the unlikely orange

  "the crucifixion of Robert Lewis" mixed media collage with leaves, acrylic paint, and found objects by gregory a milinovich october 2023 this october i was invited to participate in a three day trip which was called a "pilgrimage of pain and hope."  while that may not sound super exciting to many of you, it actually really intrigued me.  i am the kind of person that wants to feel big feelings, and i am drawn to the deep places, so  i was interested in traveling to the scranton area, where the trip was planned, to see what it might look like to be a pilgrim that was wide-eyed and listening to the pain and the hope in the stories of others.   this trip included hearing the stories of immigrants to the northeastern pennsylvania area, and the work in the coal mines that many of them did.  it included hearing from folks who are working for housing justice and equity in downtown scranton.  it included hearing from those indigenous people who first inh...

note: i wrote these words back in 2017, after a series of tragedies.  you can see the original post here .  i have adapted these words to deal with the unthinkable gun violence perpetrated against people of color and children in our country in the last couple of weeks.  i share them here as a way to move us, as people of faith, to something more than just words, cynicism, or empty religious platitudes.    It has been a season of terrible tragedy.  And once again I have noticed in the news a trending phrase: thoughts and prayers.  It even has its own hashtag on twitter and other social media, but net necessarily in a good way.  People are understandably tired of hearing about others’ thoughts and prayers, when that is often only a thinly-veiled way of saying that our only obligation to those who suffer is a brief moment of silence, or nothing more than a tweet or public statement.  The truth is that, for those of us who follow Jesus, much is ...

i was recently asked to offer my compelling reasons for why i would want to remain in the united methodist church, even as there is division within, a new denomination forming, and an inevitable divorce coming at some point in the future.   here was my response: Why stay United Methodist?  My compelling reasons. It’s home.     For many of us, this is our home.  It is the legacy that was handed to us by our great-grandparents, our grandparents, or our parents.  It was the community who welcomed us into the world with casseroles on our kitchen tables, and baptism blankets.  It was the United Methodists who taught us flannel-board truths and showed us that Jesus loves all the little children: red, yellow, black and white.  It was the United Methodists who gave us our first Bibles, who journeyed with us as we learned what it means to confirm the promises of our baptism.  It was the United Methodists who affirmed our gifts, who let us as...

  "the broken path: station 8 - Jesus is placed in the tomb" gregory a. milinovich spray paint, broken glass, pottery, tiles, mirror on old farm window march, 2021 this year during lent, i was inspired to design a set of eight pieces of art for a "stations of the cross" installation, which is currently on display outside on the front lawn at St. Paul's UMC and Wesley Foundation at 230 E. College Ave. in State College, PA.  it will be there on display until april 3rd, 2021.  if you aren't able to see it in person, you can see the whole collection here.  i've also decided to write a bit about each one, so that you can find out a little "behind the scenes" information for each one, and hear a little about my inspiration.  here are the posts for station 1, station 2, station 3, station 4, station 5, station 6, and station 7. this brings us to the final station, in which we remember that the lifeless body was taken down from the cross, and then brou...

  "the broken path: station 7 - Jesus dies on the cross" gregory a. milinovich broken glass, ceramics, tiles on old farm window march, 2021 this year during lent, i was inspired to design a set of eight pieces of art for a "stations of the cross" installation, which is currently on display outside on the front lawn at St. Paul's UMC and Wesley Foundation at 230 E. College Ave. in State College, PA.  it will be there on display until april 3rd, 2021.  if you aren't able to see it in person, you can see the whole collection here.  i've also decided to write a bit about each one, so that you can find out a little "behind the scenes" information for each one, and hear a little about my inspiration.  here are the posts for station 1 , station 2 , station 3 , station 4 , station 5 , and station 6 .  this seventh station of the cross is meant to urge us to consider the very last breaths of Jesus' life.  no more do we linger on the agony and tortur...

  "the broken path: station 6 - Jesus is nailed to the cross" rev. gregory a. milinovich broken glass, tiles, stones, sea glass on old farm window march, 2021 this year during lent, i was inspired to design a set of eight pieces of art for a "stations of the cross" installation, which is currently on display outside on the front lawn at St. Paul's UMC and Wesley Foundation at 230 E. College Ave. in State College, PA.  it will be there on display until april 3rd, 2021.  if you aren't able to see it in person, you can see the whole collection here.  i've also decided to write a bit about each one, so that you can find out a little "behind the scenes" information for each one, and hear a little about my inspiration.  here are the posts for station 1 , station 2 , station 3 , station 4 , and station 5 .  in this post, we turn our attention to station 6, in which Jesus is nailed to the cross.  the whole idea of a body being nailed to a piece of wood...

  "The Broken Path: Station 5 - Jesus is Stripped" gregory a. milinovich broken glass, tiles on old farm window march, 2021 this year during lent, i was inspired to design a set of eight pieces of art for a "stations of the cross" installation, which is currently on display outside on the front lawn at St. Paul's UMC and Wesley Foundation at 230 E. College Ave. in State College, PA.  it will be there on display until april 3rd, 2021.  if you aren't able to see it in person, you can see the whole collection here .  i've also decided to write a bit about each one, so that you can find out a little "behind the scenes" information for each one, and hear a little about my inspiration.  here are the posts for station 1 , station 2 , station 3 , and station 4 .  in this post we are turning to station 5, in which we remember that Jesus was stripped of his clothes, and of his dignity.  in this piece, i wanted to create a sense of nakedness without being...

  "The Broken Path: Station 4 - Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem" gregory a. milinovich broken glass, tile, sea glass on old farm window march, 2021 this year during lent, i was inspired to design a set of eight pieces of art for a "stations of the cross" installation, which is currently on display outside on the front lawn at St. Paul's UMC and Wesley Foundation at 230 E. College Ave. in State College, PA.  it will be there on display until april 3rd, 2021.  if you aren't able to see it in person, you can see the whole collection here .   i've also decided to write a bit about each one, so that you can find out a little "behind the scenes" information for each one, and hear a little about my inspiration.  here are the posts for station 1 , station 2 , and station 3 .  today we turn our attention to station 4: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.  we meet these women in luke 23:27-31, where we are told they are following him, along with a huge...

  "The Broken Path: Station 3 - Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross" by gregory a. milinovich broken glass and sea glass on an old farm window march, 2021 in case you are just tuning in, i sharing a series of posts about eight different stations of the cross which i created on old windows with bits of broken glass.  you can see the first station here , and the second one here .  (you can also view the whole series, with the prayers, questions for meditation, and a video version here ).   this station is about Simon of Cyrene, whom we read about in Mark 15:21-23, with only the barest details.  he was charged with helping Jesus to carry the cross, but in the end, it was a helpless kind of helping, really.  the man Simon was helping - Jesus - was still about to die, no matter what.  there was nothing Simon could do to really change anything.   this is the same idea lifted up in the prayer for this station by Padraig O'Tuama from "Da...

  "The Broken Path: Station 2 - Jesus Takes Up the Cross" gregory a. milinovich broken glass and tile on old farm window march, 2021 in these art installation i have really worked on creating a sense of brokenness.  my hope was to invite the viewer to consider both the brokenness of Jesus and the brokenness of self.  i want to conjure up images of the broken flesh of Jesus, and the broken spirits of those who bear the weight of too many burdens put on them.  in this station, in particular, i wanted to really convey that sense of broken flesh and spirits and sinews stretched thin.  as i mentioned in my post on the first station , each station is partially inspired by prayers by Padraig O'Tuama in "Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community" (copyright 2017, canterbury press, norwich, london).  here is the prayer i used as inspiration for this station:  Burdened God, who bore the weight of wood on torn shoulders, We pray for the torn and the burdened, th...

  during this season of lent, at the church i serve, we've been talking about brokenness.  we've been looking at the ways that our journey is often a broken journey, full of missteps, sidetracks, and dead ends.  and yet, we have been seeing, as clearly as ever, that those broken places are exactly the same places where grace grows.  the cracks are where the light shines through.   so, as a way to continue to reflect on this brokenness, the worship team thought we might do an art installation outside, on the church property, of the stations of the cross, but in a way that expressed not only the brokenness of Jesus' body and journey to the tomb, but also the brokenness of our world and our hearts.  using something i made several years ago, i thought we might be able to use old windows and broken glass to help tell the story.   so, in the end, i made eight separate stations of the cross, each one on an old window that came from an old farmhouse...

 as some of you know, i have been working towards a goal i set at the beginning of 2020 of running 1000 miles in one calendar year.  today is the last day of september (what?!?), and so that means the year is 3/4 of the way complete, which means i should be right around the 750 mile marker.  however, i am doing better than that, as my 5 mile run today put me at 847 miles for the year, almost 100 miles ahead of schedule!  i am feeling great, enjoying the journey, and experiencing a real sense of accomplishment as i work towards this goal.   i have also enjoyed these little milestones along the way, just to see how far i've come.  as it turns out, 847 miles from State College (along the roads, not as the crow flies) would have me arriving in Birmingham, AL, right about now!  not too shabby!  only about 150 to go!

 oh my goodness, it's been awhile.   2020 has been happening, with a strange cast of characters including masks, ubiquitous hand sanitizer, elbow bumps, mute buttons, take out containers, and amazon boxes.   and while the months have been moving past, life has also been happening.  right under our noses.   as you may know, our family has a long tradition of making a "summer bucket list" each year, complete with items we'd like to accomplish in a summer.  some of the things are annual traditions and special events, while others are foods we want to try, or new experiences we'd like to explore.  in the past we've done our best, but we've never quite crossed all the things off our list.  this year, however, what with a distinct lack of camps and events, provided a bit more time to tick things off the list.  and we completed every item, including making our own potato chips and ice cream, and trying poutine and pavlova.  we pi...

twelve years ago i started making a video of our children as a mother's day tribute to their mother, and somehow it became a tradition.  back then, our oldest son was 3 years old, and cute.  now he's 15 and, well, not so cute .  however, we have really come to love this tradition, and the time capsule of sorts that it has become.  we love looking back at each year's video, to see how we've grown and changed, and how our love for Shannon has remained constant. below is this year's video, and if you want to walk with us down memory lane, the other eleven are down there as well.  happy mother's day to all the mom's out there...you make us feel like a million bucks. 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009

i love to travel, and i love music.  and i also love where the two intersect.  so, whenever i travel, i love to make sure my music matches my context.  recently, as we've taken family vacations over the last few years to california and florida, i have made mix cd's as the soundtrack to our trip.  well, this year is no different.  we are headed to arizona (to see the grand canyon, sedona, and several other places), and so i have put together a mix cd (yes, i still like cd's: OLD SCHOOL) of songs related to our journey and some of the places we'll be.  you can see the songs and the artwork, and you'll be able to see some pictures over the next week or so of our adventures.  here's to the journey!

"ash wednesday 2020: where is God?" mixed media collage (acryclic paint, found papers, masking tape, glue on hardcover bookboard) gregory a. milinovich february 2020 where is God in all of this?  it's a question we've been asking for millenia.  just as we may look at intense beauty and see God as clear as the light of day, we may also look at tragedy and despair and see the absence of God like a dark fog.  in fact, it is this darkness like a fog that the prophet Joel writes about in Joel 2.  he writes of a darkness during the day.  like a blanket covering the land.  like an approaching army of death.  it's a stark image, but don't act like you can't relate.  from the atrocities of our human history to the sense of impending doom in our world today (mass shootings, natural disasters, violence, racial hatred, pandemic virus worries, and more), we have all felt like the darkness is an approaching army, a falling fog of hazy hopelessne...

"isn't that wonderful?" he always asks/asserts with a childlike smile, every time i talk to him.  it's as if he's barely even aware that he's asking it, the positivity just oozing out of him, uncontainable, a product of his relentlessly consistent approach to life. i'm talking about Joe Humphreys, the subject of an excellent 2019 documentary film, and the frequent holder of a seat about 7 or 8 pews back to the right, aisle seat, at St. Paul's United Methodist Church and Wesley Foundation, where i am blessed to serve as the pastor.  when i get a chance to greet him, he'll often ask about my family, or how things are going with me, and when i answer, he'll respond with that characteristic smile, "isn't that wonderful?"  it's impossible not to feel a sense of wonder when you talk to Joe.  for one thing, he's 90 years old/young, but surprisingly spry in body, mind, and heart.  for another thing, he is a bit of a celebrity...

merry Christmas, yinz guys.  we've been marking our advent journeys with an annual video now for the last twelve years!  for this latest installment, we used the Tractors' version of "Run, Run Rudolph," as a metaphor for all of our running around, and i hope it shows that we've had a real blast this year, preparing for Christmas.  you'll see scenes from getting our tree, making cookies, concerts, impromptu dance sessions, making snowflakes, and much more.  enjoy. 

happy thanksgiving, everyone.  i have so much to be thankful for.  so, much, in fact, that it's almost overwhelming and embarrassing.  but one of the things i am most thankful for this year is my health.  at the beginning of 2019, my weight had reached an all-time high, and i was about as physically unhealthy as i had ever been.  i decided that i needed to do something about it, but it took me several months to get started.  i started in earnest around the beginning of June, and since then i've been running regularly and eating better.  and since the beginning of the year i have lost over 50 pounds.  this picture of me shows me in the same t-shirt back in march, and yesterday.  you can see the difference.  today, as part of my ongoing journey, i ran a half marathon.  13.1 miles.  #thanksgivingthirteenpointone.  it feels so good to have gotten that active and to feel better in my joints and in my energy level.  ...