Dec 15, 2019 |
Sandy Mackenzie
| Faith Stories PodcastSandy Mackenzie
Apart from attendance at a memorial service for a friend who was a parishioner of St. Columba’s some years ago, I first attended St. Columba’s in the late spring of 2018, following a difficult period earlier in the year, when I had been hospitalized for many nights. I hale from Nova Scotia, grew up in Toronto, and being brought up as an Anglican, it was natural for me to join you lot when I moved to the United States some four decades ago. I had sporadically attended a number of churches in the area before coming to St. C’s. I was undoubtedly attracted to the ritual, music and language of the church, but I must confess, had become pretty skeptical about Christianity’s basic doctrines.
Dec 01, 2019 |
Jay Treadwell
| Faith Stories PodcastJay Treadwell
Good Morning Everybody, My history of faith is brief but not so spectacular, I would think. My first memory of any church was in New York where I lived. My mother was recently divorced from my father which I didn't know at the time. I would not declare truth or fiction as to whether there truly was a Santa Claus. We were walking home from The Brick Presbytarian Church where we theoretically were members on 91st Street in Manhattan and my mother would neither confirm nor deny that this character of Santa Claus ever existed. We had the habit of going to church at Christmas and Easter ...
Oct 27, 2019 |
Sara Glenn
| Faith Stories PodcastSara Glenn
Good Morning! Shortly after I agreed to tell my faith story, well really almost immediately after I had agreed, I had a thought and maybe some of you can relate to this. I thought: Wait, did I just say yes? But here I am and I'd like to share a part of my faith story. It's the part I think about often, especially during stewardship season ...
Sep 29, 2019 |
Jessica Mullery
| Faith Stories PodcastJessica Mullery
Good morning everyone. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jessica Mullery. My husband and I have been attending St. C's for about 3 years now. I don't have a major conversion story, but as we enter Stewardship season I wanted to share an area of my life where God has turned my heart. I have always been a frugal person. I began saving for a down-payment on a home at age 9 and, this is a true story, saved all my bank statements as a child, statements with sums as high as $87.13, in case I was ever audited by the IRS. Although I have given up my boxed bank statements, my zeal for saving has continued my all life.
Aug 18, 2019 |
Chip Somodevilla
| Faith Stories PodcastChip Somodevilla
Good Morning, My family and I have been members here at St. Columba's since 2009. Like some of the others who have shared faith stories here before, I too was raised in the Episcopal Church. In the Church, I actually had several different families of different sizes. And each of these families helped inspire and instill in me a deep sense of service to others. My parents in fact chose their careers focused on serving others ...
Jul 21, 2019 |
Jennifer Turner
| Faith Stories PodcastJennifer Turner
My name is Jennifer Turner. Thank you for listening to this attempt to put something about my faith into words. One of my favorite writers and theologians, Frederick Buechner, says "Faith is better understood as a verb than as a noun, as a process than as a possession. It is on-again-off-again rather than once-and-for-all. Faith is not being sure where you are going, but going anyway. A journey without maps." I like thinking of my faith as a verb, as winding paths of present participles, loving, seeking, serving, sinning, repenting, praying, doubting ...
Jun 16, 2019 |
Marti Villarreal
| Faith Stories PodcastMarti Villarreal
Good Morning, My name is Marti Villarreal. A little background: I am a cradle Episcopalian with several lapses. I have been active in the parishes where ever I have lived: Augusta, GA, Columbia, SC and Washington, DC; St. Augusta in SW and here. Our family has been at St. Columba's since 1978, but this story begins earlier in 1963. I was 27. I came to DC from Columbia, SC in early 1963 which is ancient history for many of you; it was before the Civil Rights Act, also probably before cell phones ...
May 19, 2019 |
Steve Smith
| Faith Stories PodcastSteve Smith
This is meant to be a faith story, and I guess things don’t get a lot more personal than that. So let me start with a confession. I enjoy public speaking. But, when Jason asked me to speak here — today — about my faith — it felt a little like getting picked for jury duty. I mean, I looked forward to being in this pulpit at some point. Maybe one of the readings at Lessons & Carols? But, climbing these steps to stand before you to profess my faith was something I’d been content to avoid.
May 01, 2019 |
Alix Guerrier
| Faith Stories PodcastAlix Guerrier
Good Morning everyone. Thank you for this chance to share my Faith Story. It has been a prompt for me to ask myself questions like why Catherine and I and our two girls come to St. Columba's every Sunday? What am I looking for? I'll tell the story in two parts: the first is about where church fit into my life when I was young and the second compares that to my life today...
Mar 31, 2019 |
Grant McNavage
| Faith Stories PodcastGrant McNavage
Good Morning, My name is Grant McNavagwe and I am a junior at BCC High School. When I was first asked to present my faith story, I was puzzled. I didn't hesitate to accept, but I was pretty nervous. All the other times I have been on this podium somebody else from a few thousand years ago has already taken the liberty of writing the story. To be completely honest, I really haven't experienced that much in my life yet ...
Feb 24, 2019 |
Marjorie Swett
| Faith Stories PodcastMarjorie Swett
I have been at St. Columba’s for over 30 years now. I am a cradle Episcopalian. My father was a career military officer, and as a result we lived all over the world, including Central America, where I became keenly aware of the great gulf between rich and poor, and the wrongness of that fact. It was a formative experience, and has a lot to do with my choosing clinical social work as a profession...
Jan 27, 2019 |
Tom Bauder
| Faith Stories PodcastTom Bauder
I would like to talk to you this morning about how my volunteering at Samaritan Ministry has helped me see connections between the words I say here and my behavior beyond these walls. I have not always felt this consistency. For quite a while, I felt a disturbing disconnect between words and deeds.
Dec 16, 2018 |
Courtney Hundley
| Faith Stories PodcastCourtney Hundley
Good morning! Almost one year ago, I walked into a hospital room where a dear childhood friend lay dying of cancer. Having the opportunity to sit next to Christine’s bed, to hold her hand, talk to her and pray with she and Brooks, has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. It has been sacred moments such as this one where I have had the privilege of entering into the life of another during a vulnerable time, and where I have felt Christ sitting beside me and sharing in the pain, beauty and surrender ...
Aug 12, 2018 |
Molly Reynolds
| Faith Stories PodcastMolly Reynolds
View PDF - I like rules. I’ve liked rules for as long as I can remember, and I grew up into a person who basically thinks about rules for a living. But as a kid, being a steadfast rule-follower meant that I was constantly concerned about making mistakes. So when I was in middle school and my friend Liz invited me to a youth group activity at her church, I said 'yes,' mainly because I thought she was cool and saying 'no' seemed like it would be a big social mistake...
Jul 22, 2018 |
Carol Tyrance-Graves
| Faith Stories PodcastCarol Tyrance-Graves
View PDF - Good Morning, Saint Columba’s family.
Between the ages of 2 and 3, and later during holidays and summer vacations, I spent lots of time with my maternal grandparents in the small rural town of Ringgold, Virginia.
Being there was wonderful for me. My grandparents kept the family house and farm for my great grandfather and the rest of his children, after my great grandmother died at an early age. Monday through Friday, my great uncles and cousins worked the farm, tended to the mules, the cows, the hogs and the chickens ...
Between the ages of 2 and 3, and later during holidays and summer vacations, I spent lots of time with my maternal grandparents in the small rural town of Ringgold, Virginia.
Being there was wonderful for me. My grandparents kept the family house and farm for my great grandfather and the rest of his children, after my great grandmother died at an early age. Monday through Friday, my great uncles and cousins worked the farm, tended to the mules, the cows, the hogs and the chickens ...
Mar 04, 2018 |
Patty Jensen
| Faith Stories PodcastPatty Jensen
View PDF - Sharing my faith story reminds me of when I was an organizational development leader and we would roll out a new leadership program. For the first iteration, the strongest, most promising leaders attended. As the program became established, other leaders came – the ones struggling more with their skills or way of being. I feel a little bit like that today. The living “saints” of our wonderful parish have told their story. Now I get to try ...
Feb 04, 2018 |
Scott Pritchett
| Faith Stories PodcastScott Pritchett
When they asked me to speak of my faith story, I took a look to see what Mark Twain had to say about faith. He says, “Faith is believing in things that you just know are not true.” And I can really relate to that … a doubting Thomas, for sure. I probably became most acutely aware of the presence of God in my life when I was in law school ...
Jan 21, 2018 |
Joshua Wilson
| Faith Stories PodcastJoshua Wilson
My brother Chris died in a car accident when he was 19. He had just returned to Delaware, where we grew up, from what was supposed to be a gap year between high school and college which he spent sailing in the Caribbean and South America. He had been having the time of his life. I was 22 at the time, and on top of the world myself. I was in law school in Chicago and it was going well. I had scored a summer job at a firm downtown and was staring out the window of a high rise on LaSalle Street by the Board of Trade when my Dad called with the news. At that time, I have to say, God and matters of faith were pretty far from my mind ...
Dec 17, 2017 |
Michele Prince
| Faith Stories PodcastMichele Prince
My faith story is a love story. I grew up feeling loved and believing in a loving God, thanks in large part to my devoutly Catholic mother and paternal grandmother. I came to St. Columba’s by way of the Mothers’ Group in September 2001 with our two small boys and felt a sense of loving acceptance, as if I was home. In those early years we were under the radar, just regular Sunday members – first in the Great Hall and then in the Nave. This was the place where I wanted Will and Alex to grow up; I envisioned them in the Rite 13 program and participating in SCAP. I did’t take all this love for granted, but I had no idea how much I would need it ...
Nov 12, 2017 |
John Sides
| Faith Stories PodcastJohn Sides
When I was about 11 years old, I asked my father when was the last time he cried. So one important thing about my dad is that he is a pastor in the Moravian Church. Moravians are an old, but small, Protestant denomination that you may not have encountered if you didn't grow up in Winston Salem, NC like I did, or in and around Bethlehem, PA. As an eleven year old, I was embarrassed to cry ...