Journal

I must have been 7 or 8 when my aunt Goo Tai taught me the card game, Dragon. Goo Tai and her family lived on a pear farm in the Delta region just south of… Read More »Dragon

Once the idea was hatched, Roger, whom I have known since kindergarten at Commodore Stockton Elementary School in Chinatown, and I began making plans.  Probably the best thing we did to prepare was to attend… Read More »Half Dome

As the years mount, my memories of growing up in Chinatown, San Francisco, become increasingly richer and happier.  In the 40’s and 50’s, Chinatown was like a village where there were no strangers.  People and… Read More »It Takes A Village

Acts 1:1-11 (Sermon preached at Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, in May, 2018) INTRODUCTION When I graduated from San Francisco Theological Seminary in the Spring of 1966, there were about 50 students in my graduating… Read More »Discontinuous Change

The line stopped me in my tracks and drew me to Scott Simons’ book, “Unforgettable: A Son, A Mother, and the Lessons of a Lifetime.”  I skimmed the book in search of that line; and… Read More »Mother’s Day

This was the final sermon I preached at the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown, San Francisco, on the occasion of my retirement on Sunday, June 11, 2006.  I had served the congregation for 17 years and… Read More »Ministry as Midwifery

Recently, I came across in my files an Op-Ed piece written by Thomas L. Friedman on December 11, 2013, in the New York Times.  The title of the piece was “Why Mandela Was Unique.”  For… Read More »Pastoral Leadership

Betsy Massie and I met not long after I began my faculty tenure at San Francisco Theological Seminary.  We had moved from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation to the campus in the summer of 1978. … Read More »Portalhurst Presbyterian Church

Seated across from me at my kitchen table in San Anselmo, he asked me to forgive him.  I was in the 10th year of my faculty appointment at San Francisco Theological Seminary, serving as the… Read More »Dick Wichman

John 20:1-18 (Sermon preached at Calvary Presbyterian Church, SF, on Easter 2019) Introduction According to John, the discovery of the risen Christ began in darkness.  The first line of John’s account of Easter reads:  “Early… Read More »Roll Call