Sunday, September 21, 2025

Dear Talmadge Hill Family,   

This week, I am in Minnesota to officiate at the wedding of my stepson, Harrison Wood, and Alayna Gifford. For Beth and me, this moment feels especially meaningful given our journey together as a blended family.

Harrison and I have navigated our share of challenges over the years as we have worked to build trust and understanding. Family blending is not always smooth, and we have had our moments of struggle. Yet, through it all, I am deeply grateful for how our relationship has been forged into a stronger and more resilient bond. This journey has taught me so much about how a deeper connection can emerge from moments of struggle. It is a parallel to a congregation's interim time, reminding us that everything cannot be solved immediately and that transition takes time.

Thank you for graciously allowing me this time away, especially so soon after I began my ministry here. The wedding date was set long before I knew where I would be serving this September, and your understanding and support are invaluable to me. Beth and I are so looking forward to being with all of our five children this weekend: her three from a previous marriage and our two boys, whom we adopted together from Ethiopia.

While I am away, you are in excellent hands with our guest preacher, The Reverend Dr. Daniel Lee. Dr. Lee brings a unique perspective, being both a fourth-generation Presbyterian minister and a third-generation concert violinist. He currently teaches baroque performance practice at Yale University and has served congregations across Connecticut, Missouri, New Jersey, and New York. He beautifully explores how arts and spirituality intersect to inspire harmony in our communities, something I know will resonate with many of you.

I look forward to returning to Talmadge Hill next week and will be attending the Bible study on Thursday morning, September 25th, and co-leading worship on Sunday, September 28th.

Mooi Loop,

Dries 

Sunday, September 14, 2025

Dear Talmadge Hill Family,

The photo of Rob and me in Happenings, taken this week, holds profound significance. It symbolizes the diverse seasons of Talmadge Hill's journey, with each of us representing a unique phase, yet sharing this sacred space.

The flower arrangement you created on Sunday, which now graces my apartment, continues to fill me with awe. These are the very blooms you brought forward during communion, each of you selecting one that resonated with you and placing it in the vase. Their vibrant colors and varied textures are a testament to the beauty that emerges when we bring our differences together—a reflection of the divine among us, as I mentioned in Sunday's worship. Each bloom is exquisite in its own right, but together they form a stunning bouquet, a powerful symbol of our unity in diversity, each of us a unique and essential part of the Talmadge Hill Community.

This Sunday, in my sermon titled "Both/And: When Stories Coexist in God's Grace," we will delve into Luke 15:1-10, and this photo with Rob, me, and the flowers perfectly encapsulates our focus during this interim time on non-dualism—moving beyond either/or to embrace both/and. In interim seasons, contemplating non-dualistic thinking becomes especially important, as it helps us live into God's economy of generosity. This perspective enables us to realize that the old and the new can coexist, allowing us to live fully in the present while honoring and learning from the past and imagining a future filled with possibility. As Richard Rohr eloquently puts it, "nondual consciousness is a much more holistic knowing, where your mind, heart, soul, and senses are open and receptive to the moment just as it is, which allows you to love things in themselves and as themselves.

Join us in worship on Sunday as we discover together how God delights in bringing the separated back into wholeness—whether lost sheep, lost coins, or the beautiful integration that makes authentic community possible.

Mooi Loop,

Dries

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Dear Talmadge Hill Family,

This Sunday marks the beginning of our interim journey together, and I am deeply grateful to be serving as your Interim Pastor.

When I first encountered the Talmadge Hill Community Church’s profile a year ago, I wasn't in a position to apply for your installed pastor search. Yet something about Talmadge Hill lingered with me: how you describe yourselves as a community that creates sacred space through wholehearted engagement, courageously meeting people in those tender places we often hesitate to acknowledge.

Earlier this year, as my ministry in Saratoga Springs was drawing to a close, I was seeking a new position. When I learned that Talmadge Hill had shifted its search from an installed pastor to an interim pastor position, I felt a deep sense of possibility. Here was an opportunity to serve a community that had already resonated deeply within me and captured my imagination. Through my conversations with Lisa, Patrice, and Russ, I began to glimpse the remarkable spirit of this simple sanctuary nestled in the wooded beauty between Darien and New Canaan, where its simplicity holds such profound beauty.

What deeply moves me is witnessing a church where vulnerability becomes a wellspring of strength rather than weakness, where authenticity nurtures safety rather than judgment. You have cultivated a community that values spiritual connection over rigid doctrines, understanding that transformation flourishes when we dare to be our most authentic selves and walk alongside one another on life's sacred journey.

Your mission to "Know the Love of God and Share It" is rooted in extravagant hospitality and a willingness to embrace life's paradoxes. Here, belonging to community and serving one another and the world around us becomes a joyful response to God's love. You understand that simplicity, both physical and spiritual, cuts through life's distractions to focus on authentic relationships with God and one another.

I am looking forward to meeting you in person this Sunday. As we cultivate relationships, please know that it will take me a little while to learn all your names and make all the connections. With that in mind, please don't hesitate to introduce yourselves and even reintroduce yourselves so that I can connect with you and hear your unique stories. And if I ask your name more than once, please don't be offended!

As we begin this new chapter, it feels significant that our first Sunday together is Homecoming Sunday. In many ways, I am coming home to a spiritual family. Together, we will hold the present moment while honoring the past and embracing the future with hope and courage. I invite you to join us in worship on Sunday, whether you've been part of Talmadge Hill for years, haven't been here for some time, or are considering visiting for the very first time.

With gratitude and excitement! 

Mooi Loop,

Dries

Read more

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Praying

It doesn’t have to be

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones; just

pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try

to make them elaborate, this isn’t

a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which

another voice may speak.

Mary Oliver

First, thank you so much for this time we’ve shared. In only four months, I’ve grown to love THCC. It has truly been sacred, and I am forever appreciative of the ways I have witnessed the Divine in you. Your hospitality, generosity, kindness and faithfulness are wonderful expressions of “God-Among-Us.” Thank you particularly to Rob, Juliana and Dorothy who guided me on the day-to-day. Cheryl and Carter who have created and maintained wonderful foundations. Patrice Murphy who followed her heart and, alongside the Unified Board, brought me here. To every Bible Study participant, Book Group member, Sunday Morning attendee, and on and on. What a wild and wonderful time we’ve had!

As this part of our journey together ends, I want to ask a favor and make a promise in return.

The favor is: will you pray for me?

The promise is: I will pray for you.

I guess the best part about this request and this promise is that, like the grace and love of God, the praying will happen despite us. As Mary Oliver’s poem proclaims, “In a vacant lot or while admiring an iris.” I would add, “When I am in the midst of a fantastic Bible study or book, when I watch Little House on the Prairie, when I attend a folk or jazz concert, read a Henri Nouwen or Richard Rohr quote, or anytime I park on the side of the road with my car precariously perched at an impossible side angle….I will think of THCC and a prayer will happen.

So perhaps I’ll amend my request. Let’s all pay attention. Let’s pay attention to those accidental and inadvertent prayers. Then, let’s string together some random thoughts of gratitude.

In my experience, when I do this, the most perfect parts of our time together rise to the top and I experience God in new ways.

So, I promise to pay attention. Will you?

With gratitude,

Mark

Sunday, August 24, 2025

I am, you anxious one.
Don't you sense me, ready to break
into being at your touch?
My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.
can't you see me standing before you
cloaked in stillness?
Hasn't my longing ripened in you 
from the beginning
as a fruit ripens on a branch?
I am the dream you are dreaming.
When you want to awaken, I am that wanting:
I grow strong in the beauty you behold.
And with the silence of stars I enfold
your cities made by time.
~Ranier Maria Rilke, Book of Hours
Translated by Barrows and Macy

Every Sunday morning, we have a Call to Worship which gathers us together. This is followed by a Prayer of Invocation which invites God into the space as well.  As we know, God is already there, whether we offer invitation or not. Still, the invitation is important somehow.

Rilke expresses this beautifully. "I grow strong in the beauty you behold," reminds me that the more I surround myself with beauty and love and compassion and good things, the easier it is to "see" God. Even when my mind leaves me with doubt, still these "shadowy wings" of God surround me.  Regardless, God is there, no invitation required.

Just as the Call to Worship calls us together, the Prayer of Invocation calls to us as well.  It calls to us to lean into the reality that God is always with us. It calls us to believe that the presence of God is transformative, supportive and loving. It calls us to open ourselves to the goodness of God regardless of our mindset so that we can find our way to better thoughts and actions. Today, call upon God. Offer invitation. Then, breathe. See how this intentional "Invocations" allows you to hold space for that which is already happening: you are surrounded, enfolded and consumed by the love of God. What does that call you to do and be today?