Every Time I Feel the Spirit By Rev. Alicia Randolph Rapking Music is a powerful gift in our lives. It offers us a way to express ourselves. It brings us together, often around a cause or a celebration. It is calming to us or cheering to us. It encourages us or sets a mood for … Continue reading Every Time I Feel the Spirit
Confessions of a New Mother from a Seasoned Mother Over the past few days, I have been thinking about this weekend as a day we celebrate mothers and I decided to share a prayer/sermon that I wrote shortly after becoming a mother nearly twenty-five years ago. The whole celebration of Mothers’ Day can be loaded. … Continue reading Confessions of a New Mother
A Good Shepherd, Sheep, and a World-wide Flock So, I have been thinking about sheep this week. Quite a bit. More than I would like to admit. It could be that I have been thinking about sheep because I wrote about knitting last week and since I am a purest when it comes to … Continue reading A Good Shepherd and a World-wide Flock
Knitting in Defiance Back in the winter I had the opportunity for several conversations about homelessness. On more than one occasion I had been asked to explain to someone why I had made the statement that we have homeless folks here in Upshur County and that one of my daily prayers is always for the … Continue reading Knitting in Defiance
Today is Easter Monday. At least, that is what this day was called when I was growing up in North Carolina because it was a statewide holiday. Often, as a child, Easter Monday meant a day to pull out shorts, go barefoot outside, think about planting gardens. It was a laid back kind of … Continue reading Easter Monday Reflections
Wings of the Morning By Rev. Alicia Randolph Rapking His name was Johan Conrad Goldtman, born in Gundheim, Germany in 1653 he died in Canada in 1711 and he was my 8th great grandfather. Over 360 years is a long time ago and it surprises me, still, that I have been able to trace my … Continue reading Wings of the Morning
On the first Sunday of Lent, the Gospel lectionary reading was Luke’s recording of Jesus in the desert, the Wilderness. Each year, the Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent is one of the three recordings found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is a powerful reading for me, one that I never tire of … Continue reading God is Not Absent
At the beginning of this year I learned that several of my friends were choosing words to claim as their word for the year. Claiming a word would give opportunities for exploring the deep meaning of the word and what the word would mean to their lives. I thought that the practice was interesting and … Continue reading Seeking Truth
Snowy Stillness By Rev. Alicia Randolph Rapking This morning I awoke to 18 inches of snow in my yard and snow still falling from the sky. There is the prediction that the snow will last into the evening hours. Could it be that we will receive the 20-30 inches that are now possible? My southern … Continue reading Snowy Stillness
By Rev. Alicia Randolph Rapking The words of the first verse of Psalm 24 are words that are deep in my soul and they come back to me over and over again. In the The Poverty and Justice Bible, which is in the Contemporary English translation these are the words: The earth and everything on … Continue reading The World and its People Belong to God
