Like many of you, I have spent some time watching (or re-watching) movies and television shows during this time of quarantine. One of those was "Downton Abbey," a fictional account of a British estate and their household and community during the first third of the twentieth century. One of the mainstays is the Dowager Countess, played by Maggie Smith. She has some remarkable and witty lines. But as I was watching recently one stung: “Hope is a tease, designed to prevent us accepting reality.” [+] [-]

Once upon a time, clocks and watches were all mechanical devices. They had faces with hands for hours, minutes and seconds that could be seen and mechanical gears that moved the hands. About fifty years ago quartz technology was applied to watch making on a large scale. [+] [-]

Its been more than two months since most of our congregations gathered for worship in what we would call a "normal" way. We know that whatever a return to our buildings looks like, it will be a "new normal." But you might also say, it won't be "normal" at all. [+] [-]