This past Monday was the national observance of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. And, over the course of last weekend and this week, there were many remembrances. In Manchester, on Monday afternoon, the annual MLK gathering at Memorial High School was well-attended...
There is this great old Robert Earl Keene song called, “Feelin’ Good Again” that paints the picture of someone who returns to his hometown after some time away. The song begins in kind of a lonely place - the singer is alone, wearing worn out clothes, and standing in...
Last month, a colleague of mine named Jenny McDevitt, who is a pastor down in South Carolina, posted an entry in her church’s Advent Devotional online. She began by saying: I have been asked again recently - and I choose to assume the very best of intentions behind...
Someone asked me, fairly recently, “Are we doing the Star Words this year? Because my family loved them!” “Yes we are!” I replied, excitedly - excited that they were excited. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the practice of “Star Words," here’s a little...
We have some people - specifically some young people - at our house who are very excited about Christmas. Sometimes, when he wakes up in the morning, the first thing our three-year-old says will be something like, “Is it Christmas?” Now, from a human-development point...
As a bald Southerner, I’m not ashamed to admit it: I get cold in New England and so I dress accordingly. Now, I know that there are those kids that you can see waiting for the school bus, wearing little more than a t-shirt and shorts in below-freezing weather. And I...
This past Monday night, the Session held its regular monthly meeting. In addition to approving a balanced budget for 2026 (which includes salary increases and an increase in Mission funding) the Session also voted to approve a BPC Concert Series. The Concert Series is...
As I write this, on Friday afternoon, it is snowing outside. Maybe it’s not that big of a deal for snow to fall in New Hampshire on the day after Thanksgiving, but for this Georgia-raised boy, the first snow of the year is always a little surprising and brings a bit...