May 22, 2024
We paused on the trail—tired, hot, and momentarily liberated from the weight of our heavy packs—and I sat down on a scorched, fallen log, grateful for the respite, in what only three years earlier had been a verdant, old growth Montana forest. Now, the charred remains of spruce, lodge-pole pine, and fir were all that I could see. Burned sentinels of formerly majestic trees rose ahead and above us, and those no longer standing seemed to litter the forest floor as if some great force had arbitrarily tossed them and let them lay where they fell. Chaos and destruction seemed all around. I found myself feeling sad, and lamenting the loss of what I knew had once been a fecund, flourishing forest ecosystem.
I was in the Scapegoat Wilderness area of Montana with dear friends from graduate school, an annual, much-anticipated sojourn, and this was not what I had in mind when I flew into Great Falls a few days before. I’d had visions of escaping my native southern heat by hiking in cool, pristine sub-alpine forests, and I now found myself in a forest radically changed by fire; ravaged, and permanently damaged. Or was it? Was I seeing the whole picture? We live in a complex world that is always changing, and the response of any “system,” whether a family, a business (or an economy), a church in a season of change as we are currently experiencing—or an ecosystem, to the shocks and disturbances of change, depends on a number of factors.
May 15, 2024
This coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, a day on which we celebrate the “birthday” of the church! And Happy Birthday to us at Holy Family too! Traditionally, Pentecost marks the beginning of the church. Something remarkable, that changed the course of history, happened on that day so long ago. That same Holy Spirit has led each of us to Holy Family parish, to continue the work of those assembled so long ago.
We share this day, more or less, with the Jewish holiday called Shavu’ot that falls fifty days after Passover. On this day the first fruits of harvest were brought to the Temple. It also commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses—and thereby to the people of Israel—at Mount Sinai. So on this ritual day the covenant of God was remembered and renewed in the form of a pilgrimage feast. Ideally, all of God’s people were to come celebrate in Jerusalem.
But of course, there had been the Exile and flight from the Exile into Egypt. Descendents of those who had been taken into exile were living in the lands of the Parthians, and the Elamites, and other peoples beyond the Euphrates. Others were scattered throughout the Roman provinces in what we now call Asia Minor, Cappadocia, Pontus, Phrygia, and Pamphylia. There were heirs of those who had gone to Egypt and Libya, and those found in Rome, Crete, and Nabatean Arabia. At any pilgrimage feast, then, there would be Jewish pilgrims from all of these places,
May 8, 2024
As the congregation moved from Mikell Chapel to the post-quinceañera reception, the young woman whose service we had just celebrated said to me, “Padre Bill, estás entre mis abuelos,” or, “Father Bill, now you are among my grandfathers.”
Each Sunday for 18 years, I could be found on the Cathedral Close of the Cathedral of St. Philip, where I was a part-time Associate Priest, and where I continue to see patients at the counseling center, a wonderful, sacred space so dear to me. Among the services in which I participated was Catedral de San Felipe, our Hispanic ministry held in Mikell Chapel each Sunday. During those years, my learning curve was rapidly ascending, both in terms of my language skills and my role in relation to the congregation. They had several names for me, including “Padre Guillermo,” and more recently, “Abuelo,” meaning “Grandfather.” The latter is perhaps my favorite name. On Christmas Eve 2018 our granddaughter Sophia was born, and in December of 2022, our grandson Georgie joined his sister. Our twin grandchildren Jack and Alice—age 7 (who call me “Granddaddy,”) were born in March of 2017, so I am now un abuelo multiplicado por quatro or, a grandfather times four!
Sophia and George Harkins
Jack and Alice Harkins
So, how am I living into this new normal of being a grandfather, and how has it changed my ministry,
May 1. 2024
“So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians
Among my favorite pieces of music is John Coltrane’s iconic composition “A Love Supreme,” recorded in December of 1964. Coltrane’s gift to us was a declaration that his musical devotion was now intertwined with his faith in God, a spiritual quest that grew out of his personal troubles and addiction. The album was recorded in one session on December 9, 1964, in a studio in New Jersey, leading a quartet featuring pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones. Of that experience, Coltrane said, “I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening… leading me to a richer, fuller, more productive life.” After running the NYC marathon in 1979 I joined a group of college friends at the Cookery, in Greenwich Village. McCoy Tyner, who played piano on the recording, was playing piano that evening with the band accompanying the Blues impresario Alberta Hunter. As he began a selection from Coltrane’s album, Tyner said to those of us gathered that night; “It was just such a wonderful experience….we couldn’t really explain why it was… meant to be.