Monthly Archives: March 2016

I believe that my earliest formation came from my Bubbe and Zeide (Grandparents) and the Rabbi Marcus Bregar and Cantor Maurice Falkow (Hazzan) of my Synagogue in Tucson, Arizona. I loved being in synagogue, listening to the melodies and chanting … Continue reading →

I went to PSCE to work on a graduate degree in religious education immediately after college. Having majored in Bible at Rhodes College and taken a course in the history of the field I went with the goal of studying with … Continue reading →

I grew up in a family that went to church, but didn’t make a fuss about it. My parents primarily sought a place with an excellent music program and literate preaching. They also were in full flight from the high-pressure … Continue reading →

When I was eleven my father died suddenly of a heart attack; within a week my mother moved my 14-year-old sister and me from Des Moines to Mason City, Iowa. There a pastor and a welcoming congregation brought us to … Continue reading →

A metaphor of John Steinbeck’s captures for me the formative power of communities of faith and public life. Why, he asks, should we be surprised when formed in Christian community we have the shape of a cross? Given my history, … Continue reading →

Early in my decade long career in secondary education when I taught both English and Religion, some of my students who I had for both subjects told me I was teaching the same thing in both classes. At first I … Continue reading →

As a very young theology student in an old Irish seminary, I was reading the then recently published documents of the Second Vatican Council (circa 1966). I hit upon the statement in Gaudium et Spes that the greatest error of … Continue reading →