Climbing Trees

Our brilliant mind this week is Rabbi Jack Moline. Though his journey to Alexandria runs through Chicago, Los Angeles, Jerusalem, and New York City, Jack shares how the great privilege of serving a single community for a long time allowed him to become deeply involved in the lives of his flock: the happy moments, the challenging moments, and everything in between. He shares how it's the people that have been willing to engage in dialogue--people never heard of, from all walks of faith or none at all, those with whom he disagreed--who have most influenced and deepened his commitment to interfaith conversation.

Now retired, Jack Moline served as the Rabbi of Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria for thirty years and is the former president of the Interfaith Alliance. He and Westminster Pastor Larry Hayward have led several Interfaith Trips to Israel together.

Our brilliant mind this week is pastor (and fellow podcaster!) Rev. Dr. Charlene Han Powell. She and Jacob talk about their formative days together at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian in NYC, the joys and challenges of going back to school (again), and the contrasts between congregations and ministry in New York, California, and Virginia. Charlene shares how her great-grandfather's experience as one of the first ordained Presbyterian ministers in Korea inspires her to embrace riskiness in ministry, and how Barbara Brown Taylor showed her how to strive for a ministry that can focus on one person at a time.

Rev. Han Powell is the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, CA and the co-host of the podcast This Is Crucial.

Our brilliant mind this week is pastor and author, the Rev. Dr. Stacy Smith. Stacy shares how, growing up in the Presbyterian church in Dallas, the encouragement of an adult to be the "loud, bossy show-off that I was just naturally" gave her the confidence to use her her skills in service to others. She and Jacob chat about their days at Union Seminary and discuss the challenges of identity that can accompany parish ministry. Stacy shares how her work outside the church-- from her first job out of college at the InterFaith Conference in DC to her work in healthcare advocacy--has actually been a benefit to her ministry and to her comfort in being herself.

Rev. Smith is currently the Temporary Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Auburn, New York and is the author, with Rev. Ashley-Anne Masters, of Bless Her Heart: Life as a Young Clergy Woman.

Our brilliant mind this week is the Rev. Dr. John Barclay Burns, Presbyterian pastor and professor at George Mason University. Filled with anecdotes, Dr. Burns shares with us about the church being the center of his family's social life growing up in Glasgow and how his parents and grandparents instilled a sense of duty and responsibility toward the church; how his professors and ministers in Scotland championed an "intellectual ministry" that influenced his approach to being a pastor and a professor in Scotland, Canada, and the United States; and his gratitude for congregants that have showed him infinite kindness.

Dr. Burns also previews his October Adult Formation series on "How Jesus Became Christ." More information about the Sunday morning Adult Formation classes can be found at wpc-alex.org/adult.

Our brilliant mind this week is Ranger Chaney Dale, Acting Park Manager at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park in Church Creek, MD. He shares how he followed in his brother's footsteps to begin working for the Maryland Park Service as a 17-year-old, and how other mentors in the Park Service encouraged him in his career. He also previews his September 24 Adult Formation class on Harriet Tubman and her importance to the Underground Railroad movement. More information about the Sunday morning Adult Formation classes can be found at wpc-alex.org/adult.

Our brilliant mind today is Westminster member and author Melynda Wilcox. She shares how a teacher helped her find her love of writing; how Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns fueled her passion for exploring our history more deeply; and how seeing a certain independent career woman on television as a child shaped her professional life.

Melynda is the author of Faith and Race: One Church’s Response to the Civil Rights Movement, which chronicles Westminster's history related to race and is available in print or as a free audiobook at wpc-alex.org/faith-and-race. More information about the Sunday morning Adult Formation classes can be found at wpc-alex.org/adult.

Climbing Trees - the podcast where we explore the brilliant minds that have inspired brilliant minds. Hosted by the Reverend Jacob Bolton, Associate Pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Virginia.