Rev. Dr. Jeff Garrison
Recently I have posted memoir pieces of my years in seminary: Professor von Waldow: the German Tank Commander Dean Mauser and his secretary The Great Seminary Hoax of 1986 I took the school year 1988-89 off in order to be a student pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Virginia City, Nevada. Over the years since, … Read more Matt, Virginia City, 1988
Two weeks ago, in a sermon, I told about the “duck parties” held at seminary. Today, I am posting a story about some nonsense that occurred during my first term at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Other recent posts include memories of Professor von Waldow and Dean Mauser and his secretary. Good memories. My only experience in … Read more The Great Seminary Hoax of 1986
Below I am reposting something I wrote in early May 2011, upon learning the death of Osama Bin Laden. At the time, I posted it on Facebook and in a church newsletter. Facebook discontinued showing posted “notes,” so I am posting it here. After the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden’s successor this week in … Read more The garden, summer projects, & the killing of al Qaeda
In 2017, I spent a week in a Christian community on Iona, an island in the Scottish Inner-Hebrides. This is a description of my journey to the Island. It’s an all day trip from Edinburgh, where I’d stayed with friends. I had hope to lead a group to Iona afterwards, but the next summer, the … Read more Heading to Iona
Today, I’m just trying to catch up on some books I’ve read over the past few weeks… If one doesn’t interest you, you can skip it and move on to the others. Andy Stanley, Not in It to Win It: Why Choosing Sides Sidelines the Church Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2022), 231 pages. This is a book … Read more Catching Up on my Reading
Over New Years Eve and early January 2005, I took a group of college students from First Presbyterian Church of Hastings, Michigan to New Orleans. We helped with the relief work after Katrina. The amount of damage from that hurricane still haunts me. This is a piece I pulled up from the past, that tells … Read more Riding on the City of New Orleans
Part of this was posted in a previous blog that is no longer available. I added more information to include the entire trip and am reposting it. In late April 2018, my father, sister, and I made this trip to the Dry Tortugas, which sit 68 miles west of Key West. There are no services … Read more Four days and three nights in the Dry Tortugas
In 2013, I visited Virginia City, Nevada. I had lived there in the 1980s, when I was a student pastor at First Presbyterian Church. Before my time there, a tourist railroad had been established and was reconstructing the famed Virginia and Truckee Railroad. The big news when I was there, was the train crossing the … Read more The Ride of a Lifetime (in the cab of a steam engine)
Dean Mauser Two weeks ago, I posted a memoir about one of my seminary professors who had been a tank commander in the German army in World War II. I mentioned he wasn’t my only professor who spent time on the other side during that terrible war. The other was Ulrich Mauser, the dean of … Read more The Dean and his secretary
Anne Applebaum, The Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism (2020: New York: Anchor Books, 2021), 206 pages including notes. No index or bibliography. This is an important book for understanding much of what is happening in our world. However, at first, I wondered what I was getting into as Applebaum describes a party she … Read more Three reviews: Democracy, Beza, & Tides