From Don's Desk

So many people worked so hard and did so many things to help make our Holy Week services happen, I can’t possibly say enough Thank You’s and I would certainly leave out some, so let me say “Thank you very much” to all who helped (we couldn’t have done it without you!) and a special word of appreciation to our wonderful Altar Guild and to our incredibly helpful Deacon, Gay. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! St. Paul’s embodies some of what I give thanks for in the item that follows.

FOR THESE I GIVE THANKS

    One of the miracles of grace for which I give thanks is the somewhat surprising (at least to me) fact that almost 68 years after my baptism I am still an active, practicing, worshiping member of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, and I have been so pretty much continuously through the years.
    Fairly frequently, if not often enough, I give thanks for the congregations, pastors and worshiping communities that have nurtured and nourished me in faith and in faithfulness, to wit:

    For St. Paul's in South Buffalo, NY, [now of blessed memory] and its pastor, (my Grandpa) Albert Dallmann, whom I did not know, but whose faith stamped an indelible imprint on me through his offspring in the Dallmann clan, most particularly, my father;
    For (Calvary?) in Silver Spring, Maryland, where I was baptized, and for Pastor Edwin Pieplow, who baptized me;
    For old downtown First Trinity in Buffalo [long since relocated to Tonawanda], my mother's home congregation, in which I was raised and which helped her pass her faith on to me, and for Pastors Frederick Ruhland and John E. Meyer;
    For Bethany in Buffalo [now of blessed memory], the congregation in which I was confirmed, and for Pastor Bertwin Frey;
    For worship experiences at Camp Pioneer on Sunday evenings and at Confirmation Camp; for these I give thanks.

    For the worshiping community at Concordia Collegiate Institute in Bronxville, NY, and for the pastoral presence of Professor Emil Luecke;
    For the Village Lutheran Church in Bronxville, and for Pastor Howard Halter;
    For the worshiping community at Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, IN, and for Professor Paul Harms, whose preaching made a powerful impression on me;
    For Bethlehem in Fort Wayne;
    For the worshiping community at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO, and for Dr. Richard Caemmerer, Dean of the Chapel, and several excellent faculty preachers;
    For The Village Church in Ladue, MO, and for Pastor Paul Boecler;
    For Immanuel in Riverside, CA, where I did my internship, and for Pastor William Graumann; for these I give thanks.

    For Mount Olive, Miami, OK and St. Paul's, Fairland, OK, a “dual parish,” my first call;
    For Prince of Peace, Tulsa, OK, which I served for 25 years;
    For Die Evangelische Stadtkirche Sankt Andreas, Selb, Bavaria, Germany, where I wasan exchange pastor for a year;
    For congregations served as Interim Pastor: Shepherd of the Hills, Broken Arrow [now of blessed memory]; Immanuel, Cushing; Our Savior, Bartlesville, (all OK), Prince of Peace, Northridge, CA;
    For Bethel, Encino, CA (10 years);
    And last but not least, for St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Cambria, CA; for these I give thanks.

    And for a Quaker meeting in Buffalo, and a Baptist worship Service in Erie, PA; for worshiping on a locked unit in a mental hospital in St. Louis, MO; and with a deaf congregation in Joplin, MO; and at the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche in Berlin, Germany; and for many worship experiences in the Black community in Tulsa, OK; and for Country Gospel worship experiences; and Christian Rock worship experiences; for these I give thanks.
    And for a Church that is wondrously bigger and wider and deeper and richer and more diverse that I can even begin to imagine, for this I give thanks.

            Pastor Don

Note:  I am meeting with a group of Central Coast clergy that is working for a single payer universal health care system in California. As me about it, if you wish.