Pastor Zip's Blog

For the first time in many years, I was not able to read the President's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation at a Thanksgiving Day (or Eve) Eucharist. Here it is, nonetheless. spt PROCLAMATION ON THA...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2020/11/thanksgiving-day-2020.html

It's been an, uh, interesting Birth Week thanks to this coronavirus. At Tuesday evening's Council meeting while eating ice cream and other treats for the Pastor's 61st birthday, after having alre...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2020/03/when-you-cant-come-to-church.html

A Prayer for Steadfastness in Affliction from the Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church, 1917 -- Almighty and most Merciful God, Who hast appointed us to endure sufferings and death with ...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-prayer-for-steadfastness-in.html

A Prayer in Time of National Distress from the Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church, 1917 -- O Lord God, Heavenly Father: We humbly confess unto Thee that by our evil doings and continua...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-prayer-in-time-of-national-distress.html

A Prayer in Time of Great Sickness from the Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church, 1917 -- Almighty and most Merciful God, our Heavenly Father: We, Thine erring children, humbly confess u...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-prayer-in-time-of-great-sickness-1917.html

It was 27 years ago today I received "the power and authority to administer the meal, publicly before the altar from the other pastors with prayer and the laying on of hands," as Dr. Martin Luthe...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/09/27-years-ago-today.html

Written 243 years ago, the Declaration of Independence is more than stirring words. As the Bill of Rights Institute notes, > The declaration contained 3 sections: a general statement...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/07/why-united-states-of-america.html

BEHOLD, THE LIFE-GIVING CROSS ON WHICH WAS HUNG THE SALVATION OF THE WHOLE WORLD. Oh, come, let us worship him. Resurrection Lutheran Church Godfrey, Illinois, USA

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/04/behold-cross.html

From today's Gospel reading, the Passion according to St. John : > Then Jesus, knowing all that was to befall him, came forward and > said to them, “Whom do you seek?” Th...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/04/i-am.html

My March 4-5 went something like this: 1) I got the keys for the townhome I'm renting in Godfrey. My place is, by looking towards the back door, the left-most of the units of the four-plex. I ...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-big-day_6.html

With boxes and boxes of books and the rest of my possessions to move, I'll need a hand cart to carry them to-and-fro. So off to Sears (we still have one in Peoria) I went to get a good one. Whil...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/03/thank-you-for-shopping-at-sears.html

So yesterday I step out of my hotel room to check out (attired as in this photo) and the maid is cleaning the room across the hall. “Yes, I’m checking out now,” I reply to her greeting....

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/02/checking-out-checking-in.html

Yes, I posted the news on Facebook a week ago Sunday, so lots of folks have heard the news. But the official notice didn't arrive in the mail until this morning: Resurrection Lutheran Church i...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/02/its-official-my-second-call.html

The clock in the Lower Parish Hall says 8:25 pm. Everyone has finally gone home. On the table there are the worship furnishings and sacramental vessels that were carried out of the church in p...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/01/its-done.html

Zion's final Holy Communion is tomorrow, January 27th. It begins at 2 pm, and all are invited to join with us. (We chose that time of day so pastors and members of other congregations could cel...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-end-of-era.html

Facebook group, responding to this photo of the original editions of Richard E. Beverage 's books on the Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League . spt+] The Star...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2019/01/when-i-was-scholar.html

                                        December 21, 2018                                         St. Thomas, Apostle Dear members of Zion , family, ...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-letter-about-zion.html

It was 17 years ago today that Sebastian joined Pastor Zip's household. So I drove him to the Peoria Riverfront to see, behind the Museum , Seward Johnson II 's 31-foot-tall painted bronze Abra...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2018/12/17-years-today.html

Last month Sears declared bankruptcy . Today's news is that the company hopes to sell most of its profitable stores, perhaps to its biggest shareholder, to keep the business alive. We'll see ho...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2018/11/thank-you-for-shopping-at-sears.html

Pastor Zip sneaking into a polling place? Yes, I voted. I have yet to miss an election since I was eligible to vote. The includes one primary election years ago when I lived in Van Nuys wher...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2018/11/among-my-civic-duties.html

Yesterday, a Monday, was the Columbus Day holiday. The Post Office was closed. Columbus Day used to fall on October 12, recalling the day in 1492 when Christopher Columbus "discovered" the New W...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2018/10/its-leif-erickson-day.html

My favorite evening hymn is "The Day You Gave Us, Lord, Has Ended " (LBW #274) partly because the fourth stanza always makes me smile: > The sun, here having set, is waking >  Your chi...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2018/08/smiling-at-vespers.html

Here is the video just shown during the Central/Southern Illinois Synod Assembly , which reviews the year 2017 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America . I must say, of all the videos the E...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2018/06/elca-2017-in-review.html

And so Sunday night at Zion showed up the Community Service Officer and his wife, and three pastors who had been at the clergy-police meeting. I know others prayed, too, in their places, includi...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2018/05/night-prayer-continues.html

And so the Interim Chief of the Peoria Police Department invited the pastors of all the churches on the South Side of Peoria to meet Friday noon, in the hopes that we could work together in some ...

http://pastorzip.blogspot.com/2018/04/night-prayer-for-city.html