In Him All Things Hold Together

"This book: is it fish or fowl?" he asked of her. "Scales and feathers, both," she cried. "And fur!" One of the special gifts I have received in my life was the presence and teaching, late in my seminary training, of the late Paulos mar Gregorios, a metropolitan (= archbishop) of the Syrian Orthodox Church in India, head of an Orthodox seminary there, and one of the heads of the World Council of Churches for many years. Asked, "But what about other religions?" he answered that being clear and comfortable about his own beliefs enabled him to enter into real dialogue with people of different beliefs: he could both share with them, and listen to them. He could be both respectful and open, as he was with friends of many faiths throughout the world. He also told me a story: Years ago, he was part of a World Council-sponsored dialogue between Christians and communists. As "Bishop Paul" put it, the communists had the data at their fingertips, so they seemed to walk all over the Christians. It was only over the following months and years that he gradually learned that every one of those communists had quietly embraced Christianity! Valleys, and other Big Things When ice with water downward stormed, "U" shaped valley? Glacier-formed. A "V" means river currents ground the land, still carving, diving down. Between these two big earth-events there is quite a difference. But not as much, perhaps, as thus: The "Vs."-mode, instead of "Us." Of Jesus's resurrection: The Sparkler In the deepest, saddest night, the Sparkler bursting, flinging Light; and all the world, amazed, abuzz, will ne'er again be as it was, but ever wondering at this thing: the meaning of the Sparkling.