025
Pastoral Ponderings
October is a special month for me. On October 10, 1993, thirty-two years ago, I was ordained into the Christian ministry. I still remember the joy of that day and the little impromptu dance that my UCC colleagues and I did to celebrate at the end of the service at State Street Church in Portland, Maine! My first call had already begun in Ortonville, Minnesota and Millbank, South Dakota and I and the whole family flew back to Maine for the Ordination service which was held in the same sanctuary in which a few months before, with the U-Haul literally waiting outside the door, I had undergone my Ecclesiastical Council.
Those were heady times.
“Double-10 Day” was always special to me, . .
Jul 24, 2025
Pastoral Ponderings
“Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.” — Psalm 74:17 (KJV)
Sometimes we forget that the Seasons are also a part of Creation. Without the seasons we would have no food, or water, or the essentials of life. It is the Seasons that allow the seeds to germinate, the snow and rain to re-circulate all the water that God created for us. The Teacher, writing in Ecclesiastes, famously reminds us of this in Chapter 3 verse 1 when he says: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven.” I don’t think any of us can hear that verse without singing the 1959 Pete Seeger song, “Turn, Turn, Turn” which was made popular by the Byrds!. . .
Jun 25, 2025
Michigan Roots of Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day was first officially celebrated as a US Holiday in 1914, but Its roots go back much further to the 19th century and beyond. In the years before the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to properly care for their children. Her daughter Anna Jarvis was the one who pushed to make Mother’s Day a national holiday in memory of her mother.. . .
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Mar 28, 2025
There certainly could not be a more “bi-polar” week in history than Holy Week for Christians. Kate Bowler puts it this way:
Holy Week walks us through rejection, confusion,
tears, and death to the heights of resurrection joy.
We are Easter people, called to live into hope, but
how do we do so when we live in a broken world
surrounded by so much to grieve? We must learn
to live in the already and not-yet of a world that
rejoices in Jesus’ resurrection, but waits for our lives,
families, communities, and world to be restored one
day too.
(From “Bless the Lent We Actually Have: Weekly Group Guide” Week 7)What are we to do with the ups and downs of Holy Week when the palms we wave in celebration at the beginning of the week are crushed underfoot by the crowds following the beaten and bloodied Jesus as he carries his own cross through the same streets up to Calvary? . . .
Mar 20, 2025
On the first Sunday of March we celebrate Transfiguration Sunday (see Luke 9:28-36). The Transfiguration is sometimes a hard concept to get our minds around. Our hearts—well that’s a little easier! Many years ago, I was resting on a beach in Rhode Island in the sun watching my two young sons, 3 years old and 8 years old, run gleefully in and out of the shallow waves at the edge of the beach. All of a sudden there was an ethereal glow around them and I felt myself being lifted up into the sun. It only lasted for about half a minute, but it was a life-changing event. In my heart, I heard the voice of Jesus saying “Turn around, you are dying, turn around.” My life at that time had come to a crossroads and this event eventually led me to go to seminary.
No manner of logic can be brought to bear on such a spiritual experience. . .
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Feb 14, 2025
The Roman month Februarius was named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa held on February 15 (full moon) in the old lunar Roman calendar. Historical names for February include the Old English terms Solmonath (mud month) and Kale-monath (named for cabbage). In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning “month of the pearl”; when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice. In Polish and Ukrainian, respectively, the month is calledluty or лютий, meaning the month of ice or hard frost. In Macedonian the month is sechko (сечко), meaning month of cutting [wood]. In Czech, it is called únor, meaning month of submerging [of river ice]. In Slovene, February is traditionally called svečan, related to icicles or Candlemas.[1]
It is February, by whatever name you call it! The month of purification, cabbage, mud, pearl, ice, hard frost, cutting wood, icicles . . .all of these descriptions apply! My personal favorite is the Finnish one: “month of the pearl.” What a beautiful and poetic way to describe the treachery of snow and frost and ice which we experience in this month . . .not to mention potholes and frost heaves!
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Feb 14, 2025
“For now, we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12 NRSV
January is said to be named for the Roman god Janus. Janus was the god of beginnings and transitions, and therefore, by extension, of gates, doors, doorways, passages and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. In short, Janus was a two-faced god!
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