We have Confirmation this Sunday. Alas, the Archbishop can't make it so Rev. Caroline will carry on by herself. This year we have 19 interesting kids that are taking a significant step toward adulthood. Up til now, we've been serving them as children. Beginning this week, they will start serving others, symbolized by their serving us all Communion. Come hear what they are thinking about the world and join the Congregation as we lay hands on them and ask God's blessing on their lives, particularly through their teenage years. 
There will be plenty of bloviating about the scurrilous remarks made by Donald Sterling and the reprimand handed down by the NBA. But I couldn't help but zoom out for a moment and remember how the world has changed in the past generation or two. If you substituted gentility for arrogance, I remember getting advice from my grandparents in the deep South in the early 60's that wasn't that different from the owner of the LA Clippers. It is one thing if they work for you. But, my grandmother asked, 'there are so many people in the world you could be friends with, why would you want to have black friends?'
Every once in a while I'll remember some instance of the simple racism that permeated the parochial world of my childhood and reflect on the great multicultural ethos of metropolitan New York. We've not only transcended the prejudice of a former era, we are creating ever more interesting cross-racial identities that make our pluralism richer and nuanced.
The immediate and unqualified condemnation of Donald Sterling reminds us that we have entered a better era, where the atavistic racial cliches of Archie Bunker can't even be tolerated from our odd uncle at the family reunion anymore. I'm glad I lived to see this day. It is a much more promising world.
Our erstwhile editor will be recuperating from knee replacement surgery for the next couple weeks and it is unlikely that 'This Week' will be published until his return. The head nurse asked me if I was in pain last week during a pre-admission interview, and I told her that I was. "How long have you had the pain?" she followed up. I had to think for a moment. I said, "34 years". She put her hand on my shoulder and said, "I think your operation will be able to do something about that." I'm looking forward to getting this operation behind me and opening a more healthy chapter in the immediate future. I would appreciate your prayers on Friday. 

The Rev.