It has been over five years since I moved away from Manchester, Tennessee, and stopped attending the church I grew up in. But when I stepped into the choir room last Sunday when I was visiting, Carol was still there taking attendance, and Elaine still sat in the same chair in the top row of the choir loft.
I, however, have changed.
In the time I’ve lived in Chattanooga, including the time I spent covering religion at the Chattanooga Times Free Press from June 2025 to February 2026, my world has grown immensely. I participated in Muslim congregational prayers during weekly service at the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, received a crash course in Presbyterian polity during the denomination’s 2025 General Assembly, sang songs alongside the Baha’i community and battled to leave the homes of Jewish women without being fed (a battle I routinely lost).
Those experiences, and the relationships I gained through them, have lent a richness and complexity to my personal faith that I never could have anticipated.
Now, I have the privilege of bringing that to you as the Times Free Press’s faith and family editor.