Blog

01 Dec

There are things I like about the word religion – and things I don’t.Here’s one I don’t: religion tends to divide the sacred from the secular.In the religious sense, sacred refers to God, Jesus, the Bible, sacraments, worship, church music, religious art, and the church itself. That which is secular is everything else: nature, science, non-religious art and music, any community that is not the church, and almost everything that is understood as “work.”Sacred tends to be understood as good, even perfect. Secular is less than....

17 Oct

WCC music director Victoria Marshall sat down with Stephen Buzard, virtuoso organist and director of music at St. James Cathedral in Chicago, to talk about his path to the organ, the recital he has curated for our Pasi organ, and what he sees as the future of the organ’s role in worship. What is your first memory of the organ? Because my parents are both organists, I don't remember a time without the organ. My mom had...

25 Apr

We sometime assume that we should be able to know how to work through the challenges in our most important relationships. We might believe an excellent education and our career competencies mean that we should be able to work through relationship difficulties in our personal lives. Then we may feel embarrassed when we are successful professionally, but feel less so in some of our closest relationships.What we may not realize is that relationship success involves...

21 Apr

Settling into my new role as acting senior pastor and designated-term pastor, it occurred to me that it might be helpful to “re-introduce” myself to you, the friends and members of Winnetka Congregational Church.You know some things about me in my role as associate pastor, but you might appreciate a fuller picture of what I bring to this new role.Here we go! .bio-list li { ...

24 Feb

There’s an earworm song in the musical Moulin Rouge that, if you aren’t careful, will stick in your head for weeks on end. In it, the two main characters are singing the beginning of a flirtation (on top of a giant elephant, but that’s not the point of this story). Hoping to convince the aloof and beautiful Satine that love is worth the risk, our protagonist, penniless poet Christian, turns to the lyrics of popular...

12 Dec

Have you ever noticed how our favorite holiday songs are filled with images of peace? Silent nights. Fields of glistening snow. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, lights turned way down low, stars brightly shining - song after song, we’re met with poetry that invites us to step out of the hustle and bustle of the world around us and just… breathe. These songs strike a chord because the moments of peace they picture feel like a...

21 Nov

Some mornings - maybe most of them - we wake up already in the middle of problems to solve.Before our bare feet hit the floor in the bedroom, we’ve scrolled through a few dozen headlines and social media updates. Our eyes squint to adjust to the glow of our small screens, their blue light flooding our pre-coffee minds with the entire world’s latest news. Here, in the early hours before we begin our long to-do...

26 Oct

First held in 1902, the Winnetka Congregational Church Rummage Sale was initiated by a group of determined and inspired women who felt called to give what they had to help care for people outside the walls of the church building. The sale welcomes volunteers and shoppers from both the congregation and the surrounding community. Through the years, the church Rummage Sale has become a Winnetka tradition, raising millions of dollars to benefit numerous social service agencies in...

23 Aug

I love the way kids never shy away from hard questions.If you spend any time around children, you’ve probably been hit with a hard question or two. If you’re a parent, probably before you’ve had your morning coffee. “Mommy, how does it feel to die?” “Uncle Joe, what is a soul made of?” “Grandma, why is there war?” I can still feel the mild panic I experienced when my own kids asked me impossible questions...

19 Jul

“Love God. Love Neighbor. Two simple but difficult directives of our faith. By caring for our environment, we are doing both.”That’s Steve Huels, one of the leaders of our Green Team here at Winnetka Congregational Church. We had the chance to interview Steve this month, as well as fellow Green Team leader Jennifer Guy, about the environmental advocacy work they’re doing to care for the planet, for the neighborhoods and parks in our community, and...