I am coming up on several anniversaries in a couple of weeks that have special meaning for me. Anniversaries, of course, are those dates that we or society set aside to commemorate a significant event, whether joyous or tragic. Usually we pause, take a breath, and ponder a bit.

The venerable old Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) has fallen on some hard times. Of the nearly 30 U. S. denominations that bear the name “Episcopal” or “Anglican,” ECUSA is the oldest and largest of them all.

Richard Jewell was honored by the governor of Georgia last week. It’s been 10 full years since that terrible day in Atlanta when a bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympic Games.

Way back when I started first grade — these were the days before parents packed their kids off to day care, preschool, pre-kindergarten, or kindergarten — I recall needing a 3-ring binder, a few pencils, and notebook paper. We didn’t even need a pencil holder for the notebook, but my mom made sure I had one anyway. That was it.

If the devastation of a major city, the massive loss of life, and the unimaginable heartache and misery brought about by Hurricane Katrina were not enough, it appears that medical personnel at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans may have murdered as many as four patients in the days following the catastrophe.

One Friday night, during a wedding rehearsal, the couple and I were examining the vows they would make on the following day.

In June, I attended and delivered the invocation for the graduation exercises for police cadets at the Fulton County Public Safety Training Center in College Park, Georgia.

At one time in our nation’s history, there was a great deal of denominational loyalty. If a person was born a Methodist or a Baptist, he or she tended to stay a Methodist or a Baptist and so did the children. That day is no more.

When my youngest son, James, enlisted for a six-year hitch in the United States Air Force on his 18th birthday, he received a “Certificate of Enlistment.” Some days later, his recruiter called to talk to him and, after a few minutes, James called out, “Hey, Dad! My recruiter wants to know what you thought about my Certificate of Enlistment.”

Recently, I wrote an article about the sacred vows that many ministers make at their ordination to the ministry or to the priesthood. I remarked that, all too often, those vows get broken.

When I was ordained into the priesthood, I was required to make certain vows. I had to declare that “I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God,” and I vowed that I would “solemnly engage to conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship” of my denomination.

A pack of young thugs, armed with a shotgun and a pistol, picked on the wrong victim recently in Atlanta.

Thomas Autry, 36, was walking home after completing his shift as a waiter. According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Autry had left his job at the Jocks & Jills restaurant in Midtown and was walking along Penn Avenue when a blue Cadillac pulled alongside and three men and a woman, one armed with a shotgun, and the woman jumped from the car.

English was not my best subject in high school. Neither was anything else, actually, unless you count Physical Education.

It was about 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning recently when I stopped at a local convenience store to purchase a bottle of water. I approached the counter to pay for the item when the clerk, a young black man, seeing my clerical collar, asked me if I was a minister. When I responded that I was, he asked several questions about our church. Most of the queries were routine but the last one stopped me cold.

Several years ago I revisited Parris Island, South Carolina. I first arrived at that dreadful place on Friday the 13th of February, 1970, as a just-turned 19-year-old.

There they were, this little bunch of raucous church members, carrying signs that proclaimed “hate” and preaching judgment at the funeral of a soldier killed in the war in Iraq.

It’s not often I find myself on the side of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), but today is one of those days.

From time to time, some people will suggest that all the world’s religions are of equal value and accomplish the same end. “All roads lead to God,” these folks say. “Whatever name you call him (or her), it’s still the same God,” others proclaim.

It’s late Sunday evening and I just received a phone call from my son James who is with his wife at Lovelace Women’s Health Center in Albuquerque.

It’s not often that we get to be in the presence of heroes, but that is just what I get to do today.

A few of definitions of “hero” are, “an illustrious warrior; a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities; one that shows great courage.”

Those who say that democracy is dead need only to look to Coweta County, Ga., to see that active citizen participation and a responsive governing body can still work well together.

It has become trendy in church circles to gear at least a portion of a church’s ministry and outreach to popular films. The best known film that caused churches to salivate was, perhaps, Mel Gibson’s, “The Passion of the Christ.”

Attention, high school seniors! I know that this column is going to sound like an advertisement, but I think if one comes across a good deal that might help a great many people, one should share. Don’t you? So, here’s the pitch:

Arriving early for a breakfast appointment, I was sitting outside a restaurant recently reading a newspaper as I waited for my friend. A white-haired gentleman approached me and said, “I know you. You’re the fellow that writes the columns in the newspaper.”

Did you know that a serious attempt to impose a tax on non-profits, churches, and religious schools is underway in Coweta County?

What do these people have in common: Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, A. Phillip Randolph, Jackie Robinson, and Sen. Edward Brooke, III?

There are two radically contrasting views of ministry. One is articulated by the Apostle Paul: "I want it made clear that I've never gotten anything out of this for myself ... You don't even have to pay my expenses!”

The University of West Georgia in Carrollton has, after a ten-month study, changed the school mascot from the Braves to the Wolves. I like the idea of a wolf as a mascot. Wolves are large, powerful, dangerous, aggressive, carnivorous creatures that hunt in packs and seem to fear very little. That’s the kind of mascot you want for the sports teams—one that conveys power, danger, and strength. It’s the reason the mascot was changed that I take issue with.

The Peachtree City Police Department announced last week that officers had arrested a man in his 40s for allegedly, among other charges, attempting to meet a girl he believed to be 13 years old, for immoral purposes. It was the 14th such arrest by the department in 18 months.

Please allow me the privilege of bragging for a few moments. I know that it is often considered unseemly and crass to brag but I’m going to do it anyway. I’m not bragging about myself or my church or members of my immediate family this time, but I am going to express my extreme pride in a 19-year-old young man that I have known for well over 10 years.