Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church Summer Podcast Series

This is the final episode of this second season of the podcast. As we look towards the end of the summer and fall, Rebecca Kirkpatrick and  Agnes  Norfleet chat together about their experience of the pandemic and what Agnes is looking forward to in this next moment for the church and the world. 

Today's podcast features a longer conversation among three members of the BMPC Anti-Racism Taskforce - Chuck Speed, Joan LaLeike and David Jones. All three of them share what initially drew them to our congregation, what it is like to be a person of color in our community, and their hopes for BMPC as we continue with our Anti-Racism work into the future. 

Today's podcast features a conversation between Rebecca Kirkpatrick and  Anita Friday, local activist, anti-racism educator and attorney. They talk together about the increased attention being given to Critical Race Theory around the country. Anita herself was just recently involved in a public debate in the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District over the move to ban the teaching of CRT in TE classrooms. 

Today's podcast features a conversation between Frank Pottorff and BMPC member Dr. Carl Reynolds. Carl is a physician and cardiologist at Penn Medicine and practices at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Carl is also a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the Perelman School of medicine at the university of Pennsylvania.  

Today's episode features a conversation with the Rev. Kirsten Fryer a pastor for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America who serves a small urban congregation in St. Paul. Minnesota. In the wake the murder of George Floyd, Kirsten's congregation was called upon to respond with grace and compassion in service to their local community and the world.  

Today's episode features a conversation between the Rev. Brian Ballard and the Rev. Leigh DeVries as they chat together about what it has meant for both of them to have spent their first two years in ministry primarily navigating the pandemic and how it has shaped the way they will forever approach pastoral ministry.

Today's episode features a conversation with The Rev. Elmarie Parker who serves as a PCUSA Mission Co-Worker in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Since 2013 Elmarie and her husband Scott have worked in partnership with the Presbyterian Church in the region as well as other ecumenical bodies supporting their work in the face of the Syrian refugee crisis and especially now in the midst of a severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon. BMPC has supported Scott and Elmarie since 2016 through Presbyterian World Mission and she shares what the support means to our partners in the region.  

Welcome to season two of the BMPC Summer podcast, a limited podcast series from Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church for this season when we cannot all be together as a church, but we can still be church together. On this first episode The Revs. Rebecca Kirkpatrick and Frank Pottorff reflect on what the significance of sacred spaces are in our lives as individuals and as a church, and what it has meant to try to recreate the feeling of being in our sanctuary together as a virtual church over the past year 

Today’s episode is the final installment in our Summer Podcast series. As we look to what Church life will be like this fall, the Revs. Rebecca Kirkpatrick and Frank Pottorff talk about how we will continue to be a virtual church together, including a church wide study of theologian Ben Myers' book on the Apostles' Creed and the creation of small connection groups for adults in the church.

In today's episode, the Rev. Rebecca Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Rachel Pedersen, BMPC Associate Pastor for Children and Family Ministry, share stories about Rachel's experience of the global church in Ghana, South Africa, China and the United Nations. Rachel talks about how these experiences shaped her pastoral identity and how her international background informs the way that we connect children in our congregation to the Body of Christ around the world.

As the church and community continue to manage new ways of being and being together, BMPC formed a Regathering Taskforce to help us determine when and how we can return to church safely. In today’s episode, The Rev. Rebecca Kirkpatrick talks with Dr. Tom Willcox, a member of the Taskforce, about the work they are doing and his own experiences as a doctor in the midst of the pandemic.

One of the hard parts of this pandemic for families all over the world has been how it interrupted schools and the ways that schools care for students and families. As we look ahead to the unknowns of the next few months we continue to wonder what school and care for families will look like this fall. In today’s episode Rebecca Kirkpatrick talks with long time BMPC member Tim Bickhart who is an elementary school principal and who was on the front line of supporting and caring for families and the community in the midst of the pandemic this Spring.

As we all continue to miss worshiping with one another here on our church campus, the Sanctuary Choir has especially missed the close community they have created over many years of singing and leading the church in worship. On today’s very special episode we joined by four members of our choir - Sandi Stouffer, Bill Adelhelm. Gretchen Steck and Linda Gamble. Together they talk about what it has been like being a virtual choir during the pandemic, share their favorite memories of concerts and tours, and share their deep love for the church and the choir community.

Practices surrounding the Sacrament of Baptism have shaped differing Christian traditions for centuries and even led to conflicts and schism among Christian believers. In today's episode, Rebecca Kirkpatrick is joined again by Dr. Joshua Yoder, as they chat about the tensions between their different faith traditions - Presbyterian and Mennonite - especially as they relate to the practices and history of baptism. They also together about what it means to live in the tensions between these traditions.

The youth of our congregation have experienced the pandemic in their own ways as schools were closed and plans cancelled for the foreseeable future. Even in the midst of these changes, they have words of wisdom and hope for our community. Today’s episode features a conversation between Rebecca Kirkpatrick, Leigh DeVries, our Associate Pastor for Youth their Families and one of our newest Youth Elders - Katherine Hattersley. Katherine has been integral in launching our new youth column on the BMPC website, where our youth members share their insights and reflections on what it means to be the church in these days. You can read those articles here: https://www.bmpc.org/ministries/youth-and-families/youth-column

What is true partnership when it comes to Mission locally and around the world - genuine collaboration, friendship and shared values? Today's episode features a conversation with the Rev. Chris Holland, the pastor of New Spirit Community Presbyterian Church in South West Philadelphia and the Common Place. Chris shares how the Common Place has responded to this unique moment to meet the needs of their surrounding community and talks about the meaning of mission partnerships.

Today's episode features a conversation with longtime BMPC member Lynn Yeakel. Lynn is the Director of Drexel University College of Medicine’s Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership and founder of the nationwide Vision 2020 Initiative, that in this 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage seeks to achieve women’s economic and social equality. You can find out more about this important work at women100.org and Vision2020Votes.org.

Will you seek to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love? This is just one of the nine questions that every Presbyterian Minister, Elder and Deacon answer when they are ordained and installed to service within the church. In today's episode, Rebecca Kirkpatrick and Frank Pottorff talk through all nine of these questions including the parts that they wrestled with in their own ordinations and how these questions shape our understanding of the church, leadership and accountability to God, the Gospel and one another.

In this episode, the Rev. Brian Ballard is joined by Patricia Danzon, BMPC member and certified spiritual director, who regularly practices at our church’s Middleton Counseling Center. Patricia shares a bit about her work as a spiritual director, her call to this form of ministry, and the ways her faith is sustaining her during the present pandemic.

Biblical scholarship has so many levels of expertise and nuance that can be both fascinating and overwhelming. In today's episode, the Rev. Rebecca Kirkpatrick has a conversation with her husband, Dr. Joshua Yoder on some of the basics of biblical scholarship as they discuss the recent article on the scandal related to the new Museum of the Bible - A Biblical Mystery at Oxford, published in the Atlantic in June 2020.

In today's episode Rebecca Kirkpatrick is joined by Edward Landin Senn our Assistant Music Director. Together about what it means for the church to be a place where children learn to love music and grow into their identity as musicians and Edward shares stories from his time as a child singing with the St. Thomas Choir School in New York City.

The pandemic has illuminated our human impact on the environment around the world as our use of energy and fossil fuels has dramatically reduced in this moment. In today's episode Rebecca Kirkpatrick has a conversation with The Rev. Rebecca Driscoll, Minister for Creation Justice with the American Baptist Church about the ways in which the church is called to be engaged in creation care.

Join Rebecca Kirkpatrick for a conversation with Mike Dahl, Executive Director of Broad Street Ministry and The Rev. Laura Colee, Pastor, at Broad Street. In their conversation together Mike and Laura share the ways the pandemic has impacted their work of Radical Hospitality in Center City Philadelphia.

In this episode, Rebecca Kirkpatrick and Director of Music Jeffrey Brillhart discuss how the choir has continued their work even as we have all been staying at home. Jeff also shares fascinating stories from his early days as a church musician and what it means to create music together as a church.

In today's episode the Rev. Brian Ballard has a conversation with our Parish Nurse, Carol Cherry, about her work and leadership in this season of our church life. Carol shares her calling to this specialized ministry as well as the ways that she has seen the church care for one another during the pandemic.

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the subsequent demonstrations and violence around the country, Rebecca Kirkpatrick has an honest conversation with Educator and Activist Anita Friday on the legacy of Racism and White Supremacy, as well as what it means to be experiencing this moment in the life of our country in the midst of a pandemic.

In this second episode of our BMPC Summer Podcast the Rev. Rebecca Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Dr. Agnes W. Norfleet talk together about being a virtual church in this moment and especially how it has influenced the way that we preach.

In this premier episode of our Summer Podcast, the Rev. Rebecca Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Franklyn Pottorff share some of their favorite finds in the BMPC archives giving us a window into all of the things that have changed and some of the things that our still the same for this 147 year old congregation.