By Norris Burkes Nov 5 2023 There’s no holiday that expresses our fears like Halloween. So if you’re like me, you’re glad the spooky day has passed. The celebration sees folks reveling in such phobias as arachnophobia, chiroptophobia, achluophobia and necrophobia. Respectively, the fear of spiders. bats, darkness and dead things. But if you are
By Norris Burkes Oct 29 2023 In my new book, “Tell it To the Chaplain,” I describe the yearlong postgraduate residency I took in 1991 to become a chaplain. The program was called Clinical Pastoral Education and was the hospital-based internship required to begin a career in healthcare chaplaincy. Each morning, the interns went onto
By Norris Burkes Oct 22 2023 After 30 years serving as a hospital and military chaplain, I returned to the pastorate last year where I’m rediscovering the things I missed. I can honestly say I missed preaching, potlucks and the playful fun I share with parishioners. (See how well a pastor can force alliteration into
By Norris Burkes Oct 15 2023 “Norris Burkes,” I yell into the ear of an elderly man standing inside boisterous hotel banquet hall. “I was on your cross-country running team.” Coach Gary Kuhn smiles and repeats my name with the feigned recognition people give at high school class reunions. Still, 50 years is a long
by Norris Burkes Oct 8 2022 In this column’s 22-year history, I don’t recall rehashing a column from the prior week or apologizing for it. Today, I do both. In review, I wrote last week about the Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC) who managed our small Air Force base chapel in the mid 1990s. She
By Norris Burkes Oct 1 2023 I’ve met a lot of folks who assume that it’s easy to work with the clergy. But I know of one person who would beg to differ. She was the chapel office manager when I was stationed at a small California Air Force base in the mid-1990s. As the
By Norris Burkes Sept 24 2023 I sent an email to readers a few days ago with this plea: “A historic girls school has asked Chispa Project to help them establish a library at José Cecilio del Valle located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We need your help to raise the needed $5,000.” A few minutes later I
By Norris Burkes Sept 17 2023 PK is an old-time church abbreviation for “preacher’s kid.” My wife and I are both California PKs. Her dad pastored Fairvale Baptist Church for 49 years in Fair Oaks and my father pastored multiple churches, moving us every 3-4 years to a California congregation. We were PKs and proud
By Norris Burkes Sept 10, 2023 If you saw the 1983 movie “WarGames,” you’ll remember the moment the young hacker David Lightman cracks a Pentagon computer called The War Operation Plan Response (WOPR). The electronic-voiced computer asks Lightman, “Shall we play a game?” But the computer doesn't mean Pac-Man. If engaged, this game won’t give
By Norris Burkes Sept 3,2023 If I ever come to your house, I’ll likely take a sideways glance at your bookshelves. I don’t mean to be judgmental, just curious about what kind of books you read. For instance, do you like the formulaic writings of Sue Grafton or are you up for the challenge of
Aug 27 2023 By Norris Burkes On April 4, 1991, I was halfway finished with a yearlong, chaplain-training program at UC-Davis Medical Center when a social worker approached me with news. “Our team is on standby tonight,” she whispered. She meant our Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team, which was specially trained to debrief people who
By Norris Burkes Aug 20 2023 If you’ve ever been taken against your will, you may identify with what I experienced years ago in Stockton, California. I don’t mean to startle you – OK, maybe just a little bit – but fortunately, I lived to tell the tale. It started on a Sunday morning in
