Eric Folkerth is a minister, musician, author and blogger.
He is Senior Pastor of Kessler Park UMC United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. Previously, he was pastor at Northaven UMC in Dallas for seventeen years.
Eric loves to write on topics of spirituality, social justice, music/art and politics. The entries on this blog reflect that diversity of interests.
His passion for social justice goes beyond mere words. Eric was arrested at the White House, defending immigrants and “The Dreamers;” and he’s officiated at same sex weddings.
Eric was the 2017 recipient of the prestigeous Kuchling Humanitarian Award from Dallas’ Black Tie Dinner. (Human Rights Campaign)
Eric has led or co-led hundreds of persons on mission trips to build houses and bring medical care around the globe, to places such as Mexico, Haiti, Russia, Guatemala, and Nepal. He is proud of have shephereded Highland Park UMC's construction of ten Habitat for Humanity homes, (and one Community Center) and helped forge an alliance with Habitat that led to the construction of 100 homes in Dallas, housing thousands of people.
His wife, Justice Dennise Garcia, has 20 years experience as a state district judge and appelate justice in North Texas.
First elected in 2004, she was the first Latina ever elected to a Dallas County state district bench, and she she left that position whe was the longest currently serving district judge.
In 2020 Dennise Garcia was a elected as a Justice of the 5th District Court of Appeals for Texas. She is currently running to be Chief of the 5th District Court of Appeals in the 2024 cycle.
They have the world’s best daughter, Maria, who is a practicing professional counselor in Dallas.
Find links to Eric’s music-related websites, at the top of this site’s navigation menu.
An awfully momentous event went relatively unnoticed over the weekend. My folks celebrated their 50-year wedding anniversary. The “relatively unnoticed” part is that the big celebration is going to happen in early August. That week, all of us kids, all of our kids and spouses, Mom and Dad, are headed up to Estes Park to […]
This week, we’re saying final goodbye’s to Paul Escamilla. For some of us, the goodbyes have been going on for a while now. Paul, as many of you will know, has been a minister here in North Texas for well over 20 years now. He’s also one of the founding members of Connections. After our […]
One of the more obvious proofs that Dennise loves me is that she puts up with me going to Kerrville over Memorial Day Weekend. Not only that, but sometimes she even comes too. The big deal of this is that this weekend almost always coincides with our anniversary. As it does this year. In fact, […]
Last Saturday, I had the great honor of participating in the second MegaMarch here in Dallas, Texas. Twenty or so Northaveners(1a), and a few friends from the North Texas Conference, joined our voices with the 56,000-plus folks who gathered in downtown.(1) (Myself and old friend, Rev. Gerald Britt, just before the march began) (People in […]
As I wrote on this blog back in 2006, this original MegaMarch was one of the most amazing days I’ve ever seen. Around 500,000 peaceful marchers, moving through downtown Dallas, waving American flags and chanting “USA, USA…” I know everyone associated with tomorrow’s march hopes and prays for a similar day. Tonight, I saw a […]
Friday, I took part in a press conference of religious leaders, gathered to show their support for the MegaMarch. I’ve already posted the comments at Northaven’s blog. But I thought I’d post it here too. The press conference was covered in the DMN here, and here’s a pretty decent news story from Channel 11.The DMN […]
I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since my last blog. I’m hopelessly behind on “Daily Grats,” mostly because of Easter and stuff happening around the house with construction and the break-in. One of the things that’s currently a bit wiggy is Connections‘ own website. So, I’ll post this blog here instead. We […]
Have I mentioned lately that Tom Karges is a home repair genius? Tom is a church member who has been leading the repairs here at the parsonage, which have been ongoing for the past few months. You can see his new website here, where he showcases his own art and his work in home remodeling […]
It’s only minutes into today, and I am already certain of my daily gratitude. I can’t imagine this one will get eclipsed by anything else that can happen today. This is our last night at the lake. Sometime tomorrow (er, later today) we’ll head back to town. Because it is our last night, I realized […]
OK, I’m gonna declare that this is different from my “daily grat” of the other day. My favorite time of day is thirty minutes before, and an hour after, sunset. Last night, I sat out on the dock and took pictures with my Treo. Then, I put them together in a time lapse movie, with […]
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