Pastor’s Corner: Ripples through the World

July 29, 2020

If you look at the lower left hand corner of the cover of the United Church of Christ’s 2020 Yearbook and Directory (you all have a copy, don’t you?), you may spot some familiar faces. The one in the center is Caroline Belsom, chair of the Hawai’i Conference Council. Visible behind and above her with his arms spread wide and an ear-to-ear grin is our own John Narruhn.

The photo comes from last year’s UCC General Synod in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from a moment when the entire Hawai’i delegation stepped to the microphone. The original photo (printed above) includes the full group, including Sue Smith, who was also a delegate to the 2019 Synod.

I have the original because, well, I was the photographer.

I took that photo on behalf of the Hawai’i Conference, which I thought might use it. As with all the other photos I took, I provided the thirty-three frames I snapped of the delegation at the microphone to the United Church News team and to the UCC’s Synod photo archive. Some months ago, the editor preparing the Yearbook for publication found those 33 pictures and selected this one to join six others on the cover.

I bring it up in part because it shows how things ripple through the world. We don’t know how our actions may surface. We can expect one thing and beyond our expectations something completely different takes place.

I’m just grateful to share John’s grin with the Church.

With aloha,

Pastor Eric