Pastor's Page |
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I write this, barely two weeks into my work as Interim Pastor at Broadmoor, our nation has just completed another general election. Joe Biden is our new president.
Needless to say, it was a contentious election sharply exposing the divisions among us as Americans. Unfortunately, this is no new thing for us, only more pronounced, and just as exhausting. The whole thing drags us down and wears us out. Not all of us voted for the winning side. For those who did, I would pray a measure of grace, remembering that we belong to the God of love, a love which is “not boastful or rude” (1 Corinthians 13:4). For those who didn’t, my prayer is for an equal measure of respect for the democratic process yielding this outcome. As we approach January’s Inauguration and changeover of administrations, it is also my prayer that we will begin to join hands as a country, setting aside our differences and finding new ways of working together. There are so many problems facing us, Covid chief among them, and there is no way we will be able to address them unless we are united. With God’s help, I believe we can find this higher ground. Don Rev. Dr. Donald FramptonDon Frampton, a native of South Carolina and graduate of the University of South Carolina and Columbia Theological Seminary (D. Min), retired in 2019 after 24 years as Senior Pastor of St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church in New Orleans. Later in the year, he was named Pastor Emeritus by the Session. Prior to coming to New Orleans, Don served as Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Rockingham, North Carolina; and Associate Pastor at First (Scots) Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Mission expenditures became a hallmark of his ministry at St. Charles, an aver- age of 15% of annual budgets going to local and global causes. Through Rebuilding Hope in New Orleans (RHINO), a program begun in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and which continues, St. Charles has thus far supervised over 7,000 volunteers who have helped build 50 Habitat for Humanity homes. In 2009, the church received the PC(USA)’s highest award for community service. His involvement with the greater church included a term as Moderator of the Presbytery of South Louisiana and two terms on the Board of Trustees of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Locally, Don served twice on the Ethics Review Board for the City of New Orleans and was an active member of several post-Katrina “roundtables” of community leaders. Don’s wife, Colleen, is an RN at St. Thomas Community Health Center, a neighborhood clinic in the Irish Channel of New Orleans which sees over 300 patients daily. They are blessed with three adult children and three grandchildren. |
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