In Memory of:

Being in ministry is never an easy task. We make friends in a local church and then have to bury some of them. I know this is not something unique to clergy but it seems to come in cycles. I had a funeral last week, another tomorrow and another Saturday.

I did a lot of funerals over the Christmas holiday but they weren't for people I knew. Mostly is was for people who had no church home, sad in its own way, because we didn't do something right to pull them into the life of the church or sad because they rejected the grace offered to them.

I know that I'm going to miss the woman I'm doing the funeral for tomorrow. She was almost 92 and hardly anyone knew it. She was so very active. She learned to play the viola at 85 and she learned how to paint last year--hummingbirds. She started a handbell choir at the church last year, tutored at a local elementary school and was a fierce bridge player. I hear that she couldn't cook that well, however. My kind of woman.