Faith Archive

I am from Canada where, as I say far too often to my wife, we speak the Queen’s good English. The first time she met my family, she was slightly intimidated by their precise diction and greatly amused by their accents and “quaint” vocabulary.

It’s 9 a.m. on a Tuesday and the doors of Waterfront Thrift Store in Gulf Breeze are open for business. George and Sylvia Fleetwood of Navarre tuck their car into a parking spot as other locals arrive to shop for bargains while helping a worthy cause.

But the Fleetwoods are not there to shop; they have come to serve as volunteers.

The second annual “Grace’s Place Family Dinner” was held outdoors the afternoon of Nov. 1 on the grounds of Covenant Community Church in Navarre.

A crowd of about 50 attended, with several participating in the featured event, a chili and soup cookoff. The winners were Wendy Justice for the best soup and Alex Ramirez for the best chili, each of whom took home a large gift basket.

There is a dog food commercial that makes me laugh. It begins with slow-motion footage of a sleek wolf bounding through the woods. The wolf leaps effortlessly over a log but then mid-leap, is transformed into a golden retriever that nails the landing and bounds off.

A voiceover explains that inside every dog there is the spirit of a wolf, so buy this company’s dog food. What makes me laugh is that, nearby, our “wolf,” a 15-year-old, 20-pound snaggle of fur, is laying on the floor snoring loudly and sporting a “male wrap,” which is kind of a doggie diaper.

Do you have friends on social media who forward “fun” online surveys to their entire friend list? The surveys ask things like, “List the states you have visited” or “Which of the following have you done: Skydive? Gotten a tattoo? Rode a motorcycle?”

“Good evening, and welcome to Community Life Church and to PRC’s annual fundraising banquet,” Becky Pala, PRC Board Secretary and event host greeted those who gathered last month.

The Pregnancy Resource Center of Navarre (PRCN) held its annual fundraising banquet Oct. 20 with a unique twist; there was no banquet. This year’s fundraiser was conducted without a banquet as a virtual event out of concern for the spread of the coronavirus.

St. Augustine Church’s community takes care of its faith community.

“We are all about outreach,” said St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church’s Senior Warden, Terri Rothe through a floral face mask. This claim is borne out in the number of community outreaches in which this relatively small congregation is engaged, and they are challenging others to step up and join with them.

I am basically inept when it comes to home repairs. Admitting it has kept me out of the emergency room and has, on occasion, paid some tradesman’s mortgage.

One time, I tried to change out an exhaust fan in a bathroom. An easy job, right? I was glad that I had read the instructions because I learned to shut off the circuit breaker to avoid electrocution.

“I don’t know why you guys come here,” a prison inmate told the visitor. His was not an expression of complaint but one of amazement. What would compel a group of men to give of their time every month to visit inmates in a prison facility? You might say, “it was time.”

When I was still a rookie in ministry, every year as Easter approached, I found myself intrigued by a local United Methodist Church’s newspaper ad for their Maundy Thursday service. “What is Maundy Thursday?” I would mutter to myself. The name sounded odd to me and, for no reason at all, strangely sad. Each year, I purposed to investigate, but never did. Fast forward nearly three decades and I’m finally getting around to it. I recently sat down with two ministry friends, pastors of local United Methodist churches, to ask the question, “What is Maundy Thursday?”