solar eclipse

East Texas PC(USA) pastor celebrates Creation during solar eclipse

The Rev. Brendan McLean is associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tyler, Texas, one of the communities shrouded in darkness for nearly two minutes during the April 8 solar eclipse. Only just before it happened, someone forgot to urge the clouds over Tyler to go away.

The psalmist and the solar eclipse

Seeing the “diamond ring” is the holy grail of amateur astronomers: that moment in a total solar eclipse when the edge of the sun’s corona bursts forth with a sparkling burst of light at one point while the rest of the rim is illuminated like a ring. I had no chance of seeing that where I was, located many miles away from the path of totality. All I saw was a solar “croissant.” But I did consider the experience holy.

The psalmist and the solar eclipse

Seeing the “diamond ring” is the holy grail of amateur astronomers: that moment in a total solar eclipse when the edge of the sun’s corona bursts forth with a sparkling burst of light at one point while the rest of the rim is illuminated like a ring. I had no chance of seeing that where I was, located many miles away from the path of totality. All I saw was a solar “croissant.” But I did consider the experience holy.