“How can young people keep their way pure? By guarding it according to your word.” ~ Psalm 119:9, NRSV

As I write this article, I am preparing to depart on a two week vacation. I will be heading to my parent’s camp, located on a beautiful lake in southern Maine, with my three children. My wife will be heading to Namibia in South Africa as part of an immersion mission trip for her seminary education.

Some people feel uneasy about taking vacations. “The boss will be upset.” “I really should be working all the time; isn’t that what it means to have a strong work-ethic.” Vacations actually make us better workers. It gives us a time of respite so that we can return to work rejuvenated, better equipped to deal with our daily demands.

But vacations are more than that. They should not just be seen as means to an end: we rest so we can work harder. Vacation is Sabbath time.

Sabbath is a biblical concept. It begins in the earliest pages of Scripture. God creates the earth (be it metaphorically or literal) in six days. On the seventh day God rests from all the work of Creation. Ancient Israel was also called to let the earth rest every seventh year from the strain of cultivation.

If God needs relaxation, and even the land needs a breather, then is it too hard to believe that we need to rest, too?

I have been MIA for a few issues recently, my deepest apologies. That said, I can safely say, "I'm back!" (I said that in my best faux Poltergeist voice.) Never mind...

 

Some of our sayings make no sense.  They seem to contradict one another.  “Practice makes perfect.”  And yet, we are also told that “Nobody is perfect.”  That can lead one to question, “Then why practice?”

I had lunch with a parishioner in Berea today. On the way back to the office, I stopped for gas and asked the cashier, “What is the quickest way to get to Route 71?” As she looked into the distance and scratched her head, a scruffy man in line behind me began giving me directions. “What you want to do is to keep going down this main road here and turn left at the lights. After that, you want to turn…”

Now keep something in mind. If directions require more than two turns, I get lost. You might as well give them to me in another language. I need to write them down at that point. So, I asked the cashier for a piece of scrap paper, but before she even moved the man in line said, “I’m actually headin’ that way. Follow me.”

“Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath.  Stress is an ignorant state.  It believes that everything is an emergency.  Nothing is that important.  Just lie down.”

Remember Mel Gibson’s 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ? The movie was controversial due to its graphic violence and the belief, in some quarters, that it was highly anti-Semitic. There are some, such as Dr. S. Mark Heim of Andover Newton Theological School, who challenged the theological concept of blood-atonement that lies at the center of the movie. I saw the film in the theatre when it was released, and felt that the anti-Semitism was a reflection of the complex anti-Semitic tenor that appears throughout the Gospels. Without getting too far into it, it is clear that the Pharisees and the Sadducees are portrayed as “the bad guys” in the Gospel narrative. They are Jesus’ foil. Are they representative of the entire Jewish community in first century Palestine or Jews in general? I do not think so. Remember, Jesus and his disciples were Jewish.

A festival service was held at Trinity Lutheran Church of Lakewood on February 28th, illuminating the Lenten season with a celebration of last summer’s vote of the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to allow the ordination of partnered gay or lesbian clergy. The Reverend Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Northeastern Ohio Synod preached to members of several local Lutheran, Unitarian Universalist, and United Church of Christ congregations and guests from Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, Lutheran Chaplaincy, and Dennis Kucinich’s office. Pastor Paula Maeder Connor of Trinity had chosen texts about Ruth’s steadfast love for her mother-in-law Naomi in spite of the social liabilities of such loyalty (Ruth 1: 8-19), Christ’s call to us to resist slavery (Galations 5:1), and Jesus’ relaying His Father’s commandment that we love one another (John 15:9-17). Bishop Eaton thanked the GLBT people and their friends and families who had patiently endured their second-class status within the church for so long. She also expressed a hope that the rocky reception of this vote across the country will resolve into positive innovation in the church. During the prayers, one of the parishioners thanked God for giving us the gift of love in all of its many shapes and forms. Joyful music was given by Trinity’s choir, soloist Brenna Connor, and organist Dave Debick of the Brecksville United Church of Christ.

Does the word Lent immediately conjure up images of your brother or best friend? “Hey, can you lend me fifty bucks?” (Bad joke.) The word Lent, which describes the forty day penitential Christian season before Easter, comes from the German (Lenz) and Dutch (lente) words for spring. It also relates to the Germanic root word meaning long. That makes sense: in the spring the days lengthen. It will probably be a long time before your brother gives you your $50 back, too. (Sorry.)

Father Duke at S.S. Cyril & Methodius has been here over thirty years. He has given us faith, trust, and understanding. Yes, we have even felt his wrath when we did something stupid, but he always understood.

Remember when we were kids, if we saw a priest, it was always “Good morning” or “Good afternoon Father” and that was it. With Father Duke, parents, children, and grandchildren give him a hug when he does something special, which is very often.

I met Father Duke when he was six or seven years old. He was such a quiet, shy little boy and so very sweet.  His sister Carol and I were best friends in grade school and high school, which was upstairs at St. Francis.  Sometimes he would walk to school with us.

One of my hobbies is studying medicine. That sounds funny, I know, but I love to study human anatomy and physiology as a pastime. I am fascinated by the structure and function, and even the pathology, of the human body. It is not as if I have a plethora of free time, but I would rather read an article on endocrinology in JAMA than watch a sitcom on NBC. Strange? Yes, but it is also fun!

I have been thinking about miracles a lot lately.  How often do miracles occur — or do they?  A friend once admitted, “I believe that miracles happened in Biblical times, but they do not occur anymore.”  What, exactly, constitutes a miracle?  (The conversation between Samuel Jackson's and John Travolta’s characters in Pulp Fiction is making me chuckle as I write this.)

I believe in miracles.  They happen all the time.  They do not need to be burning bush or water into wine experiences.  They can be simple, and ever-present.  A miracle occurs every time God chooses to enter the human drama.  And God does that a lot.

Ironically, God’s recurrent appearances do not have to be grand manifestations.  In other words, it isn’t just making “the impossible possible,” as Travolta’s “Vince” waxes in the aforementioned Quentin Tarantino film.  It is God entering our lives and touching us in deep, profound, spiritual ways — ways that occur more often than we realize.

 

MINISTERIAL MUSINGS

We often approach January 1st with resolutions: the weight we need to shed, the nicotine we need to stop breathing, the Scriptures we hope to traverse in one year. Ten, nine, eight…we pop the champagne and pour libations for the family members and friends watching Dick Clark…seven, six, five…we raise a toast in hopes of peace and health…four, three, two…we breathe in the last seconds of the year with hope and maybe a bit of trepidation…one…here it comes…zero…we holler “Happy New Year!” and kiss our significant others. Confetti flies across many a bar room. Frigid bodies in Times Square scream in unison jubilation. In Boston, the remains of 2009 are scattered among tables of chicken fingers, egg rolls, and pork lo mein. We hit the hay and awake to a national holiday. For me it is forty-eight hours of The Twilight Zone on the SyFy Channel and the day before my birthday. For others it is the first day of the resolutions that they won’t keep — the same ones they made twelve months earlier and abandoned shortly after. Is that all there is? Is that all that the New Year has to offer? (Read: rhetorical question.) Obviously, the answer is no. The New Year falls perfectly within the Christian liturgical calendar. We are still in the midst of the twelve days of Christmas — and not because of that song. The birth that we celebrated a week before is still with us. Bethlehem still stands by the living room evergreen whose brown needles emit a stronger scent of winter pine. Our hearts are still aglow with the promises the Christ child brings. Maybe this can be a resolution in itself? No, I am not saying that we make everyday Christmas. (Capitalism has already stretched it from two weeks to two months.) What I am suggesting, though, is that maybe the hope the Christ child brings can burn in our hearts the rest of the year.

Every once in a while a reader will ask me a question.  This one comes from a friend in Boston.  She asked, “If a person is brain dead, where does his/her soul reside?”

That’s a good question.  I’ll take a stab at it.

Medical science used to define the time of death as the moment the heart stops beating.  According to the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, brain death “is a legal definition of death that refers to the irreversible end of all brain activity.”  This has been the clinical definition since 1981 with the publication of the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA).  Section One of the act clearly states, death is determined when “An individual…has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem….”

The hustle and bustle is here. It isn’t even Thanksgiving as I write this, and yet our commercialized culture tells us it is the season of Christmas. The funny thing is that the “Christmas season” does not really begin until December 25 and remains with us all the way to Epiphany (January 6). Yes, that Yuletide song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” has liturgical significance, although I have no desire to receive a partridge in a pear tree, three French hens, or seven swans a swimming.  (Lots of birds in that piece!)

Advent is the season leading up to Christmas, a time of anticipation and preparation for the Christmas event. We in the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community have not always been welcomed by the church, often causing us to feel isolated from spiritual companions during this wonderful time of year. That is about to change. This year, Liberation Church is hosting a series of Advent services on four consecutive Wednesday evenings beginning December 2nd. We are calling the services “Tré Gay Taizé” since they are based on the prayer services of the Taizé Community in France. Each service is especially designed to welcome the LGBT community into a contemplative spiritual experience with others in meditation, prayer, music and reflections on Advent from a queer perspective. This will be a time of respite from the hectic pace of everyday life during this busy time of year. The services begin at 7:00 p.m., but come early because a light supper will be served before the service at 6:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome to join us for the free supper to meet new friends and share stories over a meal. As Dr. Seuss wrote and the people of Whoville sang:   

Nothing has divided the Christian Church more in the last few decades than the issue of homosexuality. Even the controversy surrounding the ordination of women—which is still a contested issue even in some mainline denominations—pales in comparison to the quarrels that have not only divided liberal churches from the Religious Right, but many a house against itself as well.

Recently, the focus has been on gay marriage in particular. Several states (including Ohio) have passed constitutional amendments, “To protect the sanctity of marriage,” to quote the Pat Robertsons of the world. Apparently, male-male and female-female unions are going to be the fatal flaw in the already dysfunctional foundation of the American family. Domestic violence, child neglect, alcoholism, drug abuse, divorce, illiteracy, the welfare system, unemployment, lack of affordable housing and healthcare…none of these seem to pose the same threat to the American family (as if it were a monolith) as two consenting adults wanting to publicly affirm what they already have the right to do: be a couple in love. For the life of me, I cannot perceive how granting ten percent of the population the same right that my wife and I and millions of other Americans take for granted is going to fracture our “traditional” family or anyone else’s.

There once was a preacher who wasn’t prepared to deliver a sermon one Sunday morning. He prayed to God for inspiration and decided that he would open the Bible to two random sections — one in the Old Testament and one in the New — and that would be the focus of his homily. His finger first landed on Genesis 4:8: “Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.” OK, he thought. Then he flipped open to Luke 10:37: “Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’"

“Excuse me, sir.  Do you have any spare change?”

Soon, churches will be celebrating what is often called Rally Day.  This marks the beginning of a new church year as choirs and Sunday school classes (along with many members) return from summer’s rest.   And to their congregations, leaders of faith communities will be proclaiming messages of hope – hope that allows us to believe life can be a pageant of joy.  It is the right message for just these times.   It will not be some sweet, saccharine statement that dares to suggest all moments in life are victorious. It is not a proclamation meant to insult the intellect by denying there are real problems to face and overcome. We know our businesses do not always flourish.  Our relationships are not always vibrant, and hard work and constant study do not guarantee success.Those who speak of faithful hope and life as a celebration of joy will not be suggesting that life is without anxiety. It does mean, however, that because of our trust in love’s ultimate victory over the powers that would diminish us, we can live with triumphant hope even in the face of difficult times and circumstance.   Our faith calls us to reach for the horizons beyond our own troubles and radiating hope to others. Off the coast of Labrador, you will find the towering icebergs that soar high in the air.  What is most surprising is that they all sail south.  While that might not seem strange at all, it is important to know that they are sailing south against the strong winds that blow against them.  What allows the icebergs to move against the wind and waves crashing against them?   The answer lies in the fact that the vast majority of their mass is below the surface, and beneath that surface is the mighty Labrador Current. In spite of the buffeting strength of the wind and waves, the icebergs sail south as they are carried along by the unseen current below the surface.The triumph of faithful hope moves in the same way.  Against the difficulties of life and the challenges before us, it can carry us through the trials and limitations of life.   It is easy to become cynical with our world:  unspeakable horrors are visited upon people every day, physical and emotional abuse is all too common in the homes of every neighborhood. We witness how ancient hatreds, made even more deadly through modern weapons, can wreak havoc on a people.   So, is it possible to proclaim that life can be filled with the triumph of hope and the celebration of community?  I would ask: Do we dare think otherwise?  Do we dare give in, believing ourselves to be powerless to confront the forces that would diminish even one member of our human family?There are times when it would seem God asks the impossible of us. There are moments when faith demands more than we think we can bear.  Faith in God demands that we not only see a light at the end of the tunnel, but to also know that the light is calling us to move forward, to step with confidence and trust into the darkness that sometimes stands before us. This journey of life is not without its detours and difficult obstacles – but it is our journey to make. And it is our time to make it.  Our communities are best served when the power and enthusiasm of faithful hope are brought to bear on the difficulties before us. Lakewood and the surrounding area are well served by many faith communities, each bringing to bear their vision of a better world, and seeking to bring the faithful message of hope to all.    by Reverend Mark Thomas,
Senior Pastor, Lakewood Congregational Church 

MINISTERIAL MUSINGS: “Love Thy Neighbor”By the Rev. John Tamilio III

Stop.  Take a moment to read Ephesians 4:25-5:2.

In the spirit of pushing the envelope and tackling controversial issues (which I am wont to do), I want to elucidate a national campaign that was birthed in Tremont.

Earlier this year, the church I serve (Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ) decided that our clergy would no longer sign state-issued marriage licenses, nor would we allow them to be signed on our property.  To us, this is a pertinent social justice issue.  Because same-gender couples are not allowed to get married in Ohio (and many other states), we feel that as officers of the state — which clergy essentially are when they sign that piece of paper — we are complying with a blatant injustice.

But it goes further than that.

Ministerial Musings: Capital Punishment is a Capital OffenseThe Rev. John Tamilio III 

“To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven,” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.

 “Is Adolf Hitler in Hell?”  This is a question that inevitably comes up when I talk to people about God’s grace.  If God is all-loving and all-forgiving, why would the Creator of Heaven and Earth condemn anyone to the fires of Perdition?  Is there even a Hell?

I think there is…and I think there isn’t.  Let me explain before I answer the Hitler query.

Isaiah 61:1-2

In my Easter sermon, I mentioned that I am not much of a “blogger.” I simply do not have the time. My wife, Susan, however, recently launched her own “blog” entitled, “Learning to Love and Live the Questions.”

This piece is much more controversial than what I usually write in this column, but I feel the need to get these thoughts out on paper.

 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).  This is one of the verses that the Pro-Life movement employs; it was one of the verses that an evangelist recently recited to me as he distributed anti-abortion literature (which included graphic images of aborted fetuses) in downtown Cleveland.

Before the steam rises from your ears, nota bene: if you are Pro-Life, fine; if you are Pro-Choice, fine. This article does not seek to engage in that debate; that is not my intention.

After thumbing through the salvation salesman’s pamphlet, I asked him what his position was on the death penalty. He said, “The Bible says ‘an eye for an eye’ so I am for it.”  I then asked him to share his views on war. “If you mean the War in Iraq,” he said, “I am definitely in favor of it.  This war is helping us spread the Christian message and our way of life around the world!”

I expected that he would respond that way.

Many (though certainly not all) of the Pro-Life people I have encountered are also in favor of capital punishment and war, especially when the latter is advanced under the banner of the American flag, which they equate with the cross of Christ. Call it Constantinianism or Manifest Destiny gone amok. Either way, you get my point.

Are religious doctrines that are used to advocate for the sanctity of life reserved strictly to a woman’s uterus? Are not the lives of the young men and women called to bear arms — not to mention the civilian casualties that inevitably lie in the wake of combat — also sacred? And why do we continually quote the three “eye for an eye” commandments in the Torah, but turn a blind eye to the clemency-laden teachings of Jesus, such as “I desire mercy not sacrifice,” “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” and dare we forget Christ’s response to the mob who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery: “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus valued life…all life.

Is this not an ethic for us all to endorse?

I do not know a single Pro-Choice advocate who is Pro-Abortion. The issue for them is about a woman’s right to chose and to not allow the government to interfere with an individual’s reproductive rights. Believe it or not, you can chose not to have an abortion yourself, but feel as if this delicate and complex decision needs to be determined by each person in a country that advocates freedom for all.

What baffles me is the itinerant preacher I met, who claims that abortion is the killing of human life, but that the life of the individual on death row or on the battlefield is not as sacred. I do not understand this quandary at all.

As God spoke to the Israelites through Moses and Aaron, so God is still speaking to us. We are called to choose life by honoring the dignity and the sanctity of all people, not just some.

The Rev. John Tamilio III is the Religion Columnist for The Lakewood Observer and the Senior Pastor of Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ in Tremont.  He can be reached at johnt@pilgrimalive.org.  JT3 lives in Lakewood with his wife and their three children.

When people hear the phrase “the prophetic voice” they often think of “prophecy”: predicting the future, soothsaying, Ouija boards, runes, Tarot cards, palm reading, and the like. From a biblical perspective, prophecy has to do with far more than this.

Liberation United Church of Christ, located at 13714 Madison Ave. at the corner of Madison and Parkwood Avenues, is one of many wonderful spiritual communities in Lakewood that offer encouragement and an enriching spiritual experience to everyone who enters. This year, as the Spring and Easter seasons approach, Liberation UCC would like to extend an invitation to those who may be thinking about attending a church service. Liberation UCC is an inclusive community that truly embraces the United Church of Christ theme of “No Matter Who You are or Where You Are on Life’s Journey, You Are Welcome Here.”

You will most likely be reading this article the day before Ash Wednesday — the day before Lent begins — or maybe during the initial days of Lent. Lent is the forty-day penitential season (not including Sundays) when the Christian community prepares for Easter.

We are in the throes of Lent: the forty day penitential season (not including Sundays) when the Christian community prepares for Easter: the day of resurrection.

Renowned Methodist theologian Laurence Hull Stookey (brother of Noel “Paul” Stookey of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame) reminds us that “In the early centuries, forty days was the time sufficient for converts to make their final, intensive preparation for baptism; and thus a pattern for Lent developed. So also the ancient baptismal preparation dictated this period to be a time of particular devotion and discipline” (Stookey 1996: 79). When I was growing up, I had many friends who were Catholic. They had to attend CCD and loathed it, although I was envious — I wished my local United Church of Christ congregation required such formative, religious training.  (Yes, I was destined to be a minister!) These same friends used to discuss “the thing” they had to give up for Lent. Often times it was chocolate, playing baseball, or watching the Boston Bruins…something that would help them identify with the passion of Christ. As if Jesus is a Boston Bruins fan. A Red Sox fan, DEFINITELY, but I’m not sure about the Bruins thing. (Besides, I don’t think Jesus could skate. Walk on water? Sure. Skating? That’s another thing. But I digress…)

In recent years, many Christian traditions have taken a different slant when it comes to Lent. Instead of asking their adherents to give something up, they have encouraged them to adopt a spiritual practice over these six and a half weeks. First of all, this presents a more positive, life-giving theology. It is not just shrouded in the doom-and-gloom of the cross (although that is certainly a crucial Lenten symbol). Developing a Lenten discipline will hopefully follow us beyond the empty tomb. 

“Peace is not the absence of affliction, but the presence of God.”— Author Unknown Take a moment to read Matthew 6:25-34.  Got it?  Good.  We’ll come back to it in a minute. I came home the other day and found my pension plan fourth quarter statement waiting for me in the mailbox.  I opened it slowly, hoping that it might include one of Willy Wonka’s five golden tickets.  Instead, it contained a message written in numbers: Pray all you want, Rev. Tamilio, but you will never be able to retire.  And then, after I put the statement aside and opened the newspaper, I read even more dire headlines: corporate downsizing contributes to the rising unemployment rate nationwide; more and more urban families lose their homes to mortgage foreclosures; fraudulent investors cost retirees their life savings. I exhaled and looked around the room.  There was my wife and our three children.  All of them healthy and laughing.  Susan had just returned from Giant Eagle, so our refrigerator was filled with food.  There were clothes on our backs, a roof over our heads, and I had a job waiting for me in the morning.  Pray all you want, Rev. Tamilio, but you will never be able to retire.  Maybe that is true.  Maybe it isn’t.  Regardless, in the midst of a dismal economy, I realized that I had no right to have a pity-party over a piece of paper with numbers that would not concern me for twenty-five years.  I am part of a culture that is richer than the vast majority of the world’s population. Something else struck me in the midst of this reflection: the words from the middle of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  (I said we would get back to them.) Jesus was speaking to a multitude of poor folks assembled on a hillside.  Many of them did not know where their next meal was coming from, let alone how they would pay the heavy taxes levied upon them by the Roman Empire.  They gathered around this itinerant rabbi looking for an answer—a word of liberation.  Instead, they were told not to fret: “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.”  Can you imagine them turning to one another in astonishment and asking, “What did he say?  Don’t worry?  All we do is worry!  Do we have a choice?” But Jesus’ words to them are the same words that he speaks to us today.  “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your God feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?”  We need to trust God.  We need to trust that God will provide for our physical needs no matter what the stock market or the morose economic prognosticators say. True freedom comes when we realize that we are not in control of our lives—as much as we like to think that we are—and that we need to trust in the grace of our benevolent God to see us through whatever curve balls life throws at us.  Is this easy to do?  No.  But it will enable us to plumb our spiritual depths and uncover an abundance of hope, which is probably what the world needs now more than anything else. — The Rev. John Tamilio III is the new Religion Columnist for The Lakewood Observer.  JT3 is the Senior Minister of Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ in Tremont. He, his wife Susan, and their three children live in Lakewood.

The question about the relationship between Church and politics came to the fore of many voters’ minds during the last Presidential election. People were concerned with whether or not Barack Obama was a Muslim and they probed his relationship with his former pastor, The Rev. Jeremiah Wright. They debated the significance of Mitt Romney being a Mormon and how “Pentecostal” Sarah Palin actually was. We are obsessed with the line between religion and politics in this country — those two taboo subjects that your parents warned you never to discuss with friends.

Once I accepted the call to be the new Senior Pastor of the historic Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ in Tremont (a Just Peace and an Open and Affirming congregation), my wife and I began looking for communities in which we would raise our three children.  It did not take us long to select Lakewood.

Grace Lutheran Church will offer a Live Nativity Scene on Saturday, December 20th, from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M. Grace is located at 13030 Madison Avenue directly across the street from Madison Park...

On Wednesday, November 26, the Lakewood Ministerial Association will co-host “Be Thankful” an ecumenical celebration with special musical guests, Scott Troyer and Katie Nelson - - - two new voices in the realm of contemporary Christian music, who are currently touring through the northeast United States.

The service will begin at 7 pm, with a seasonal reception preceding the service at 6:15 pm. Location: The Lakewood Baptist Church (14321 Detroit Avenue; corner of Detroit and Lincoln Avenues)...

Lakewood Baptist to the Cleveland Metropolitan Chorus

The Lakewood Baptist Church is honored to host the Cleveland Metropolitan Chorus for a special benefit concert on Sunday, October 26 at 7:00 pm. All are invited and welcomed!

The Cleveland Metropolitan Chorus is a pan-denominational, non-for-profit group committed to presenting concerts of sacred music and classic favorites throughout the greater Cleveland community.

Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Lakewood will host a presentation about how families can help minister to refugees in our midst, including the growing Burmese population. The hour-long presentation will take place from 10:15 to 11:15 am on Sunday, Nov. 2 in the Gethsemane downstairs fellowship hall, 14560 Madison Avenue. Brian Upton of Building Hope in the City, an organization committed to strengthening urban ministry, will present...

News of this spring’s rioting in Haiti over dramatically rising food prices held special significance for several area Lutheran churches, including Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Lakewood. Gethsemane members Lynn Scheerhorn, Gary Dittmar (also principal of Lakewood Lutheran School), Andrew Dittmar, and Jesse McDonald had returned home to Northeast Ohio only days before violence erupted in the typically calm coastal city of Les Cayes, Haiti. And a second mission trip was scheduled to leave for Les Cayes in less than a month...