For many years, Unitarian Universalists have noted that while it is the most often sung word in our hymnal, love was not present in the principles of our faith. Now we are being asked to imagine a faith that holds love at the center. We are being asked to imagine a faith that has, at … Continue reading Love At The Center

TWH's editor-in-chief, Manny Tejeda Moreno, looks forward to 2024 through a review of the documentary "The Mission," whose story of a Christian missionary killed by an uncontacted tribe unwilling to be converted portends a continued rise in spiritual violence. Continue reading Editorial: Will 2024 bring more spiritual violence? at The Wild Hunt.

Last year, the Universalist Christian Association recognized my ordination and I have full standing within it, meaning I have dual affiliation with it and ministerial fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association. Here is the news piece. If you a minister who holds to universal salvation and and looking for standing — or training and ordination … Continue reading "Dual affiliation"

The reading for 2024 is quite positive, but also quite challenging. This is not a year for sitting on the sidelines: not in your personal life, not in your spiritual life, and not in your work to build a better world here and now.

The year draws to its close — this is my last president’s note of 2023, written in the holiday season. The season is traditionally a time to pause, and to give and receive. I shared my thoughts about generosity and gratitude recently, in the Los Alamos Daily Post. I hope that this holiday season is …<p> The Year Draws to its Close Read More »

Happy New Year! May your year be filled with love that liberates and transforms. We hope you will join us for our RE programming during this new year! Peace, Rev. Tina DeYoe Director of Lifespan Religious Education

Happy New Year! The new year of course brings with it the desire and the intention for change. We make promises to ourselves about those things we hope to improve in ourselves. Sometimes, we put a little too much pressure on ourselves to change in the New Year, or we create a list of resolutions …<p> I Wish You All the Brightest Possible Blessings in the Months to Come Read More »

This is a phrase that was made popular by the New Age movement of the 1980’s and 90’s.  Perhaps it was the equivalent of “thoughts and prayers” in that it was a phrase to say to others when you meant … Continue reading →

Happy New Year. It's odd but true that every small thing we do has what the bankers call "serial effect."  You bounce one check putting your account into overdraft and the next follows. We make very small choices going this way or that, and the course of our lives is forever changed by each choice we make.  Unfortunately we are not given clear maps, and the shortest distance between two points is almost never a straight line. Also, it seems that very small decisive moments can make all the difference in the world, while at the same time, we may feel and seem powerless in response to catastrophic world events. But what is the power that we have, and what can we do with it? A number of years ago friends brought me a slender volume publis...

                                                                      Happy New Year-- ABBA For Americans New Year ’ s Day is a kind of low key and lethargic holiday.   Many New Year ’ s Eve revelers nurse hangovers.   For other’s it is a spend the day in pajamas and robe affair to veg out in front of the tube to watch the Rose Parade and endless college bowl games .    It is the biggest day of the year for ordering pizza delivery . For many Americans New Year's day means drinking coffee, nursing a hangover and watching the Tournament of Roses Parade from Pasadena. There have not been many songs for January 1.   For years we were stuck with U2’s first big hit, New Year’s Day releas...

In part 1, I reviewed the year in U.S. religion. In this second part, I’ll review they year in Unitarian Universalism. How non-UUs viewed us Let’s start with how others perceived us this past year. Unitarian Universalists are a tiny, tiny group, but we made the news with four stories this year. I’ll start with … Continue reading "Year in review, pt. 2"

Weekend Editor Eric O. Scott reviews the best of the weekend section from 2023's offerings in The Wild Hunt, including the most popular article of the year, Meg Elison's "Barbie is the new Inanna." Continue reading The Best of the Weekend Section, 2023 at The Wild Hunt.

As we move into a new year, we look back on the year ending. What are the stories of this year that will stay with you? What are the stories yet to be written in 2024? Blessings for the new year, beloved.

This New Year's Eve, we will watch a brief set of videos by UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt, featuring "Winter Blessing," "Bridge of Flowers," and "Seeds for the New Year." Then join us for a hearty breakfast of foods said to assure good luck in the New Year:  black-eyed peas, herring, long noodles, things that are golden (cornbread), green (collards), or red (pomegranates), and things that are round (bagels).  Let's attract as much good fortune as possible in 2024, beyond the good fortune of being together. Contact Felicia Orth if you are willing to contribute a good-luck dish.  Happy New Year!

I missed posting last week. My excuse? Christmas, and the my wife’s birthday the day before. Everyone needs a holiday sometime and we shouldn’t need excuses in order to take them. It has rained most of the last few weeks, a good thing for California, but not so good for hiking. We got a few miles in on the […]

            A student of the intimate said to the master Yunmen, “The radiance serenely illumines the whole universe…” Before he finished Yunmen asked, “Aren’t those Zhangzhuo’s words?” The student said, “Yes.” Yunmen said, “You have misspoken.”  Gateless Gate, case 39 I never graduated from High School. At 38, when I […]

When I started planning my sabbatical, I thought, “Ooh, I’ll have all this time. I could take two classes at United rather than my usual one per term.” I quickly realized that this would soak up a great deal of the time freed by sabbatical, that there is no hurry to move through my program, […]

Magic is everywhere. In December, the Soul Matters theme was mystery. If you ask me, that is only the beginning.  Starting in December, there is the mystery of Santa Claus and his famous reindeer. Some people won’t allow their children to believe in him because they claim he is Christian. Catholics do refer to him […] The post Santa Claus — the mystery and wonder in mythical beings appeared first on Nature's Sacred Journey.

Scottish regimental bands and pipers did much to spread Auld Lang Syne across Queen Victoria's far flung Empire. Note —Second of a holiday two-fer for New Year’s Eve Although there have occasionally been other songs that made feeble attempts to displace it, New Year ’ s Eve belongs firmly to Auld Lang Syne and it promises to remain supreme in defiance of any and all changes in musical tastes and styles. Most of us know that the song comes from a poem by the revered Ploughman Poet and Scottish national icon Robert Burns.   But you may not know the whole story.                                     The Scottish Ploughman Poet Robert Burns. After his first blush of fame with the publication of his Kilarnock Poems ...

                                                                      Dan Fogelberg's autobiographical Same Old Lang Syne . Note —A holiday two-fer today for New Year’s Eve.                                         Illinois singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg. Dan Fogelberg ’s 1980 masterpiece Same Old Lang Syne is set on a dismal Christmas Eve but it repeated riff on Old Lang Syne make it feel like a New Year’s song as well.   The Peoria, Illinois native based the song on his own experience running into a high school sweetheart at a liquor store on a slushy Christmas Eve during a visit home. Whichever rainy holiday eve it is, the song struck a deep chord with many.  ...

Please join us on Sunday (31 December 2023) at 11:00 AM for “Each and Every Step” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in person at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA  71106 if you are able to do so. Our … Continue reading "All Ages Worship (31 December 2023)"

For this Sunday (31 December 2023), our children and youth will be preparing snack bags for Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention (LA-AID).  These snack bags will be used by immigrants as they travel from Shreveport to relocate with families and friends. For next Sunday (7 January 2024), our children and youth classes will resume … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education (31 December 2023)"

The adult religious education class will not be meeting this Sunday (31 December 2023). The adult religious education class will resume on 7 January 2024 at 9:00 AM with part 1 of the film Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness.  The class will watch part 2 on 14 January 2024. The class will be meeting in … Continue reading "No Adult Religious Education on 31 December 2023 — Class Resumes 7 January 2024"

Please join us next Wednesday (3 January 2024) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch. Our weekly Zoom lunch is dual-platform — join us from home using Zoom or in person in the social hall. Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

We went south for a few days after Christmas to meet up with friends and hike in the beautiful Santa Ynez Mountains. The route took us down through the Salinas Valley. At one point a patch of sun on the otherwise clouded hills was so striking that I considered stopping to take a picture, or […]

“And the best news of all: this taking what we need and leaving the rest behind isn’t only a one time thing. We can do it anytime. Looking back over our lives, we can hear the stories anew, choosing where to focus our attention and where to widen our view. We can let go of … Continue reading Take What You Need

If we really believe in practicing world-affirming religions, then we should affirm the world we live in by working for the good of the planet and all that live upon it. Continue reading To Honor the Gods at The Wild Hunt.

The Wild Hunt congratulates Prof. Ronald Hutton! Continue reading Congratulations to Prof. Ronald Hutton at The Wild Hunt.

Kitty and Arlo A short  “ thought for the day” offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful   Meditation.   (A recorded version of the following piece can be heard at this link)  —o0o— Over the last week, thanks to the wonderful fact that the temporary manse on New Square has room enough to welcome guests, Susanna and I have had the pleasure of being able to host a family Christmas for the first time during the 23 years I’ve been the minister here. Susanna’s two children, Sara and Jim, their partners Eugene and Alba, and their respective children, Phoenix, aged 6, and Armando, aged 14 months, shared a Christmas Day lunch with us, and later on we were joined for a few hours by an old...

Zooey Deschanel's and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's seemingly impromptu home video of them singing What are You Doing New Year's Eve?  went viral in  2011 and boosted the song to pop standard status.  Back in the day everyone who was not a misanthrope or a shut-in went out on New Year ’ s Eve .   The toffs wore their white ties and tails or elegant evening gowns and furs to don paper hats and dance the night way to orchestras in sprawling Art Deco ballrooms .   At least that is what all the old movies taught the rest of the Depression and war weary populous.   But those average Joes and Jills also went out and celebrated with their own funny hats and noise makers in urban ballrooms, lodge halls , piano bars , and neighborhood saloons . ...

Please join us on Saturday (30 December 2023) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes. This group will be meeting via Zoom and not in person. This is a sitting Buddhist meditation including a brief introduction to mindfulness meditation, 20 minutes of sitting, and followed by a weekly teaching. The group … Continue reading "Meditation with Larry Androes (30 December 2023)"

It’s been a busy week! Before we say goodbye to 2023, we need to ask for your support one more time. Continue reading End of Year Drive at The Wild Hunt.

It’s been an eventful year, both for U.S. organized religion generally, and for Unitarian Universalism in particular. In this post, I’ll start by reviewing some of the key developments in organized religion in the U.S. In a second post, I’ll review some of the explosive developments within Unitarian Universalism. 1. Culture wars and religion Religion … Continue reading "Year in review, pt. 1"

Holli Emore, director of Cherry Hill Seminary, reached out to Rabbi David Wolpe for an interfaith conversation following his article "The Return of Paganism" earlier this week in The Atlantic. But Wolpe declined, claiming his article was not intended to address modern Pagans. Continue reading Rabbi Wolpe declines invitation to speak with modern Pagans at The Wild Hunt.

“I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.” – Lena Waithe When have you experienced a fragment of yourself reflected in a story?

                  The master Baizhang was charged with naming a founding abbot for Mount Daigu. He called his community together and set a full water bottle in their midst. He said, “Don’t call this a water bottle. What will you call it?” The head monk responded, “It’s not […]

                                                       Leonard Bernstein's Christmas Album. The other evening, I caught Bradley Cooper’s highly lauded bio pic Maestro at home on Netflix.   Conditions for viewing were not exactly a hushed and darkened theater.   Three and a half year old granddaughter Matilda spent most of the evening cavorting, singing, dancing, hoping, and sometimes just racing around the house.   She drowned out a lot of the dialogue.   But I saw enough to recognize a superior, maybe great, film that moved me. A theatrical poster for Bradly Cooper's Maestro . Producer and director Cooper seemed to inhabit Leonard Bernstein so completely that moments into the movie you believe you ...

We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery.Paulo Coelho I am attracted to mystery, to what cannot be easily explained, if explained at all. I was the child who believed Santa would … Continue reading →

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, we celebrate Kwanzaa and share forthcoming events as well as record and share Pagan responses to The Atlantic magazine's publication of an anti-Pagan article by Rabbi David Wolpe. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of December 26, 2023 at The Wild Hunt.

A video from December 2001 with images of Compassion for Campers' 13 years of solidarity and support of un-housed humanity in McHenry County. I know that most of us are deluged at the end of the year by fundraising appeals for causes we have supported in the past, from charities that bought your e-mail address from somebody else’s list, or targeted you from social media algorithms.   You can’t support them all.   But if you haven’t made up your mind about tax deductible contributions yet, I ask you to consider Compassion for Campers.   We serve the unhoused and housing insecure of McHenry county by supplying life saving camping gear and equipment, hygiene and basic health care items, non-perishable food,   and assorted items fr...

“In all sacred literature, the hearts of the storytellers are revealed in the stories, their breath is felt in the words on the page, and we may be touched or moved or stirred by their ancient art. And maybe we can glimpse a truth that they saw, if we read closely and reflect on what … Continue reading Sacred Stories

The older I get the more I see that life is one mystery after another. Things that I do and things that others do. The way the world works is all a mystery to me.   I was driving and I … Continue reading →

                                                        River by Joni Mitchell. CBS broadcast the 2021 Kennedy Center Honors.   First up for recognition was Joni Mitchell, who now stands and walks with difficulty since recovering from a devastating 2015 brain aneurysm rupture but was in good spirits as the story of her life unfolded on stage along with many of her finest songs.   Among them was River from her 1971 album Blue sung by Brandi Carlile.   It was a breathtaking, wounded, and personal song off the most highly regarded album of her long career.   It is also a Christmas song like none you ever heard before or since.    Mitchell, of course, is the iconic Canadian singer/songwriter, who emerg...

        I have friends who suggest anything they really like doing is a spiritual practice. When they’re not just being cute or ironic, as some of my friends do, the principle they seem to rely upon for this assertion is that such things as knitting, bowling, cooking, all involve concentration and at […]

“What do you do with the secret verses of your heart? With your need for redemption, the story without words? With paradoxical truths, too private and nuanced to share, that cannot be printed or spoken aloud? “You weave their energy into a poem, carefully, carefully, over and under and through, luminescent strands that cannot be … Continue reading Poets

Our tarot expert, Star Bustamonte, shares a12-month overview of the year ahead utilizing a different deck for each month. Continue reading A look ahead: Tarot Prospectus for 2024 at The Wild Hunt.

The following are the top ten best books I’ve read since this time last year–in alphabetical order by the author’s last name because agonizing over a precise order would take all the fun out of remembering these books: Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr. by Marc […]

There were eleven new species discovered in 2023, and 21 were declared extinct, and NASA discovered six new exoplanets. With all this, the mysteries of the universe still sit at our door. I often question our exploration and the humans … Continue reading →

The Top 10 posts of 2023 on Under the Ancient Oaks: divination, a Storm Goddess, Pagan clothing and jewelry, and a lot about the conflicts going on in this world and in the Otherworld.

                                                                    Kwanzaa song Harambee by Rita Marley. Today is the second day of Kwanzaa which was created in 1966 during the blossoming of a period of Black Nationalism by Maulana Karenga , a Black studies scholar and a leading Los Angeles militant who was born Ron Everett in Parsonsburg, Maryland on July 14, 1941 Beginning on December 26 and running through January 1, candles are lit representing African values.   Each of the values is given a Swahili name.   Today is day two— Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): “To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.” Kwanzaa was meant to be a family centered...

Starting with the George Floyd protests in 2020, we began hearing calls to defund police. Police departments, so the thinking went, mostly served White interests, and thus tended to support White supremacy. This argument may have been valid, but it ignored other interests that have controlled police departments in the U.S. “On May 28, 1937, … Continue reading "Police departments vs. labor"

Photo taken with a Fuji X100V using Øyvind Nordhagen’s Kodak Ektar 100 Recipe   Click on the photo to enlarge

Today is my dad’s birthday. For many years, his story got forgotten in the story of the holidays happening at this time of year. While we try to make his birthday special, it will always be at Christmas time. -Michael Tino (CLF) What are your stories that are too often forgotten?

TWH's editor-in-chief Manny Tejeda Moreno responds to Rabbi Wolpe's atrocious attack on Paganism in the pages of "The Atlantic." Continue reading Editorial: “The Atlantic” publishes another attack on Pagans. Where are Pagan voices in its pages? at The Wild Hunt.

Every family has their secrets. The not so big one on my mom’s side was that she had a child out of wedlock and gave him up for adoption. I found this out when I was about 7 or 8 … Continue reading →

Today I offer two gift articles from the New York Times related to the hands and the wonders they bring. One involves knitting and the other blacksmithing. Both, while one is noisy and the other not, offer solace to the soul. Make, fix and create...

The Irish Rovers' popular and a little rowdy Good King Wenceslas earns them a warming drink reward in this video. Today is the second day of the 12 Days of Christmas, a day with multiple personalities as we will see.   We will celebrate with an English carol about a Bohemian princeling/saint. The Brits and the residents of other former pink blotches on Queen Victoria ’s globe spend today, Boxing Day , storming the malls and shops on what is usually the busiest retail sales day of the year. Disgruntled gift recipients hit the refund and exchange desks and others spent the gift cards and even old fashion cash.    But unlike most Yanks they do it on an official National Holiday as a paid day off.   Officially December 26 is just anoth...

This is a song I wrote in college in 1982. Since then I’ve been married, worked for 38 years before retiring, and raised 3 children with my best friend in this world. We had no clue what we would become … Continue reading →

Every Christmas EveFor the rest of my careerI will preach about the yearI cried through the entireChristmas Eve service. Every lesson,Every carolAccompanied by quiet sobsWho chose their sacred momentTo proclaim the truthThat set them free –Grief takes no holidays. Some ChristmasesAre just sad ones,And that’s ok –You can crythrough the entire service.Just don’t you dareLeaveUntil […]

Readings: Homily Homily – Choosing to Love, Anyway  In Bethlehem tonight, the usual extravagant Christmas celebrations have been canceled. In place of Glorias echoing across the land, there is war and grief, all across Palestine and Israel, and in Gaza. As the … Continue reading →

We have waited, hopeful, for the birth of love into the world. We have waited, hopeful, for the birth of joy and peace. Let every heart now prepare them room. Let heaven and nature sing the good news of the arrival of something new. We have arrived here as weary travelers longing for a rest, … Continue reading Birthing Peace

        “Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night; God said ‘Let Newton be” and all was light.” Alexander Pope Me, I like Christmas. Actually I love it. But here I am in the early hours of Christmas day. And my thoughts drift in several ways.. For one. We’ll be celebrating the […]

                                                                      Go Tell it on the Mountain sung by the Blind Boys of Alabama. Of all the announcement carols Go Tell It On the Mountain is unusual for a number of reasons.   It is not European but rooted in the American Black Community and dated to the era when the end of slavery flourished.   It is not an announcement by the Heavenly Hosts, but an instruction to a whole people to spread the good word.   And because of its connections to the Civil Rights Movement , it doubles as a Christmas Carol and a liberation anthem . Watch Night when African-Americans gathered on New Year's Eve to greet the news of the Emancipation Proclamation.   Man...

We seem to live in troubled times, and yet when we take matters into our own creative hands, things seem to fall into a better place. It might be easy to fall into despair, but it's also easy to surrender to the help and companionship of friends.  Lacking friends at hand, your own hands can be your friends, luring you into a meditative state.  I have found that I've been given a great gift in that I'm given the opportunities  to teach, both through my books and articles and through classes. When we empower others to discover their own creativity, expressed in the making useful beauty we are helping to create the world of peace and joy that all long for.  Along with season’s greetings and holiday cheer, I’m imagining all the wonde...

                                                                      Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Our first Christmas Day carol is my own personal favorite .   I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is unusual in that there is no reference to the Christ child , manger , Holy Family, shepherds , Magi , or even the Herald Angels .   Instead, it focuses on the message of those angels amid the ghastly carnage of war.   It was written not by famed Unitarian hymnist Samuel Longfellow , but by his brother Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , then America ’ s most honored and adored poet who had created national epics like The Courtship of Miles Standish , The Song of Hiawat...

PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS NO MORNING SERVICE TODAY Join us for our annual Christmas Eve tradition of story and song, followed by a Christmas cookie reception in the Fellowship Hall

While I’ve come to accept that sometimes the Pagan community just doesn’t care about something as much as I do, there are times when I find myself screaming “this is important! Why are you not reading this?!”

Mi homilía de Nochebuena (2023). The post Homilía de Nochebuena (2023) appeared first on Colin Bossen.

This is not a subtle film. This is like Game of Thrones without a hint of subtlety and stranger accents. Continue reading The Pagan King: a Latvian medieval epic loaded with Pagan imagery at The Wild Hunt.

“If you came to this place expecting a tame story, you came to the wrong place. If you came for a story that does not threaten you, you came for a different story than the one we tell. If you came to hear of the coming of a God who only showed up so that … Continue reading Which Story?

                                                         Luciano Pavarotti singing Adeste Fideles in 1978. Note —We need another for Christmas Eve.   After the brief serenity for   Mary, Joseph, and the infant comes the noisy hullabaloo of the Announcement carols. Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful ) is one of the most exuberant of announcement carols and is a perennial favorite for both choir performance and congregational singing at Christmas Eve services .   It is based on two Old Testament verses said to foretell the coming of the Messiah— Psalm 98, 96:11-12 and Genesis 3:17-18 but like other popular carols it is sung as if it is an announcement of the birth of Christ by angels on high. My...

        The Christmas Truce was a minor bit of passive resistance on the Western front in the First World War. Which was at the time called the Great War, and to our tastes terribly ironic, War to End all Wars. In 1914 English, French, and German troops paused in the battle. A […]

                                                       Silent Night sung by Boney M. By far the most beloved and sung of all Western Christmas carols is Silent Night .   It will be sung tonight at Catholic midnight masses, candlelight services like the Tree of Life ’ s in McHenry, by hardy carolers in neighborhood streets, in many versions on Holiday radio, and in family rooms around the Christmas tree. Two hundred and five years ago Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht was first performed at St. Nicholas parish church in the village Oberndorf on the Salzach River in the Austrian Empire.   Today Silent Night is by far the most popular traditional Christmas carol in the English speaking world and has been trans...

In the wood shop at ESSA I'm beginning a table making project. What I hope will be the end results are shown in the drawing. There will be four that will go in our Commons house that is used for meetings and for guest teachers to gather after hours. They can be arranged individually or assembled as a group for board meetings, and it's all part of the steady growth of our school. The four columns supporting the table tops are made using birdmouth joints commonly used in boat building to make hollow spars and masts. They are 6 sided and hollow so that steel rods can pass through, and so that lighter material can be used. The feet will rest on pads made from high density plastic that will keep moving them from marring the floor.  To start,...

                                                           It Came Upon a Midnight Clear sung by Ella Fitzgerald. Note—Both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day deserve bonus two-fer entries! In churches around the world this evening announcement carols will be central to the services.    Many are bold and glorious whether sung by massed choirs or by congregations that know them by heart.   Adeste Fideles ( O Come All Ye Faithful ) and the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel ’ s Messiah are two of the grander examples, although there are plenty of others in Christmas song books, but my personal favorite is much more modest. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear is one of the oldest and most beloved of American Chri...

Please join us on Sunday night (24 December 2023) at 6:30 PM for our Christmas Eve candlelight worship service (if your children want to participate in the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song, please bring them by 6:00 PM for a short rehearsal). We will sing the carols with the original words, hear the Christmas Story … Continue reading "Christmas Eve Candlelight Service (24 December 2023)"

Please join us on Sunday (24 December 2023) at 11:00 AM for our Sunday morning worship service.  On the fourth Sunday of Advent, we will have a simpler service. There will be no children and youth religious education on this Sunday — all ages are welcome in the worship service and holiday busy bags will … Continue reading "All Ages Worship (24 December 2023)"

This Sunday (24 December 2023) will be an intergenerational worship service. There will be no children and youth religious education classes happening during the worship service time. Our children and youth will be staying in the sanctuary for the worship service.

Our weekly 9:00 AM Sunday adult religious education classes will be taking a break for the next two Sundays — no class on 24 and 31 December 2023. We will have some special programming on 7 and 14 January 2024 — watch our website and social media announcements for updates.

Please join us next Wednesday (27 December 2023) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch. Our weekly Zoom lunch is dual-platform — join us from home using Zoom or in person in the social hall. Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

Back in 1845, Thomas Commuck published a book of sacred songs titled “Indian Melodies.” Commuck called his book that because he was a member of the Brothertown Indian Nation. In the introduction, referring to himself in the third person, he tells why his published his book: “his object is to make a little money.” To … Continue reading "An unusual Christmas carol"

A reader emailed me saying that he had been prevented from entering a comment by my captcha plugin (Simple Cloudflare Turnstile); he got a message saying he had to verify he was human but was not given a problem to solve. Reading the online forum for this plugin on WordPress.org reveals that others have had … Continue reading "More problems with captchas"

The British Museum has announced a new £50 million partnership with the oil company BP after an apparent break between the two institutions earlier this year. Continue reading British Museum and British Petroleum are bedfellows again at The Wild Hunt.

Here we are together each facing our different human tasks or maybe the same central one: to embrace the lessons life delivers to discern and respond as we grow to refuse harm and cherish flourishing May we know ourselves as vessels of infinite possibility Holders of each other’s heartaches and tales of joy alike weavers … Continue reading Weavers

          A student of the intimate asked the master Huguo, “What about when every drop of water has become ice?” The master replied, “It will be shameful once the sun has arisen.” Book of Serenity The heart of Zen meditation, what makes it go, is samadhi. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, samadhi […]

My essay in the Front Porch Republic will be published in mid January, so in the meantime I'm reviewing material for a second essay that I hope will find a home in another publication. It is interesting how deep the resources are that promote hands-on learning over the lecture style teaching that we normally subject students to. It is shameful what we put students through in school. That such boredom is acceptable illustrates how little we value human culture and our kids and the development of their minds.  Lecture based learning is proven to be strikingly ineffective, and yet, in schools teachers and administrations persist for they are given little opportunity to  make the changes that are most necessary. This snippet from an articl...

Nativity Scene by Eiichi Kotozuka (1906-1979) A Christmas Day meditation offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church (Click on this link to hear a recorded version of the following piece) —o0o— Imaoka Shin’ichirō  (1881-1988) was a living legend in Japan who influenced the development of progressive and liberal religion in that country and who was also one of the key figures in the founding of the “yuniterian” [sic] movement there. He was also a key figure in the inter-faith organisation called the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF), and in a recent biography about him by George M. Williams, he has been described as being “a Bodhisattva-Kami-Christian-Unitarian-sage — the Emerson of Japan.” He was so...

This image was produced by ChatGPT 4 after asking it to produce a black and white drawing of an empty manger standing alongside a manger with a small child lying in it that could accompany this Christmas Eve Meditation A short  “ thought for the day” offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful   Meditation.   (A recorded version of the following piece can be heard at this link)  —o0o— Back in March [2023] I listened to a Financial Times podcast on the subject of quantum computing because I was interested in understanding, as much as a non-mathematician and physicist can, what the basic difference is between a classical computer and a quantum computer. To help people like me, Madhumita ...

The 1953 Columbia re-recording was featured on this LP ad is the one most commonly heard on Christmas radio. American kids have their own category of secular Christmas songs , most centering on or around that Jolly Old Elf a/k/a Santa Clause , St . Nick , Kris Kringle , etc. You have to forgive the greedy little buggers for not focusing on the birth of a baby and the whole savior and Messiah thing .   A fat guy with a bag full of toys and flying reindeer trump all the Holy stuff .   The songs include ditties like Jolly Old St. Nicholas , Santa Claus is Coming to Town , and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer .   And the most successful singer of such songs was cowboy crooner Gene Autry who became the children ’ s Bing Crosby in the post-...

Some of us have gone numb and non-functional; others are deep in the season and lighting candles, decorating trees, celebrating the return of the Sun, and practicing so many other traditions and acts of faith and love that this writer cannot name them all. I, myself, am holding space in the in-between this year. Continue reading Hard Candy Christmas at The Wild Hunt.

Please join us on Saturday (23 December 2023) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes. This group will be meeting via Zoom and not in person. This is a sitting Buddhist meditation including a brief introduction to mindfulness meditation, 20 minutes of sitting, and followed by a weekly teaching. The group … Continue reading "Meditation with Larry Androes (23 December 2023)"

“My struggle to find a solid identity is also true for other parts of me—as an artist, a pagan, and a person—as if everything that’s led me here are only interruptions and obstacles, instead of part of what makes me the more whole person I am today. The shift, for me, occurred by telling my … Continue reading Finding Identity Through Story

Sunday, December 24 at 7:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Candlelight Service with Live Harp Music by Jessica Siegel Celebrate the spirit of Christmas in a family worship service that honors the life and teachings of Jesus. Sing your favorite Christmas carols, enjoy beautiful harp music, and experience the beauty and peace of our annual candle-lighting ceremony. “And   [ … ] The post Sunday, December 24 ~ Christmas Eve Candlelight Service ~ 7:00 p.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

                                                                 Dar Williams performs her song The Christians and the Pagans live. Note — One more for the convergence of neo-pagan Winter Solstice observations and Christmas. Back in 2012 my wife Kathy and I splurged on a then rare night out to take in a concert teaming Loudin Wainwright III and feminist/lesbian folkie Dar Williams .   Wainwright was the draw for us.   I was only dimly aware of Williams and don’t think I had ever heard one of her songs.   She ended up blowing us away.   And one of her most memorable songs was The Christians and The Pagans .   Like many of her compositions it was autobiographical about she and her lesbian lov...

For the past twenty-odd years, ever since I was old enough to truly ponder it, the mystery of the meaning of life has taken up a fair amount of space in my mind. My emotions surrounding this big unknown (that … Continue reading →

For a Solstice treat, Margy and I went to Kettle Cove beach a little before sunset. Santa was gathering seaweed for the garden. Now you might not think Santa would be out on Solstice, but the ancient European pagans laid claim to this gentle gift-giver from the north much before St. Nicholas. In fact, in […]

                  Here we are, rushing toward Christmas. For various reasons, I find myself thinking of Charles Dickens and particularly his wonderful novella, A Christmas Carol. Some of my friends actually read the original story, a few even aloud, annually. Others watch one of the many film versions. […]

Earlier this month, we featured a reflection by CLF’s Rose Gallogly about writing her own Winter Solstice Story. Rose has kindly shared the story with all of us–it is linked below. Each time a new being was introduced to the world, the Moon whispered to them: “Remember always that this world works in cycles. There … Continue reading Turn the Year Around

For the past 30 years, Mount Auburn Cemetery has hosted an evening Solstice event, and it has become enough a fixture of the local holiday season in Boston that tickets for those nights sell out fairly quickly. What began as … Continue reading →