Category Archives: Uncategorized

November 22, 2017 – President John F. Kennedy would have been 100 last May 29.. For those who lived through his presidency, it is singularly impossible to imagine the smiling young chief as an old man. He is frozen in … Continue reading →

The Americans, the FX series about a Soviet spy couple posing as American travel agents in Reagan-era Washington, has reignited a lightning storm of ecumenical history that had all but calmed. This week’s episode is blatantly titled “The World Council … Continue reading →

War is contrary to the will of God. – World Council of Churches, 1948 When I was a professional ecumenist, I lived in a rarified milieu in which Memorial Day – so beloved on Main Streets all over the USA … Continue reading →

All War is Sin. The Church of the Brethren did not equivocate in 1970 when it characterized the nature of war. This generation has seen enough of war to sense the truth of the declaration. Big wars and little wars … Continue reading →

By Philip E. Jenks Actually, there’s no one around who remembers the Great War. It has been a hundred years since the United States joined the cataclysm in April 1917, and that generation is long gone. The anniversary is historically … Continue reading →

I was a very young and very low-ranking airman when I first arrived at RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, in January 1965.  The convenient thing about the Air Force was that you always knew who was more distinguished than you: … Continue reading →

By Philip E. Jenks January 20, 2017 – Like most of us, I have a lot of friends who voted for the new President. I don’t know why they did and, when I ask them, they tell me to give … Continue reading →

January 12, 2020 – On 12 January 1968, I climbed aboard a chartered Boeing 707 and flew from Royal Air Force Station Lakenheath, England to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. In each of the 49 years since then, … Continue reading →

Updated January 19, 2021 By Philip E. Jenks Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been 92 this week. It is entirely appropriate that we have engraved his image on postage stamps and carved larger-than-life stone monuments to his memory. But … Continue reading →

By Philip E. Jenks My old editor always put it best. That’s because Walt Herring was a short-fused misanthrope with a nose for news and a talent for writing tabloid headlines. In other words, a natural-born editor. Walt is gone … Continue reading →