• Food Bank Adding Drive-thru Pantry Three Times a Month

    By Loretta Fulton The Food Bank of West Central Texas is opening a drive-thru food pantry that will be open hours and days that other pantries in town aren’t.  The

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  • Heavenly Rest to Dedicate Rebuilt Organ

    By Loretta Fulton After a wait of two years, the newly rebuilt organ at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest will be dedicated on Sunday, May 3. The dedication

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  • There Are No Routine Plays

    By Glenn Dromgoole (This is the second of three excerpts from the book Parables from the Diamond that I co-authored with Phil Christopher, published in 2009 and now out of

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  • One Woman’s Unconditional Kindness

    By Danny Minton Winston Churchill called it “the greatest American Battle of the war.” It would be known in history as “The Battle of the Bulge.” The United States would

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  • Enjoy the Chase

    By Glenn Dromgoole (This is the first of three excerpts from the book Parables from the Diamond that I co-authored with Phil Christopher, published in 2009 and now out of

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  • Meet Mike Greenfield

    By Loretta Fulton A lot of kids would have gotten burned out on church if they had gone as much as Mike Greenfield did when he was growing up in

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  • Silence

    By Jim Nichols Silence is a word that demands an opposite. We each understand what is meant by silence, but we would probably define it as the absence of something.

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  • What’s in a Name?

    By Nancy Patrick In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet asks Romeo the title question when she tries to rationalize the relationship between herself, Juliet Capulet, and her lover, Romeo Montague.

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  • The Church Without Walls

    By Danny Minton Almost everyone who reads this has probably seen the World War II movie, “The Bridge on the River Kwai.” We can’t resist whistling the song that the

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  • Ah, Abilene

    By Glenn Dromgoole A few things I’ve learned after making Abilene my home for 40 years. Maybe you’ll agree. * Someone said “Keep Abilene Boring” and we take that as

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I’m Just Tired

By DANNY MINTON A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a minister from another church background different from mine. He was twenty-five to thirty years younger than me and had been in ministry for twenty years. He told me he was considering quitting the full-time ministry and thought about doing something else. I asked him what was causing

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HSU Honors Alumni

Hardin-Simmons University recently announced its annual alumni award winners. They will be honored at the Alumni Awards banquet on Oct. 12 as part of homecoming. Winner of the Keeter Award, the highest alumni award, is Filemon Ortiz, who graduated from HSU in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and history. He obtained his law degree from the Thurgood Marshall School

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Christian Political Activism and Discipleship to Jesus are Very Different Undertakings  

By PHILIP LeMASTERS Those who promote Christian political agendas must take care in order to avoid damaging their souls and distorting their witness to Jesus Christ. The practices and virtues associated with the quest for earthly power, even for the best of ends, are hardly those of the Beatitudes.  Christ called his followers to acquire purity of heart and love

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Take a Look Inside Valley View Missionary Baptist Church

Abilene is filled with houses of worship but most Abilenians are familiar with the inside of only a handful. A periodic feature in Spirit of Abilene will give you an “Insider’s View” of some of those places you may have driven by many times but never entered. By LORETTA FULTON Name: Valley View Missionary Baptist ChurchLocation: 3564 Clinton St.Online: https://www.facebook.com/valleyview.baptistchurch.1/Pastor:

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At Least Two Hats

By JIM NICHOLS It would be impossible to find any human who has only one set of skills and interests. Although each of us certainly develops certain aspects of our lives as basic, we each have latent secondary or tertiary topics that drive us. These additional areas of our lives are unpredictable to others, but quite real to each of

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Mort on Migration

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury My intrepid Uncle Mort does much “huffing and puffing” about state and national politics. At the end of the day, though–when everything is said and done–always more is said than done. Sometimes he claims to see two imaginary punching bags, one inscribed “Austin” and the other “Washington, D.C.” He flails away at them as

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Fine Lines? Morality? Righteousness? Conscience?

By NANCY PATRICK I am currently reading novel fifteen in Louise Penny’s series featuring main character Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté of Quebec, Armand Gamache. By this time in the series, Gamache has cleaned up a corrupt police force as well as the Sûreté’s academy that graduated immoral, inhumane, and power-hungry officers.  Inspector Gamache maintains his integrity throughout the series.

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Meet Carlo and Grace

By LORETTA FULTON “Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?” For a young couple who had just been ordained as ministers in the Presbyterian Church, these words from the refrain of “I, the Lord of Sea and Sky,” were especially meaningful. Sunday afternoon, July 16, members of First Central Presbyterian Church, family, and friends, affirmed the calling of Carlo

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