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I
was a Presbyterian clergyman who retired in 1997 after
forty years of ministry. I served as pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church in Pataskala, Ohio, was head of
staff at the Northminster Church in New Castle, PA for
thirty-one years, and followed that by two interim pastorates
and three years as a staff visitation minister. Since
then, I have spent my time teaching classes, leading
study groups, organizing retreats and writing about
spirituality.
I
have theological degrees from Princeton and Pittsburgh
Theological Seminaries. In 1955 I married Helen Burdick
Sloat, a psychiatric nurse. We have three children and
eight grandchildren.
Originally,
I was a conservative, but God brought me to conservative
western Pennsylvania in order to radicalize me! The
most significant factor in that change happened around
1980 when I had a vivid past death recall. I re-experienced
my previous death as a Native American. (Related
story)
This
was a denial of everything I believed. If I accepted
the experience, I knew it could ruin my career. And
I was right. Because of my involvement in a website
similar to this one, the Presbyterian Church forced
me to resign my ordination. But I knew that if my experience
was true and I ignored it, I would be turning my back
on God. In time, I realized that my past death recall
was pushing me toward the next step in my spiritual
evolution.
Even
in this conservative area, there are many people who
have had mystical experiences. They were confused, and
they wondered how they could balance their experience
with their faith. When I started to tell my story, people
who had never shared theirs with anyone, for fear of
ridicule, began to come forward. As a result, we developed
a fascinating collection of metaphysical stories from
average people.
This
is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a vast ocean
of spiritual truth waiting to be discovered. In the
future, we will no longer be frightened by God's continuing
revelation in our day. So, this site is devoted to exploring
spirituality in all its forms. We invite church people,
as well as those who have no time for the church, to
look at this material and decide for themselves how
God's power and love and purpose lay claim to their
lives.
I
have published some of this material in a book entitled
A Handbook For Heretics.
The book urges mainline churches to be more open to
the Holy Spirit's continuing revelations in our day,
and includes a number of exciting stories about how
God is intimately involved in our daily lives. The book
is also listed on the Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites.
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