By Andrea Ayvazian Twelve words. In one of my favorite books, “Naked Spirituality,” Brian McLaren presents a framework for understanding the spiritual life, offering up 12 words that can begin simple prayers and eventually anchor an ongoing meditative practice. I give “Naked Spirituality” to anyone who tells me they don’t know how to pray. McLaren’s 12 words can inspire simple prayers that…

By Andrea Ayvazian The Biden-Harris duo is going to win the election. All the polls show that Biden has a commanding lead, and many of Trump’s core constituents are turning against him as the pandemic rages on. So this column is not about the necessity of “voting like your life depends on it”— we got that. It is not about how we…

By ANNIE TURNERA sermon delivered at Haydenville Congregational Church, September 13, 2020 WE ARE GOING TO START OUT ON A LOW NOTE, BUT I PROMISE YOU—WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL THAT WE WILL END ON A HIGH NOTE. I WANT TO SHARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE POEMS BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS TO START MY SERMON, WHERE WE LOOK AT THE TRULY…

 By Annie Turner   There are so many ways I need to up my game. I hope to explore a few of them including: exercise, gardening, cooking, but the most important is digging out the deep well of racism I am confronting in my 74th year.  It doesn’t matter that I dated a Man of Color while at college. It does not…

The Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian, associate pastor at Alden Baptist Church in Springfield, and former pastor of Haydenville Congregational Church, was a speaker at a Black Lives Matter rally in East Longmeadow on June 7. Here is her speech. Thank you Angela Thorpe, my sister at the Alden Baptist Church, for extending the invitation for me to speak at today’s gathering. You…