Click here to enjoy a blog post by Ellen Schroeder , originally published on the Presbytery of Giddings Lovejoy’s website. It describes Ellen's experience of Forest Park as a sacred place.

Tim Woodcock writes: Last week I started to make some notes for a blog post about the gorgeous vacant church at the corner at Kingshighway and Washington, which I have long admired and been puzzled by. I was intrigued by the recent addition of a sign outside the Second Baptist church that says a national Gospel Hall of Fame is “coming soon.” But early on Tuesday morning, a fire swept through part of the building, leaving the future of the building plan in doubt – or at least making any future renovation even more complicated and expensive. Second Baptist is not just any old disused church building. It’s an entire complex that fills up a city block in one of the most desirable parts of the city; it includes gardens and cloisters that connect the various buildings. As a piece of architecture, it would not look out of place on an Italian hillside. It is a building beautiful enough to stop a passerby in his tracks, as was the case for me on a recent Sunday, when I was biking home from c...

Vickie Robinson writes: It’s funny how news can change our lives in an instant. There is always joy, sadness, and uncertainty in the news. The news of my coworker’s new role at a new congregation in Colorado brought to mind feelings of joy and sadness. The more I wrestled with my feeling of sadness, the more I remembered all the times this coworker took me under his wings during my times of stress in my new position as an office administrator that I did not think would ever improve. He always let me know that the achievement of working on the weekly church bulletins would get easier with time and that if I didn’t understand something, it wasn’t the end of the world, and he was always there for me. My once sad news has now turned into news of joy because I now realize what an honor and blessing it has been for me to work alongside such a phenomenal and talented colleague and friend as Andrew Peters. Andy, thank you so much for being there for me even when it s...