James Derkits

There was some mystery, for a time, to a vine that crept up from the greenery near the church; it was hardly noticeable at first. It grew from some compost that was used to pot baby palm trees. It looked like a squash vine to me, so I was expecting a yellow squash or zucchini. Then it grew more and I thought it might be an acorn squash. Then one night (maybe at midnight) it turned into a pumpkin! October seems like it's a long way off, here on the island, yet, a little seed grew up and looks about ready for Halloween. It's bright orange and looks out of place. It makes me smile every time I walk past it. On Sunday, we continued to read through Acts...slowly...deliberately. We used a prayerful way of reading that invites the Holy Spirit to speak through the reading. We were reading the story of Paul and Silas in prison when the earthquake opens the doors and unbinds their fetters. The jailer panics, but discovers that all the prisoners are still there. The jailer ends up get...

May 8 is my baptism day. I was baptized four months after I was born and I remember the experience. I don't have a firsthand memory of it, but I remember it through stories from my parents, sisters, and godparents, and I remember it because I have participated in enough baptisms that I have a sense of what my own baptism was like. The language different from the Baptismal language I know. In 1977 we used an earlier version of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. At my baptism, the minister prayed as followeth: "Almighty and immortal God, the aid of all who need, the helper of all who flee to thee for succour, the life of those who believe, and the resurrection of the dead; We call upon thee for this child, that he coming to thy holy Baptism, may receive remission of sin, by spiritual regeneration..." My baptism was described as a "mystical washing." The language changes, but the practice is the same. In the Didache, a much older prayer book from the first-...