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His congregation was too distracted by holiday festivities to be attentive as he preached on Christmas Eve, so Rev. C. David McKirachan '70 decided to entertain them with a story. He delivered a dramatic monologue-the Christmas story, as told by one of the three wise men. That monologue led to others, and eventually to his first book, I Happened Upon a Miracle: Voices from the Gospels (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001).
In each of 18 short stories, a Bible figure or a character created by McKirachan retells a familiar New Testament story from his or her own point of view.
McKirachan's second manuscript, already complete, is a devotional book with four essays for each month. “It's not really a religious book. The essays are observations on life,” he says. “And the third book I'm working on is science fiction.”
A philosophy graduate, McKirachan recalls the late Professor [George K.] Strodach as “one of my favorite professors ever–he calmed me down and helped me learn to listen. That's one of the great gifts,” says McKirachan, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury (N.J.) and part-time professor at Monmouth College.