The Shawl Ministry They Tried To End
At seven o’clock on a Tuesday morning I was sitting in the third pew from the back of Grinnell Community Church with a canvas bag… Read more
The Place I Still Set
For four hundred and eleven days I set two places at a table built for one widow. I counted them. That is the thing nobody… Read more
The Picnic They Tried To Cancel
Ashley Vint stood up at the February board meeting, smoothed the front of her blazer, and said the Fourth of July picnic was “dated” and… Read more
The Pew They Said Was Taken
Deidre Fossum looked up at me from the third pew on the left side, the one my family has filled for forty years, spread her… Read more
The Pew They Reserved for Someone Else
Forty minutes before the five o’clock candlelight service on Christmas Eve, still moving slow on a hip that was six weeks out from surgery, I… Read more
The Choirmaster Who Would Not Be Silenced
Preston Yancy stood at the pulpit of Mount Zion Country Church holding my microphone by the cord like it was a dead snake, and he… Read more