Communications

A Pink Tea event honoring survivors of female cancers will be held Sunday, October 6, 2019, at 2:00 PM at Bethel Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPCA), 408 East Alabama Street, Florence. The event is sponsored by Susan Bentley WHNP-BC, DSC and Options Wellness Center along with the Shoals Community and the American Cancer Society. https://www.courierjournal.net/this_week/article_21ea4e5a-e403-11e9-966f-53924d23f09f.html

Sadie Aileen Sullivan, 96, of Fayetteville, Tennessee, died September 28, 2019. She was a member of the Fayetteville Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Columbia Presbytery). She was born on July 20, 1923 in Lincoln County, Tennessee. https://www.elkvalleytimes.com/obituaries/sadie-aileen-sullivan-obituary/article_ea187cc6-e3a9-11e9-8dee-d7505ff39587.html

Fayetteville Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Columbia Presbytery) celebrates 50 years at their Lewisburg Highway location on Sunday, October 27, 2019, with a special service at 10:30 AM followed by a catered meal in their fellowship hall. The congregation was established in Fayetteville in 1829. https://www.fayettevillecp.com/about/

“Where ya headed, cowboy?” “Nowhere special.” “Nowhere special. I always wanted to go there.” —Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles)   Almost nine years ago, not long after I’d retired from a job I’d held with a large, multi-national corporation for around 20 years, a friend contacted me with news of a position the Ministry Council was […]

Moving. It’s a chore many of us have had to do at least once or twice in our lives, and I imagine that most ministers have practiced the ritual even more than that. As a veteran of ten or twelve moves myself, I’ve come to regard it as an experience only slightly more appealing than […]

There’s battle lines being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong. –Stephen Stills While it wasn’t originally intended as such, the Buffalo Springfield track, “For What It’s Worth”, became an iconic anthem of the 60s. For many, it came to serve as a frank and pointed commentary on a conflict between people with passionately-held but very […]

As we were preparing the October issue of The Cumberland Presbyterian for delivery to the printer, Hurricane Irma had just fled the state of Florida, leaving it to survivors and to those committed to helping them rebuild shattered lives. Less than two weeks prior, Hurricane Harvey did much the same in southeast Texas. Between these […]

Like many of us, I suspect, there comes a time in the 24-hour news cycle following a tragic event—particularly an event that speaks of little but the human capacity for evil and ugliness in the world, as we witnessed in Charlottesville—when I just begin to feel weary. It’s a weariness that springs from a deep-seated […]

There was a moment during the Friday morning business meeting at General Assembly recently when an all-too-familiar wave of something akin to nausea swept over me. Perhaps you’re familiar with it, too: that gut-cramping, face-flushing moment when you realize you’ve been caught in sin; that moment when you know you’ve done something really bad, and […]

The collard greens were done almost to perfection on that crisp October afternoon. Tender, scented with a bit of side meat, and slightly bitter—just the way I like them. The pinto beans needed only a few more minutes of simmering, and the cornbread had just come out of the oven. I was slicing some onions […]