First Presbyterian Church of Valparaiso

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”     That line made famous by Matthew Broderick as the crafty Ferris Bueller of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ; an iconic 80’s movie classic and it is one of many 80’s movies that I can still watch at the drop of a hat! That quote from the movie could not be more fitting for today. I feel like I went to bed rounding out the Advent season and waking up to Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday…

Recent headlines reported that the Federal EPA has moved to “repeal the science” behind regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The phrase is striking — “repeal the science”. Laws can be repealed. Regulations can be rewritten. But science is not a statute. It does not yield to a vote. Science is our ongoing and forever unfinished effort to describe the natural world as it is — through observation, measurement, testing, and correction. When new discoveries are made or b

Sacrament: An outward, visible sign of an inward,invisible grace. You may recognize this definition, words that describe the holy mysteries at the center of our faith. God’s love, made visible in the tangible world.   Baptism and Holy Communion are the two acts recognized as sacraments by our denomination. We experience them in the place where we expect to find them—the church—where they are communal, witnessed and shared by all who are gathered. Powerful reminders of the G

These past few weeks have been a bonanza for me since as I seem to always work in the weather in my blogs. ARCTIC COLD, HIGH WINDS, FROZEN WATER (didn’t want to use ICE), LAKE EFFECT SNOW, SUB-ZERO TEMPERATURES and more predictions of BIG STORMs coming. Scary stuff indeed. But, hey, this year is just one of the normal winters we used to have but have not seen the last two years.   Those of us who don’t escape to warmer climates have our shovels, snowblowers, mittens, scarves,