BMPC Pastor's Column

“It will be better than Gordon Ramsey’s!” The statement was definitive and expressed a level of confidence I would not usually extend to bulk garlic powder, dried parsley, onion salt, and plain butter. However, with the energy that can only come from 4th and 5th-grade workers, the ingredients combined into what became incredible garlic butter. Similarly, ingredients were layered to create trays of lasagna, and the cookie dough was measured to fill four cookie sheets with neat round balls, just waiting to be baked.

Last Sunday, our children prepared a meal for their neighbors. Over the past few years, we have had the opportunity to build a strong relationship with the Ardmore Food Pantry. We have collected food, students have gone to Saint Mary’s Church to sort and bag, and we have prayed for and talked about the work they are doing to make sure our neighbors have good food to eat. Last week, we stepped into a new dimension of our partnership—making a meal.

While the Ardmore Food Pantry provides groceries for neighbors facing food insecurity, Director Beth Tiewater recognized the compounding hunger for community and respite. On Monday nights, while clients wait, a simple meal is provided. As a church, we’ve committed to help support this emerging ministry by providing one meal a month. Our first two meals were successful. The food was well received, and it was powerful to see people connecting around tables, taking deep breaths at the end of a long day, and sharing a meal together.

Our students are already planning the next meal to serve on November 11. There’s a big push for brownies over cookies and a question: can we find a way to make fried chicken? With each idea shared, with every dish prepped, and with each piece of garlic bread, our students are living out their faith: Loving God and loving neighbor and pouring that love into everything they do.

Here are ways you can help!

Support On-Going Food Collections: In the education building, we focus on one food category a month. This month is canned veggies, beans, and fruit. Our goal is to collect 75 cans.

Help with one of the Meal Preps: Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you would like to volunteer the weeks when Sunday school classes prepare meals.

Come and hear from Beth Tiewater, Director of AFP, on Sunday, November 10, at 11:15 a.m. in the Fullerton Room.

Get Ready to Volunteer! Starting in February, this will be an opportunity open to the whole church. Be on the lookout for how to sign up and get involved.

One of my favorite things I get to do here at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian is to join the Deacons’ Helping Hands team as they are stationed in front of the sanctuary to greet and assist folks coming to worship. It is not easy for some to get from the circle drive and navigate their way into the sanctuary to find their pew. The Helping Hands team is there to offer some joyful assistance, and Sunday by Sunday, they get to have brief conversations with some of our older members who are delighted to be coming to worship even with the challenges they face.

Every two years, we honor those who have been members of BMPC for fifty years or more. We will do that this Sunday at a luncheon following the 10 a.m. worship service. There are 183 BMPCers who have been members for five decades or more. Not all of them will be able to attend the luncheon this Sunday, but we celebrate every one of them!

Think about what was happening in 1974, fifty years ago. Our country was in the midst of the Watergate crisis, which resulted in the first U. S. President ever to resign. The last troops who had fought in Vietnam had just recently come home, although the peace treaties would not be finished until 1975. A show called ‘Happy Days’ debuted on television, and we were finding out who ‘the Fonz’ was. ‘The Sting’ won Best Picture that year. The top hit on the radio was ‘The Way We Were’ by Barbra Streisand. In sports, the Flyers won their first Stanley Cup, and Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record.

Bryn Mawr Presbyterian had just finished celebrating its centennial observances. David Watermulder was Senior Pastor, but some of our long-term members had joined when Rex Clements was in service here. These members have been supporting this congregation for more than 2600 Sundays. The two main Presbyterian denominations (the old southern and northern churches) would not even become the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) until 1983. These long-term members remained steadfast even when there were denominational, presbytery, and congregational controversies. There were economic ups and downs along the way. They supported plenty of stewardship and capital campaigns. They maintained and built our extraordinary mission, educational, and music programming by which we are blessed today. Many of them served on multiple committees and/or as officers. Think about how many times they took baptismal vows on behalf of those who were experiencing God’s grace being poured out upon them! They broke bread and shared the cup sacramentally and socially. And here is a great thing – they are still doing it, even if some can only attend virtually instead of in person.

I draw inspiration from these 50-plus-year folks for their faithful dedication. I hope all our members will think about how to live out faithfulness to the ministry of Jesus Christ in this place as we make our stewardship pledges, volunteer for a variety of ministry positions, and try to be an example for those younger ones who will still be here when BMPC celebrates its bi-centennial 49 years from now.

The feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi officially takes place on the 4th of October. Here at BMPC, we observe it on the first Sunday of October. Traditionally, Presbyterians are not in the business of celebrating too many saints. However, BMPC has always had a fondness for Saint Francis, even going so far as to place him in the stained glass of our chapel windows. The image is familiar–a simple man, tonsured, dressed in plain brown robes, and surrounded by animals. This Sunday at 4:00 p.m., dogs, cats, lizards, and more will pass by his window on their way to the Blessing of the Animals on the front lawn of the Education Building. All animals are welcome, though our local groundhogs and garden snakes tend to avoid the crowds. Together, we will praise God and give thanks for the creatures of God’s good earth, but there is more to Saint Francis’ story and more to Sunday’s observations.

The story of Saint Francis includes a moment when he makes peace with a wolf and the town of Gubbio. Legend has it that Francis makes peace by first invoking the name of Jesus and then simply speaking to the wolf, saying, “The whole town is complaining about you, but I want to make peace between you and the people.” Francis promises the wolf that he will be given food so he will never again be hungry, and in turn, “Brother Wolf” promises never to harm another person or animal. The town of Gubbio and the wolf are fundamentally changed. The wolf no longer fears hunger, and the town no longer fears the wolf. They are both freed.

It is not lost on this children’s pastor that while the story’s details change with each telling, the wolf is always called brother. Saint Francis addresses him like a brother in a holy order or a member of one’s family. The wolf is not dangerous or awful, and though he tends to eat the villager’s sheep, the wolf is still Francis’ brother.

The short story models the complex work of peacemaking: clear communication, honoring connections, recognizing the needs of both parties and seeking a shared solution. Unlike Francis, we cannot speak to our animal neighbors and ask the wasps to “move along” or the local squirrels to stop stealing carefully planted bulbs. Our human neighbors might balk if we shout the name of Jesus every time we approach. Even with our less-than-saintly limitations, I wonder if we should be a little more like Francis, willing to walk into the woods and seek peace.

On Sunday, we will hold two celebrations. Yes, there will be the blessing of the animals in the afternoon, but during morning worship, we will observe World Communion Sunday, a tradition that dates back to 1933 in Pittsburgh. This day, first nationally observed in 1940, is a powerful reminder of our connection to God’s people all around the world. Imagine, at the outbreak of World War II, the church paused and called nations at war “brother and sister,” remembering our connections as bread was broken and the cup was shared, an act of peace in the face of war.

Sharing communion and blessing animals are not radical acts, but they are hopeful ones. They are actions that model restoration in the face of so much destruction and sorrow. They are actions that reconnect us to one another and to God’s creation. They are actions that invite us to pause, call each other family, and rest in the promise of belonging and blessing that God extends to all.

The upcoming November election is a critical moment of decision in our national history. The Community Forum, free and open to the public, is an important programmatic offering for our church and community this coming Monday night, September 30, at 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary. Dr. Robert Talisse, Philosophy Professor at Vanderbilt University, will address “Our Polarization Problem.”

One of the Presbyterian Church’s founding theological affirmations is unwavering confidence in God’s sovereignty. The living God is the creator of heaven and earth who maintains all things in their being and governs them by divine will, energy, force, and life. As people of God, we are called to exercise our faith in every aspect of our lives and follow Christ into the world to further God’s love, peace, and justice. This is a political calling.

When folks tell us pastors the church should stay out of politics, I always want to say, have you ever read Jesus’ first sermon? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19) You cannot get any more political than that! We live as disciples of Christ in and for the world.

That does not mean we all agree about political matters. Another tenant of our faith is that “God alone is Lord of the conscience,” and we are free to think differently about political matters. In community, we come together, engage in respective conversations from varying points of view, and together seek to better understand the character of God and how best to address issues pertaining to the common good and get to work for the sake of the gospel. Christians must address morality and justice in political spheres, but it is not the church’s job to endorse a particular party or politician.

I imagine we can all agree that political discourse has become increasingly hostile, causing great social schisms in families, among neighbors, and even within the church. Dr. Talisse argues that democracy is rooted in the idea of equality, writing, “Although democracy often proceeds by a kind of combat, we keep the temperature low by acknowledging that beneath it all, we remain one another’s equals… We owe it to one another to uphold this aspiration.”

Join us for Monday’s Community Forum as we seek to uphold this aspiration. The coming election is hugely consequential. We owe it to one another to consider how we move forward civilly, respectfully, and peaceably without giving up our strong, faith-based opinions about how our politics are connected to our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite new fall traditions here at BMPC is our big September food drive. Modeled after our longstanding annual Souper Bowl of Caring collection that takes place in February, we all have the opportunity in the fall to fill the Narthex on a Sunday morning with donations of non-perishable items that are whisked away to our local food pantries supporting them in supporting their communities.

This summer, the church has been phenomenal in bringing in non-perishable items each week as our local pantries here in Lower Merion have had the number of guests double this season.

This Sunday, September 22, all the donations you bring to church will be taken a little further away to four of our sister Presbyterian Churches who run food pantries out of their buildings.

West Kensington Ministry started a food program during the pandemic as the community’s needs, especially those of newly arrived immigrant families, became clear.

New River Presbyterian Church in West Philadelphia runs one of the smallest pantries we support. It is available to folks in their neighborhood with nowhere else to turn for that bag of groceries that will get them through the week.

Deacon Grace Marable founded and continues to run the pantry out of Bethel Presbyterian Church in North Philadelphia. The pantry gives away food to around 600 people per month and receives its most significant financial and food donations from BMPC.

TM Thomas Presbyterian Church serves a hot meal to around 200 people each month, and when they have the resources, they always send guests away with a bag of non-perishables to take home with them.

Each bag of food, cereal box, can of soup, and tin of tuna brought to church this Sunday will make a difference in the lives of families connected to our partners. We are deeply grateful for your generosity and your ongoing commitment to fighting hunger in Greater Philadelphia.

Recommended donations include cold cereals, spaghetti sauce, canned meals, soups (particularly hearty ones), peanut butter, jelly, canned tuna and chicken, canned fruit or vegetables, canned beans, applesauce, dry pasta, macaroni and cheese, crackers, instant oatmeal (packets), granola bars, and single-serving snacks.

In October 2005, I formed a new choir at BMPC. Singing for Life (S4L) was envisioned as a musical group for singers of all experiences, age 55+. Why Singing for Life? I was concerned that we were not offering musical outlets for singers who perhaps no longer felt comfortable driving at night or could not meet the rigorous demands of the Sanctuary Choir. Within just a few rehearsals, it was clear that S4L was here to stay!

What I didn’t know then was that a movement was beginning to play out throughout the United States. Little by little, older adult choirs were popping up all over! Why has this become such a powerful movement?

Studies have shown that singing in a choir has incredible health benefits. Singing regularly improves one’s breath capacity (did you know your breath capacity decreases by 1% a year? Singing can stop that decrease). Singing with others has powerful mental health benefits. A good choral experience is also a physical workout that positively impacts breath, muscle strength, and posture. Local vocal expert Robert Sataloff describes the act of singing in a choir as a “Voice Lift!”

A typical S4L rehearsal includes deep breathing exercises and vocalization to help expand and strengthen your singing and speaking voice and focus on posture. Our repertoire includes both sacred and secular music. We also sing in various languages (studies link language learning with mental acuity). To date, we have sung in Italian, Japanese, Hebrew, English, and German, to name a few!

S4L rehearses on Thursday mornings, 9:30-10:45 a.m., beginning October 3 and culminating with a concert at Dunwoody on December 19. No experience is required. Led by Jeffrey Brillhart and Kara Goodrich (who made her Opera Philadelphia debut as Mimi in “La Boheme” in spring 2022), S4l will make you smile as you discover or re-discover the joy of making music with wonderful people. To register, contact .

During our summertime travels, my family teases me because I talk to strangers. They think it’s quirky, but I consider striking up a conversation with someone unknown a proven strategy. Why not ask a local for his favorite restaurant within walking distance? A willingness to admit you’re a visitor passing through can lead you to an amazing meal, down a trail to an extraordinary vista, or to a historic place of significance you would never have found on your own. Last month, a simple inquiry about finding a good cheese shop in Vermont had our GPS send us down a dirt road along a lovely, wooded creek bed for ten miles! Admittedly, eight miles in, I was beginning to doubt the recommendation, but we arrived to discover both a charming town and the 2023 1st place winner of the American Cheese Society.

Whether you are in Lancaster or Lisbon, I recommend you risk the eyeroll of a family member by conversing with someone you don’t know. However, you don’t need to travel far to have a meaningful interchange of discovery because the very best place to befriend strangers is in church.

Op-ed writer David French asked in his column this week, “What is the most important single thing that you can do to heal the national divide and to improve the social mobility of your struggling neighbors?” At this moment in time, he submitted that endorsing a vote for the right candidate and engaging in activism to raise visibility for a worthy cause might be our first response, but he offered a simpler, more difficult primary answer: make a new friend. We have become a nation of epidemic loneliness, declining connections, diminishing friendships, and rising despair. Through faith and experience, I know that congregational life offers a vital remedy.

The church is a unique community for strangers to become friends. While the news is filled with horrendous stories of violence, conflict, and division, the church leans into the good news of the gospel. The gospel is no panacea for all our ills; indeed, it leads us into risky confrontations with the ways of the world about which we might disagree. But our Christian, Biblical, and Reformed theological traditions help us create a safe place for difficult dialogue, a multigenerational community of support, a space for spiritual growth, and countless opportunities for strangers to become friends.

On Sunday, we celebrate Rally Day with worship together and lunch following. There will be good food, fun activities for children, and ministry display tables offering many avenues for involvement. I encourage you to come, enjoy the fellowship, and introduce yourself to someone you don’t yet know. It might just be the beginning of a vitally significant friendship.

One of the great analysts of human behavior was named Theodor Geisel. Some of you know the name by which he is primarily known—a hint: his middle name was Seuss. Yes, Dr. Seuss, that writer of children’s books, demonstrated great insight and communicated it in wonderfully humorous ways. In one of my favorites, which is 70 years old this year, Horton Hears a Who, there is an elephant named Horton. Of course, elephants have large ears, so Horton can hear that which others could not, which in this case were the cries of distress from microscopic beings who lived on a speck of dust. Once the large elephant discovers the existence of these tiny Whos, he shows he also has a large heart and takes responsibility for their well-being, placing the speck on which all of Whoville exists on a soft clover.

But as Horton the elephant begins to express his concerns for the Whos, the other animals, not wanting to be bothered by such a possibility, begin to ridicule him for his belief that these beings merit any attention or care. These animals exaggerate their behaviors that hurt the Whos as they express their incredulity that someone believes such small matters matter. They were more interested in what was convenient and what they thought made their lives better than what was right and fair. At one point in the story, Horton finds the clover on which the Whos live after the other animals had hidden it, and with great relief and urgency, he cries out: “My friends! Tell me! Do tell! Are you safe? Are you sound? Are you whole? Are you well?”1

The Hebrew word, ‘shalom,’ found in scripture, generally gets translated as ‘peace.’ But shalom is much more than that – it is a reality where all are safe, sound, whole, well, as indicated by our friend, Horton. Bryn Mawr Presbyterian is blessed to have staff who seek to express concern for our members’ well-being. All five pastors meet weekly to talk confidentially about the pastoral needs of folks within the congregation and how to show appropriate love and care. We also email and text one another with updates in between our meetings. We have on staff a half-time nurse, Carol Cherry, and a half-time social worker, Kathryn West, who provide physical, mental, and spiritual health and well-being resources. We also have our Middleton Counseling Center led by Director Kiki McKendrick, with 13 therapists and two spiritual directors, which offer counseling and support groups. There are laypeople involved in various ways that also seek to reflect God’s care on concerns, large or small. All these staff and lay people work to enable the membership and beyond to be safe, sound, whole, and well.

We realize there are times when those four words do not describe how individual lives are going. If you ever lose a loved one or a job, if you are facing a health or a relationship crisis, if you or someone you know has suffered abuse or a chemical dependency, or if you are facing financial constraints or legal charges, you can trust someone on the caring team with sensitive information. A person or team could walk you through a challenging time, referring you to helping agencies as appropriate. Contact info is on the website for each part of the caring team. So, like Horton says, “My friends! Tell me! Do tell! Are you safe? Are you sound? Are you whole? Are you well?” When someone is not safe, sound, whole, or well, we, like Horton, plead, “Our friends! Tell us! Do tell!” so we can seek to respond in ways not just reflecting Horton’s care, but what goes beyond that with God’s care.

1 Theodor Seuss Geisel, Horton Hears a Who!, Random House, 1954.

One of the great delights of moving back from a faraway place is reconnecting with old friends and discovering that they’re even better than I remember. High on that list for me are some dear friends who serve as the Presbyterian chaplains at Princeton University. While visiting a local bakery, they shared some difficult stories of the spring semester, fraught with campus protests, and about their desire as chaplains to live up to their students. “Huh,” I thought and returned to my cannoli cronut, thinking mainly of how good it was to return to a land of reliably good bougie pastries.

Shortly after that, I received a call from a young clergywoman, who was entering her first call, asking if I would consider working with her as a coach. I hesitated, thinking I had nothing to offer until I realized that, when I was her age, I looked to people my age now for mentorship and coaching just as she was doing with me. I had been looking for people to live up to. Cue the mid-life crisis… and then commit to being the best coach I can be for her.

And, amid all this, there were providential conversations with BMPC about the position of Interim Associate Pastor for Youth & Their Families. I’ve been so impressed with the other pastors, lay leaders, Youth Council members, and families. However, in my short time in this position, the youth of BMPC have impressed me the most. They are committed to environmental justice, showing deep compassion to others, stepping into leadership positions, and taking risks. During the week with 15 middle and high schoolers from BMPC at the Montreat Youth Conference, my friends’ insights from the spring semester hit me anew. So often, we think we need to live up to the ones who came before us, but isn’t it the task of a college chaplain to live up to the students, the task of a coach to live up to the person being coached, and the task of a youth pastor to live up to the youth in their care? Likewise, I would add that the task of an interim is to live up to the person soon to be called to the permanent position.

This will be my approach to being your Interim Associate Pastor for Youth & Their Families. I’m looking forward to getting to know you!

It is practically sacrosanct and probably bordering on sacrilegious, but every August, I have a lemming-like need to walk the school supply aisles. Stacks of composition books speak to stories yet to be written. Planners promise an organized and efficient year ahead. Boxes of crayons and colored pencils are brimming with possibility. I even appreciate the calculators, protractors, and graph paper that tell me any problem can be solved. Walking the aisles, I see families pouring over lists, arguing over decisions, and digging through piles to find the last green college rule spiral ring notebook. I know that within a few hours of the first school bell, the best-laid plans will start to change. Planners will be filled and overfilled. Crayons will be lost and broken in the process of creating art. Calculators will prove frustrating and protractors dangerous. And those composition books? They will be filled with notes and essays and maybe even a few stories that need to be told. The year will be messy, complicated, and beautiful because people are all those things.

This Sunday, following worship, we will bless backpacks. The weather report indicates we might need to move inside, but regardless, we will gather and ask God to bless each backpack—but more importantly, the child who will carry it. This blessing is a pause in a busy season where we remind children of God’s presence with them. That along with all the tools they have purchased and all the resources they have packed away, we remember that God, too, will be with them at the start of the year. We whisper the promise that God will be there in the messy moments, the complicated ones, the difficult ones, and the beautiful ones alike. In doing so, we remind ourselves that God, too, goes with us, with or without our backpacks.

A Prayer for Backpacks

God bless this backpack and the child who carries it. Bless the grown-ups who help pack it and teachers who help fill it. Bless the bus drivers who transport it, the custodians who clean around it, the librarians who add to it, and the friends who recognize it. Fill this backpack with things unseen: with love and hope, with forgiveness and fortitude, with joy and patience. Be as close to this child as their backpack, resting lightly upon their shoulders and present with them no matter what they may face. Bless, Oh Lord, this backpack and the child who carries it.