Sunday, March 3, 2024

Translation from Blog of Pastor Miriam Groß


One of my joys is having good friends from all walks of life and all over the world. Miriam is a pastoral colleague and has amazing insights into all facets of life. She asked me a few years back to run a translation (by Google) for those who do not speak German but who have an interest in her activity.

 About places of longing and concerns about the church's present and future

ON MARCH 3, 2024 BY GERMAN PASTOR IN GENERAL

“Where does your longing live?”


I looked speechless at the small card that had been handed to me at the beginning of the service at the Evangelical Reformed Church in Erlangen, complete with hymn books and service sheet. The mountains depicted, surrounded by a blue sky punctuated by blobs of clouds, invited people to pause for thought thanks to the swing placed almost in the middle.



I took a breath and sat down with my family instead of on a swing in the last row of chairs in the community hall, which had not yet been occupied. Longing for the old Reformed homeland in distant Scotland had lured me to this community for the second time. But the fact that the service would now take up this topic surprised me greatly.


“Where does your longing live?”


the Schwabach pastor Dr. Guy M. Clicqué asked those attending the service in his sermon. I would have liked to tell you about my spiritual and community place of longing. My heart silently screamed Orkney again and again, but as a visitor I kept this to myself, instead listening to the preacher's words and letting myself drift in the familiarity of the Reformed service.


When a call came from the place I longed for in Orkney in the afternoon, I was astonished. But the news from my old Scottish parish was anything but rosy: when I started there in 2007, there were still six entire parishes on this northern Scottish archipelago. Now there should only be one parish and one parish for the archipelago, because the Church of Scotland is in free fall. Hundreds of churches will have to close in the next few years and thus pastoral and community positions will be cut (Link: BBC). The proud former Scottish national church, in which I was allowed to work thanks to my Lutheran and Scottish Reformed exams and whose decline was only very vaguely looming on the horizon as a timid dawn, will soon exist as a small religious minority.


What happened there in less than twenty years was not foreseen and was ultimately accelerated by the Corona years - and slowly it seems to be becoming more conscious in my own Lutheran church in Bavaria. I have been watching with stomachache for a long time the worrying development in membership numbers, which is now being accelerated by the inadequate processing of cases of abuse in addition to the after-effects of the pandemic. Yes, I'm worried. Worries about my longed-for place, Orkney, but also about my Bavarian home church.


How can we credibly convince others of an open and welcoming church? Perhaps the key to this is that communities and church groups are a place of longing where faith and heaven meet people who seek closeness to God.


I thoughtfully turned over the card, on the back of which the front image had only been discreetly printed, thereby creating space for noting my own place of longing. Many other places came to mind besides Orkney - two special home groups, several communities that had been a home to me all over the world, but also very "worldly" places like Carnegie Hall or the café of my childhood and youth, and so many more.

Where does your longing live?”, dear reader. A little inspiration for this can be the song “There lives a longing deep within us”, which the English composer Anne Quigley wrote in 1973 and which we of course sang in the service. I look forward to hearing from you either via email or through this survey.

In my family  in peace  with my friends in my community  in church   in sports 

in a place from my childhood or youth  in a place special to me  in my heart

https://youtu.be/17H-Gb0hdv0






Saturday, February 3, 2024

Working Through "The Kingdom" by Emmanuel Carrére

 


     A journalist on Instagram to whom I might be distantly related mentioned this book. Since I was not reviewing anything at the time, and was working through my Christmas present books, I got a Kindle copy of this. What intrigued me was the Paul-Luke connection and how that played into the creation of the New Testament.

    There will be more on this later because I am not quite halfway through the book. The first part was tedious,l as the author details his previous intense Catholicism and involvement with yoga, and then repeats it all.

     The idea that Luke was a Macedonian whom Paul met in Troas is plausible, and so far there is a lot of conjecture about how Paul looked, and so on. I understand from the Guardian review that I will take issue with some things to come, but I will post later. Let me say that I would not ban this or any other book, and there are worthwhile parts, especially if one speed reads the first 25% or so.


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https://www.amazon.com/stores/Arthur-Turfa/author/B00YJ9LNOA?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

poetry books


https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county

novel

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Short story collection coming out soon! Stay tuned!








 

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Praise for from Recently-published Poems from a Poet I Admire

      No, the poet will remain anonymous. That is all I will say. At times it is lonely being a writer, especially a poet. Oh, there are poets out there, and some manage to be in the spotlight however small it may be.

     But for someone to truly get what you are saying, and how you say it...that is special!

     I also received some encouragement and guidance for a future step poetically. And I was asked about something as well.

     Moments like these keep me going.

     Here is a link to those poems. You can scroll left or right to some others of mine. Thanks for stoipping by.

 https://theravensperch.com/the-nail-maker-by-arthur-turfa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-nail-maker-by-arthur-turfa

My poetry books:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Arthur-Turfa/author/B00YJ9LNOA?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true


My novel:








https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county#:~:text=About%20the%20Book&text=The%20business%20inherited%20by%20the,roles%20in%20this%20changed%20community.


Monday, December 18, 2023

5-Star Review on Goodreads for "The Botleys of Beaumont County"

 The Botleys of Beaumont County is a dramatic, literary novel with one foot in the past and another in the future, seeped in the rich tradition of Southern fiction. Turfa weaves a rich tapestry of characters from a once-prominent family forced to face the future, themselves, and the possibility that change will open doors instead of closing them. A remarkable novel, highly recommended.

Goodreads review from Author Martin Ott

Many thanks!

Get your copy!

https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county



Translation from Blog of Pastor Miriam Groß

One of my joys is having good friends from all walks of life and all over the world. Miriam is a pastoral colleague and has amazing insights...