Elsa Anders Cook

  • Words to Speak to the Unknown

    I am as uncertain what tomorrow holds as anyone. I’ve done my part. I’ve cast my ballot and now I can only pray that I live in a land that chooses love over hate. I pray so much and fumble… Continue reading

    Words to Speak to the Unknown
  • Twinkly Lights in Blue Pandemic Days

    Several years ago, I created a devotional for the grieving and brokenhearted. I called it Twinkly Lights in Blue Days. It’s sat there in my kitchen for anyone that might have wanted it or needed in the years that followed.… Continue reading

    Twinkly Lights in Blue Pandemic Days
  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 25

    My constant refrain in these days is to bellow “what is time?” I think I might intend it as a joke when it shows up as a blue bubble reply in a text message chain, but I’m not really sure.… Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 25
  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 24

    October brings celebrations in our house and so I’m working on planning ahead as you may have seen over on RevGalBlogPals last week. I shared prayers last week in their weekly Worship Words for this week’s worship including a Prayer… Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 24
  • Pandemic Liturgy for All Saints Sunday

    This is one of my very favorite celebrations of the church. I have long lamented that there are not enough spaces in the church calendar to share our grief. This is one of the few. Continue reading

    Pandemic Liturgy for All Saints Sunday
  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 23

    The President has the virus. In some capacity, we are all reacting to this. We are reacting to how he is responding to treatments. We are questioning our own faith as we try to summon prayers and compassion. Some of… Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 23
  • 10 Things to Celebrate Your Pastor in Clergy Appreciation Month

    October is Clergy Appreciation Month. While this celebration may have passed by along with International Buy a Priest a Beer Day on September 9th, it should be something we celebrate this year. We should find every reason possible to celebrate… Continue reading

    10 Things to Celebrate Your Pastor in Clergy Appreciation Month
  • Stay-at-Home Clergy Mom

    On Christmas Eve, my daughter raced back and forth from table to pew, pew to table and back again, to ask for more Jesus. That’s what she called it with both fistfuls full of leavened grace as her little hands… Continue reading

    Stay-at-Home Clergy Mom
  • Pandemic Prayers for Proper 21

    It has been a bad week. Can we admit that? Can we conspire in that little bit of honesty? A lot of bad shit is happening. I’m not sorry for my language. I am mad and you’re probably mad too.… Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for Proper 21
  • Pandemic Prayers for World Communion Sunday

    In the churches I’ve served, this was always a Sunday people looked forward to. It wasn’t a celebration that they remembered from childhood but it was something that has become meaningful and important. There was always careful planning to make… Continue reading

    Pandemic Prayers for World Communion Sunday