SERMON SNAPSHOT

Twenty years ago I spent most of a summer at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem. Tantur is a Roman Catholic study enter that welcomes Christians from all over the world. In our group of 36 we had equal numbers of Catholics and Protestants from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and North America. As we gathered on the first morning, Father Thomas Stransky, the rector, said, “We all of us come from flawed ministries.”
In my years growing up in the largely Roman Catholic city of San Francisco, I remember Reformation Sunday as an occasion to bash the pope and everything papist. Having made my career in the church, when reading news accounts of problems and scandals in various branches of the Christian community including our own denomination, I’ve often reflected on Father Tom’s wisdom. When all is said and done, there’s far more that unites us with rather than divides us from our sisters and brothers in other communions.
Because we are all part of flawed ministries, the church is always in need of reforming. An appropriate starting point is a reminder of how simple is God’s message of salvation in the scriptures.

With grace & peace,
Deane

Deane Kemper is an honorably retired member of Charleston Atlantic Presbytery for 15 years, having served as interim minister at Peace Church in Goose Creek and Harbor View Church on James Island and Dorchester Presbyterian Church in Summerville. Prior to his service here he was a faculty member at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston and senior minister at Lakeside Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, an adjunct professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo. Dean was Stated Clerk of Presbytery for five years and lives on Daniel Island.

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