Inaugural Ball

Some local community activists decided that we should have an Inaugural Ball here in the Quad Cities to mark the swearing in of President Obama on January 20, 2009. They reserved the RiverCenter in Davenport and announced that there would be a party.

Well, they had 500 guests and they sold out! Nancy and I decided to go and agreed to sit at the Community Caring Conference table. It was wonderful all the friends and neighbors we ran into. I guess they had the same idea we did.

A reporter for the local paper came by our table and snapped a photo. It turned up in the paper on January 21st. Ametra manages Douglas Park Place in Rock Island, and T.K., her date, is the President of the NAACP in Davenport. We had a good time, and I even got to dance a few dances with Nancy.

Rev. David Stroobridge

Here is a photo of Rev. David Stroobridge taken with Ken Kuenning, Pastor Emeritus of the Church of Peace. The picture was taken last Sunday just after the insatllation service at St Peter's United Church of Christ in Kewanee, Illinois.

Public Forum

These last few days have been an exercize of a sort of civic religion. After worship on Sunday here at Church of Peace I drove to Kewanee, Illinois, for the installation of Rev. David Stroobridge as their new minister. Rev. Ken Kuenning, pastor emeritus of the Church of Peace accompanied me to this event.


Then yesterday morning I attended the 26th Annual Memorial tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Martin Luther King Center in Rock Island. The theme for this meeting was a quote from Dr. King, "We may have come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now." This was a good event with plenty of dignataries.

Last evening Nancy and I attended a prayer service at St Pius Roman Catholic Church here in Rock Island, for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It was good to sit with Tom and Carla McGreevey and Ed and Sue Johnson.

At all of these services I not only enjoyed the singing and the words spoken, but it was also important to illustrate the support of the Church of Peace for these good events that were taking place. We do support area ministers in their work, we do support the memory of Dr. King, and we do support Christian Unity. And the presence of people from our congregation illustrates this support.

Today the church staff and the staff of the Community Caring Conference decided to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama on television. We got a call from Channel 8 and they asked if we were watching and if they could come by a take some pictures and do some interviews. We said, "yes" and "yes." We will have to see if it makes the news. Our church supports taking part in public events as best we are able.

Ordination Service

Last Sunday afternoon, January 11, I drove down to Lincoln, Illinois, for the ordination service for Ted Michalson. Ted is a recent graduate of Eden Theological Seminary. After many years of second career ministers it is wonderful to have some twenty-something ordinands. Ted is also an artist. He began his seminary career at United Theological Seminary in New Brighton, Minnesota, where it looked like he could pursue both studies in art and theology. However, after a year there he decided that Eden would be a better fit.

I wish Ted well. He has accepted a call from a church in Eastern Ohio, so we probably won't see too much of him.

The preacher for the service was Rev. David Poe, who now serves a church in Misouri. It turns out that Ted did an internship with him when Ted was in seminary. David was for many years the pastor of St Peter's UCC in Kewanee, Illinois. That is very close to Rock Island, so I came to know David well and was glad to see him again.

Here is aline drawing of Ted's that was the cover of the order of service.

Ecclesiastical Council

On Sunday, December 14, I drove down to Bethlehem United Church of Christ in Sutter, Illinois for an ecclesiastical council for Chad Savage, a young man who recently graduated from Eden Seminary in St Louis. You may remember that the day was unseasonably warm, but there was a wet snow that evening. The drive down was lovely, the drive home was not.

Silly me, I had assumed that when I got to Sutter the church would be apparent. It turns out it is a free standing country church whose roots, like those of the Church of Peace, are German Evangelical.

An ecclesiastical council in the United Church of Christ is when a candidate for ministry presents a substantial paper for review by a group of ministers and representatives from churches of an Association. The paper is discussed, questions are asked of the candidate, who responds orally. At the end the candidate and his or her family are dismissed from the room and the ministers and delegates from the churches vote either “yes” or “no” for ordination. A candidate at this point has graduated from seminary and been recommended by a Church and Ministry Committee, I was there as the Chairperson of the Church and Ministry Committee to formally recommend Chad. Nevertheless, the ecclesiastical council is still an important milestone which a candidate must pass. Chad passed with 100% yes votes.

What struck me was that in his section about God, Chad commented that “the Process Theology of John Cobb was especially helpful” in forming his thinking. John Cobb taught for the vast majority of his career at the School of Theology in Claremont, California. He was the main systematic theologian when I attended Claremont. Process Theology can be a little technical. Chad did a very fine job of explaining some of the main concepts in words we could all understand.

That almost 40 years after I was first a student of John Cobb to hear his ideas discussed in this free standing country church in Illinois on a December afternoon warmed my heart. We do all knit together in the fabric of the church.


Here is a photo of theologian John B. Cobb

Roland Burris

There has been a lot of discussion about the appointment of Roland Burris as the new Junior Senator from Illinois in the media in the last several days. While I do not think highly of the appointing governor, I do have high regard for Roland Burris. Mr. Burris, when he served the State of Illinois as Attorney General was in charge of the Friends For Victims program in the state. This grew out of the perception that while the law provided many protections for the perpetrators of crime that it did not do much for victims of crime.

On at least two occasions Attorney General Roland Burris visited the Community Caring Conference (CCC) of Rock Island, Illinois, an organization housed in the Church of Peace. The CCC has had one of the local programs to aid victims of crime since the program began. Burris was here to visit the Rock Island project, deliver a grant and make a speech. I always give extra points to political figures whom I have met in person and who take the time to visit grass roots organizations like churches and community agencies.

In the 1997 photo with Mr. Burris are, (l-r) Sarah Rogers, Chris Wykof, and Pat Ward, all of the Community Caring Conference at that time.