Valentine’s Day is one of those commercialized holidays that boost the bottom lines of candy companies — and florists. But when I was a little girl, Feb. 14 wasn’t about flowers or even the chocolates in the heart-shaped box that my mother would put on top of my cereal bowl in the morning. (It was always a beautiful sight to see that loving gesture brightening what would have been just another ordinary wintry day for my brother, sister and me. I tried my best not to get into the candy before heading to school, emphasis on “tried.”)
It was New Year’s Day 1773. The faithful in the English town of Olney, though, were not thinking about old acquaintances being forgotten. (It would be another 15 years before Robert Burns would write his poem that would forever become synonymous with New Year’s Eve revelry.) They were thinking about grace and all its amazingness.
In the 1922 children’s classic “The Velveteen Rabbit,” Margery Williams tells the story of a stuffed rabbit who desperately wants to be real. Snuggled in a little boy’s Christmas stocking, the toy seems to be the most wonderful gift ever. That’s until it notices the mechanical toys under the tree. Feeling inadequate, the rabbit asks the oldest toy in the nursery named “Skin Horse” — because all its fur had been hugged off — “What is real?” And with that, the rabbit’s adventure begins.
A century has gone by since the book’s debut, but the message is still relevant today — perhaps even more so in an age of social media facades.
I still remember the furrowed brows of saints in my rural church when I suggested that rather than ask for donations to feed the children for an upcoming event, we should pay local food purveyors to cater the meal instead.
The Rev. Laura Sias-Lee has always been open to the Spirit leading her to do things differently, like successfully introducing an unorthodox way for her Sashabaw Presbyterian Church congregation to gather for worship.
As more businesses engage in cause marketing — seeking to give back to communities — are they becoming more sacred, and more effective, than local churches?
When a wayward hen wandered into Sashabaw Presbyterian’s churchyard, she soon found a warm welcome and quickly became the church’s best community connector.
For the third straight year, the Rev. Donna Frischknecht Jackson, editor of Presbyterians Today, has been awarded a Best in Class award, announced online Friday during the DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards by the Religion Communicators Council.
