November 16, 2019: McDonald Wedding, The Rev. Candice Frazer
November 3, 2019: The Sunday after All Saints Day, The Rev. Candice Frazer
I grew up a Roman Catholic. We went to mass every Sunday or Saturday night—but never missed a week. As a Catholic, I was taught about the Communion of Saints. The understanding that there were those who had walked this earth and now lived in heaven but might still intercede for me, if I asked. […]
November 5, 2019: The Dolman Funeral, The Rev. Candice Frazer
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food… In reading these words from Isaiah and thinking about our friend Sam, I couldn’t help but think about all the food that Sam has provided to this congregation and others over the years. Sunday morning breakfast, Thursday morning […]
October 13, 2019: The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, The Rev. Candice Frazer
Best day/worst day of my church life: When I was eight years old in second grade, I celebrated my first communion. My family was Roman Catholic at the time and in the Catholic Church, you didn’t get to take communion until you had completed First Communion class in second grade. My classmates and I had […]
September 29, 2019: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, The Rev. Candice Frazer
Several years ago before I went to seminary and we still lived in Selma, I was standing in line at Wal-Mart. I had made the mistake of coming on “check day”, the third of the month. The lines were long and many of the people there were buying groceries that would last for a month—bags […]
September 15, 2019: The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, The Rev. Candice Frazer
Too often we read a parable and are immediately tempted to assign all the parts. For instance, in today’s parables of lost things, we are quick to assign Jesus to the role of seeker and ourselves to the roles of the lost sheep or coin. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that, as a matter […]
August 25, 2019: The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, The Rev. Candice Frazer
We believe faith, and life, is easier when we have rules to live by. Sometimes we find value in those rules and other times we believe them to be unfair, antiquated, or not applicable to our own affairs. For the most part, we think of rules as a means to governing our behavior and allowing […]
August 18, 2019: The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, The Rev. Candice Frazer
There is already too much division in the world, so when Jesus starts talking about bringing fire to the earth and division and then calls me out for not knowing how to interpret the present time, I get a little put off. I get to thinking I have enough people haranguing and judging me for […]
August 11, 2019: The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, The Rev. Candice Frazer
There is a scene in the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in which Harry and Hermione are in the graveyard in Godric’s Hollow searching for Harry’s parents’ graves. As they search amongst the tombstones in the darkness, they come across the grave of Albus Dumbledore’s mother and sister. The epitaph […]
August 4, 2019: The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, The Rev. Candice Frazer
Several years ago, I took a group of thirty teenagers and adults on a mission trip to Trinidad. On one of our R and R days (Rest and Relaxation), we went to Maracas Beach. As we were swimming in the bay, we came upon hundreds and hundreds of sand dollars about six feet below the […]