Our stories

We mostly worship in the morning these days. So in the early evening in the deep midwinter of Michigan the sun does not shine through the stained glass windows and the sanctuary looks dim. The parishioners shuffle in a column to the front where two pastors stand holding small bowls. The clergy dip a finger in water then in ash to draw a cross on each forehead, softly naming each person and murmuring, “consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” It is a so

“I am an immigrant.” As I write this statement at the beginning of 2026, in the United States of America, I wonder if this could be a dangerous statement to make. Not only am I an immigrant to the U.S., I was also an immigrant to Canada in 1954, coming as a 4-year-old with my family from the Netherlands. I guess that makes me a double  immigrant! Nonetheless it is a title that I bear proudly and with a deep understanding of what it means to leave behind one life and enter a n

Since starting my career approximately 40 years ago, I have flown over 1 million miles. Delta Airlines tracks such things… other airlines do as well. (I have a close friend that led international business of his employer for many years of his career. I believe his number approaches 3 million miles!) Mostly, these trips have been for business. Lately, as my wife and I start our next phase of life, they are for pleasure and recreation. After all those trips, many smooth and une

Dear Friends at Calvin Church, In my daily meditations for Advent, I have been focusing on Jesus being sent to be the light of the world. Though we see and hear of much darkness in our world, we know that God has given us His son to be our light. We know that darkness is the absence of light. In John 1:4,5 we read, In Him was life, and the life is the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And in John 1:9 we read, the true light

A silvery moon shines down on the earth -- the trees shudder under the weight of the mystery, as if shaken by the wind and far away a star flickers and wanes. out there, strange travelers seek you in the unknown -- -- -- but you are not found thru study of charts, of prodding into the unknown you are here, in what is known, in everything that is soft and precious; – helpless and vulnerable – you cannot be contained in books and scrolls and ink -- -- because you are here; in e

A member of Calvin Church once told me that the hour and a half he spent in church each Sunday was the most stressful hour and a half of his week. At the time, I remember being surprised and feeling a bit sad as this person was a life-long Calvin member, volunteered as an usher and had served in many different capacities through the years. As it turns out, not only do I understand what he was saying but I feel much the same way. The person I was talking to was telling me how

Pipe organ, piano, electric keyboard, handbells, and a drum set! This past Sunday those attending the 11:00 am service at 700 Ethel Ave worshipped and praised our Lord accompanied by various combinations of these instruments. Members of St. Luke A.M.E. Zion Church and Calvin Church were gathered together in what has now become an annual tradition—a combined worship service. St. Luke and Calvin first began forging a relationship over two decades ago. If I recall, the impetus