Leslie Gatto Acknowledging that our dream was not happening didn't end the grief, but it did offer closure. Continue reading "Laying Dreams to Rest"

Yesterday we installed the small bridge we'd made with students at the Clear Spring School, before getting back to making products for their pay what you want shop. The students added small toy boats, miniature Christmas trees and dreidels to their product line. Make, fix and create...

                                                       Light up the Nights  by Yerachmiel Begun & The Miami Boys Choir. On the Fourth Night of Hanukkah, we have to face the tragedy of a holiday song trying way too hard to be hip.  Yerachmiel Begun & The Miami Boys Choir are considered superstars of Orthodox Jewish choral music with more than 30 albums under its belt since 1980.  Begun began with a boys choir in Toronto in the 1970’s before relocating to Miami.  He is the composer and arranger of the ensemble’s original music. Yerachmiel Begun & The Miami Boys Choir. But in 1998 he applied the disco/Latin Funk/Miami Sound Machine vibe to Light up the Nights on the choir’s album Chanukah - Light ...

  Tell all the truth but tell it slant –Success in Circuit liesToo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth’s superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children easedWith explanation kindThe Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind – Emily Dickinson People sometimes say they are spiritual but not religious. I find that phrase can open […]

This month, we will be exploring the theme of mystery–the unknown, the unknowable, and even those things we’d rather not know. Mysteries ask us to search for something beyond what we have right now. What are you searching for today?

Tiger Girl looks like a generic example of the Jungle Girl craze in comics, but she differs from them greatly. In 1944, while the South was segregated and most New York comic book publishers avoided putting out anything that might hurt sales by offending racists, Fight Comics introduced Tiger Girl, the daughter of an Indian prince and an Irish woman.Other things set her apart too: Her companions

The Lowlander Center provides vital support to southern Louisiana's Indigenous communities.

Several new archaeological discoveries in the U.K.: Southwark statue of King Alfred containing part of a Roman goddess, ruins of a Roman villa in Rutland, and the incredible finds made a 13-year-old in Hertfordshire. Continue reading New discovery concerning Southwark statue of King Alfred at The Wild Hunt.

Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo, CC BY 2.0Focusing on race makes rich black people the heroes of America’s story and costs them nothing. Focusing on class makes them part of the problem and threatens their economic privilege.Adolph Reed provides two examples:At Neoliberalism & Black Politics: A TBS Conversation With Adolph Reed, Part 1, he said,‘I’ve been teaching mainly in the

By Masha Rumer | As the year draws to an end, it’s a reminder of the new coping skills just about everyone has acquired because of the pandemic. In the case of immigrants, the shortages also hurled us right back into our childhoods. Many of us we were raised on stories of famines and wartime starvation, tempered by breadlines and diluted sour cream, particularly in the former Soviet Union, where I’m from. Nothing went to waste: neither old yarn nor chicken skins nor beet greens. We brought this hardiness with us to the US.

                                                                      Hanerot Halalu sung by the Maccabeats. For the Third Night of Hanukkah, we will feature another song/prayer sung in the evening home service.   Hanerot Halalu is recited after the lights on the Menorah are kindled. There are several different versions.  The version by the Maccabeats that we are sharing here is used by many Ashkenazicommunities. The Maccabeats were students at the Orthodox Yeshiva University inNew York City.  The 14 member a cappella group was organized by Julian (Chaim) Horowitz in 2007.  By 2010 the were in the university’s graduate school when they released their first CD, Voices from the Heights which ...

    The deep matter of the heart is not bound by any religion. It is not owned by any culture. It is our common heritage as human beings. I suspect it will someday be possible to diagram the matters of the heart in scientific terms. And we are not there. Each time people think […]

History is written by people who think like the winners and thus miss inconvenient facts. “The Dawn of Everything” provides evidence that different ways of living are possible, because we have lived and governed ourselves in many different ways in the past.

“Do not fear agitation, for agitation is the rhythm of life itself; to be put into motion, to be stirred. Do not fear the movements that decenter what you always thought permanent. You carry within the center of your understanding, the compass to show you the way.” -Tania Márquez What is disturbing the rhythm of … Continue reading Agitation

Grassroots generosity and community action are powerful forces for good, especially in turbulent times.

In this week's pagan Community notes: bison and petroglyphs, SAPRA condemns TikTok videos, monarch butterflies, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of November 29, 2021 at The Wild Hunt.

I know your are probably inundated with worthy Giving Tuesday begging.   But nowhere can your donation of any size have greater immediate impact than sharing with Compassion for Campers which serves the McHenry County unhoused who will spend all or part of each month this winter camping out or living in a vehicle.   Your dollars almost immediately be used to buy the critical gear—tents, sleeping bags, pads, tarps, stoves, fuel, warm gloves, hats, and socks—as well as personal hygiene items, flashlights and batteries, and non-perishable food.   Give today and a homeless person can pick them up at Community Empower Shower events at Willow Crystal Lake the first and third Fridays of the month.   Not only that, but 100% of your donat...

Thanks to Barry & Nancy Wilder for their years of service and contributions to All Souls Care Team and the Pastoral Care program. The post Centennial Awards: Barry & Nancy Wilder appeared first on BeyondBelief.

Tim Pierce from Berlin, MA, USA, CC BY 2.0The first law of prejudice: The rich look down on the poor.1. Basic dataIdentitarians and universalists agree the US racial hierarchy looks like this:from https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.pdfFor identitarians, the racial hierarchy is all you need to understand who has power in the United States. They wave

                                               Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages) sung by Haddasah Berne. Hanukkah , coming early this year in November, snuck up on me.  I blame the wall calendar next to my desk which low tech me relies on to remind me of such things.  This year’s calendar doesn’t include Jewish holy days.  I’ll have the B’nai B’rith look into it. Hanukkah began last evening with the lighting of the first candle on the Menorah at sundown.  It is a celebration of the miracle of light that occurred when Judah Maccabee liberated the Temple in Jerusalem but only had enough purified oil to burn one night.  But the oil was enough to light the Menorah for 8 days until more could be rituall...

        Hanukkah is an interesting holiday. One the rabbis quite correctly have always felt more than ambivalent about, but also one people just love. I reflect on this celebration of light every couple of years. So parts that follow are repeats, parts are new discoveries I find I make each time I […]

“The question is not whether we will get lost in life, but rather how we will move through it in faith. Will we dwell on everything that we have lost? Or will we focus instead on everything that we have yet to find? As it happens, there is much that awaits us in our lostness. … Continue reading Lost

The mystery of the Brown Mountain Lights remain unexplained and offer an opportunity for adventure when it comes to viewing them. Continue reading The magic and mystery of the Brown Mountain Lights at The Wild Hunt.

CUC Approves 8th Principle on Dismantling Racism and Systemic Barriers to Full Inclusion On Saturday, November 27th, 2021 at a Special Meeting, Canadian Unitarian Universalists voted to approve adding an 8th Principle to the current seven Principles: “We, the member congregations of the Canadian Unitarian Council, covenant to affirm and promote:” Individual and communal action […] The post CUC Approves 8th Principle on Dismantling Racism and Systemic Barriers to Full Inclusion appeared first on Canadian Unitarian Council Conseil unitarien du Canada.

Nicogenin, CC BY-SA 2.0When the rich dress to impress, they wear black suits and dresses. Because wealth is associated with power and knowledge, judges, scholars, and priests wear black gowns. And because knowledge is associated with sex, people who want to be sexy wear black tuxedoes, gowns, little dresses, and lingerie.Black is the color of the richest earth.Black gold is a name for oil

In this season of Thanksgiving, we celebrate the many ways music can touch our spirits, sometimes at a depth words alone don't reach. This virtual service is mostly music, and features videos from many talented singers and musicians in our congregation and beyond. Our overarching theme is gratitude for the love we share, a love that can ripple out to bless the world.

We did a really hard hike this week. The “Old Quarry Trail” on Mount Burdell. It was beautiful, but there was about a quarter of a mile that was close to impossible for me. It was steep and rocky, lots of the rocks were loose and climbing required some really large steps on unstable ground. […]

      As it happens the Episcopal diocese of Hawaii celebrates today, the 28th of November as the “Feast of the Holy Sovereigns.” The rest of the Episcopal church marks today as a feast for “Kamehameha and Emma, King & Queen of Hawaii.” While I have mixed feelings about how royals end up saints, […]

You can create simple connector building sets by using axle pins. They are designed for use with two sizes of drill bit and are normally used to connect wooden wheels to toy cars and trucks. The tenon will fit tightly into a 7/32 in. hole, or rotate freely in a hole drilled 1/4 in.  diameter. At the Clear Spring School we use these as axle pins for making toy cars and also for pins to secure pivoting lids on boxes. Drill 1/4 in. holes in pieces you want to pivot freely, and 7/32 in. holes where you want the pin to fit tight.  I'll not show you anything further about this, as you can use your own imaginations or rely on the imaginations of your own kids. The point of course is that with a drill, some scraps of wood, and two sizes of dri...

                                             We Gather Together sung by the Hymn Ensemble.   This Sunday we share a simple, lyrical hymn beloved of American Protestants and most often used in Thanksgiving services.   It seems to invoke a colonial or early republican times.   But the song is not American, older than that, and not meant to be associated with the American harvest feast.   Instead, We Gather Together is 200 years older, of Dutch origin with a bloody inspiration.   Originally written in 1597 by Adrianus Valerius as Wilt heden nu treden to celebrate the Dutch victory over Spanish forces in the Battle of Turnhout. It was thus a patriotic song rather than a religious one.   But of course, i...

A meme going around says “most magic is just making stuff up.” I’m uncomfortable with this line of thinking. While intuitive magic is real, for most people a disciplined approach to magic will yield better results than flying by the seat of your pants.

“Creative Darkness, closest friend, you whisper in the night; you calm our fears as unknown paths surprise us with new sight.” -Jann Aldredge-Clanton Spend some time in darkness today. Feel its power and its healing.

Please join us on Sunday (28 November 2021) at 11:00 AM for “My Source of Resilience, Strength, and Hope — Member Reflections” by Claudia Harris and Kevin Henry.  This service will also includes reflections on Advent by Susan Caldwell. Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. This will be our fourth consecutive in-person … Continue reading "In-Person and Online All-Ages Worship (28 November 2021)"

Please join us on Sunday (28 November 2021) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. We are discussing episodes of the podcast Learning How to See with Rev. Brian McLaren, Father Richard Rohr, and Rev. Jacqui Lewis. They are discussing the 13 kinds of bias that Rev. Barbara mentioned recently in … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 28 November 2021"

We will continue to watch the local COVID numbers.  We feel encouraged by the cooling weather and the possibility of comfortable outdoor activities. We are not resuming regular classes for children and youth at this time because our classrooms are too small to be safe for unvaccinated children, and because we want some time to … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Updates"

The All Souls Holiday All Souls Holiday Park-It Market will happen on Sunday (12 December 2021) from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Attention all painters, bakers, sculptors, sketch artists, fabric artists, candle makers, candy makers, jewelry makers, authors, musicians, makers, and merchants of all the things . . . We know this is short notice, but … Continue reading "All Souls Holiday Park-It Market — Sunday, 12 December 2021"

Please join us next Wednesday (1 December 2021) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch. Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

    All summer I made friends With the creatures nearby – They flowed through the fields And under the tent walls, Or padded through the door, Grinning through their many teeth, Looking for seeds, Suet, sugar; muttering and humming, Opening the breadbox, happiest when There was milk and music. But once In the night […]

                                                                      Thanksgiving Song by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Let’s linger over Thanksgiving music through this four day weekend and before we plunge headfirst into Christmas fare.  No reason or need to rush the jingle bells and tinsel.  We’ll start with a piece by Mary Chapin Carpenter off her 2008 album Come Darkness, Come Light: Twelve Songs of Christmas .  Chances are unless you are a hardcore fan you have not heard Thanksgiving Song which generated almost no airplay when it came out or since. Carpenter is an original and some say quirky country music/Americana singer songwriter who is much beloved by other artists across many genres ...

A recent genetic study of Viking Age individuals reveals that, far from being "pure Scandinavian," the Vikings embraced a diverse array of peoples into their culture. Karl Seigfried argues for contemporary Heathens to emulate this diversity in the modern religion. Continue reading Column: The Viking Age as a Model of Diversity at The Wild Hunt.

Orwell was Wrong.Jordan L’Hôte, CC BY 3.0Moralists dream of making the world better by controlling the language we use. I understand their love of symbolic change—it is much easier to make words taboo and create new ones than it is to change reality. The moralists’ belief that words shape reality is known, appropriately, by several names: linguistic relativity, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis,

I got an advertisement via email this morning for this Brio Builder Set shown it the photo. It reminded me that many parents want their kids to be doing stuff. It also reminded me that a some parents out there have the capacity to make building sets that are far more interesting and at a much lower cost, and that offer a much higher level of collaborative fun.  Threaded inserts are a fabulous way of making jigs and fixtures for woodworking, but they are also great for building things that can be taken apart, and put back together in new configurations. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07QQQFZQW To build a builder set for your child, make a few long joining strips with 1/4 in. holes in them, buy some 10 x 20 steel screws of various lengths ...

    It’s November 27th! And with that, once again, the blessings of the saints Barlaam & Josaphat are upon us! This is flat out my favorite of all Christian holidays. And I like to remind people of the details of this original Christian Buddhist mashup. So, please forgive the repetition parts of this small sharing. […]

Bridges are marvels of engineering and architecture that provide vital connection for societies. Similarly, we build spiritual bridges that provide vital connection for our souls. Make a connection today. Reach out.

Please join us on Saturday (27 November 2021) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes. 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 is free and open to all. For more information, contact Larry … Continue reading "Meditation with Larry Androes (27 November 2021)"

"Other elemental energies sometimes communicate with me using words, but earth most often sends images." Continue reading Column: Elemental Earth at The Wild Hunt.

UUSC is committed to ensuring that elections in Honduras are fair and accessible for all Hondurans

Frederick Douglass is the most important black American and one of the most important abolitionists of the 19th century. I admire him for the same reason I admire Malcolm X: he started with almost everything against him and rose because he was a brilliant speaker who could admit his mistakes and transcend them.Yet Douglass was left out of the 1619 Project for at least two reasons. Regarding the

After a tough year and a half many of us can now get out and about to hear live music, perform, or join in seasonal singing.  Those all-Christmas music radio stationsare already churning out their short rotation of holiday hits.  TV specials from highbrow to hipare on almost every night.  There are plenty of ways for you to get your jolly Jones for Yuletide tunessatisfied.   But if you are in the moodfor a quiet moment each day with a steaming mug of coffee, cocoa, mulled something or other, or something stronger and more adult, Murfin’s Annual Winter Holidays Music Festival is for you!      Murfin's Winter Holidays Music Festival is back! This is how it works: Every year beginning on the day after Thanksgiving—Black Friday i...

A short “thought for the day” offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful Meditation  (Click on this link to hear a recorded version of the following piece) —o0o— The Roman poet Lucretius felt that a fundamental, material condition of nature as it appears [naturae species ratioque] was movement. He wrote: “Everything must pass through successive stages. Nothing remains for ever what it was. Everything is on the move [omnia migrant] . Everything is transformed by nature and forced into new paths” (Lucretius: DRN 3.829-831, trans. R. E. Latham). Today is the first Sunday of Advent and so it is worth remembering that the Advent and Christmas myths themselves express this truth because all...

Here we are at Black Friday again, and it seems that enough container ships coming from China made it to port and were unloaded in time to make most consumers happy with things that will fill our landfills in no time flat. The goods delivered to us from foreign manufacturers amount to trillions of dollars in cost with a balance of trade deficit that would quickly cripple a smaller nation. But few questions are asked. Some while back, economists and policy makers decided that we'd have a service economy rather than one that relied on making the things we need. Then we entered an "information age," in which exchange of information over the television and computer screens would earn our keep. It's time a few of us call BS. The opportunity c...

            For years and years people have talked about the Zen awakening experiences collected in Philip Kapleau’s Three Pillars of Zen. These accounts have inspired many people, including me, toward the practice, especially toward koan introspection. And these accounts have enjoyed a fair amount of reaction. At first in at […]

“I don’t want a faith that wordsmiths my truth, that asks why it’s necessary to use the words that best describe my experience as a queer person. I don’t need help finding alternative words that might go over better with strangers. I need my siblings in faith to notice their discomfort in hearing about my … Continue reading Solidarity

UUSC partner el Foro de Mujeres por la Vida provides a critical space to discuss Honduras’ elections and what those elections mean for women’s rights.

Greetings of gratitude from TWH. Continue reading Thanksgiving 2021 at The Wild Hunt.

This is Thanksgiving day and as folks gather to celebrate the holiday let's remember to stay safe and not infect those we love with a disease that may keep them from being with us in years to come. Ironically, the celebration of Thanksgiving began during the Civil War in the United States as the North was fighting to abolish human slavery and the South was fighting to retain the right to hold human beings in bondage. And yet, now North and South, we celebrate and give thanks. One of the points that I make in my new book, The Wisdom of Our Hands has to do with the small things of useful beauty that occupy our lives.  Shopping small and avoiding the big box stores this holiday season, starting tomorrow with Black Friday, gives us a better...

Thomas Nast's 1869 Thanksgiving cartoon pictured Uncle Sam carving a turkey at a diverse post-Civil Ware table inhabited a legion of ethnic stereotypes under the watchful eyes of Presidents Lincoln, Washington, and Grant belied Nast's own strong Nativist bias.  He extoled universal suffrage for freed slaves and women, but certainly didn't mean if to include the table's Native American interloper. For some, the annual angst over Thanksgiving is upon us.  For years Native American protests that the Holiday represents European colonialism, American racism, cultural erasure, and actual genocide have begun to registerwith many of the rest of the current inhabitants of this country.  It is hard to deny that our First Nations, as the Canadia...

      In preparation for Thanksgiving, along with getting ready for the family gathering, where my spouse Jan & I are the cooks (we appear to be the only people in the family who aspire to taking care of the vegans and the folk who need blood at every meal), I reviewed some of […]

The practice of gratitude is one that connects us to something important. We do this daily to remind ourselves of the grace–the unearned blessing–that surrounds us. What are you grateful for today?

Our area of Maine loves nature news. So when we heard in the news that there were visiting river otters in the ponds at Evergreen Cemetery, we joined many other Portland residents to go to the cemetery to see if we could see them. And we did! We saw this one in one of the […]

As COP26 closed, scientists and investors were already looking at strategies to mitigate the impact of a warming planet. Continue reading Some strategies to offset climate change impacts were underway before COP26 at The Wild Hunt.

An online service with lay preacher Daniel Stack   “Soon after I became sachem they disarmed all my people…their land was taken. But a small part of the dominion of my ancestors remains. I am determined not to live until I have no country.” King Philip, Sachem Metacom of the Wampanoag   The Unitarian Church of   [ … ] The post Sunday, November 28 ~ Exploring Our Forebears ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

I’m so grateful to everyone who came together to affirm the dignity of lives lived in truth and connect to the tragedy of the at least 46 lives lost due the compounded violences of transphobia, racism, classism, and capitalism. This service was a reminder that we are all responsible for the epidemic of violence against the transgender community…and must do everything we can to celebrate the lives of the transgender, genderqueer, and non-binary community by dismantling any and all barriers to total equity and full inclusion in our congregations, institutions, and society at large. View the 2021 UUA Transgender Day of Remembrance Chapel Resources to Support the Transgender Community Subscribe to the UPLIFT Newsletter TransLash Media cr...

We've finished an arched bridge with student help at the Clear Spring School, and with help from my tractor and some straps we'll carry it for installation on the Schoo campus, giving our students a clear path over a creek between buildings. On projects like this, that are adult in nature, not every child will be involved with the same level of enthusiasm, but each can help and learn, and too few kids these days are drawn in as participants in adult labor. In my home woodshop I'm finishing some boxes that had accumulated unfinished. Each is different, so they'll give me a way to provide boxes to a few galleries that handle my work. When I have quiet times in the wood shop I've been listening to the Path to Learning Podcast. It is readily...

Sally Fritsche May we release ourselves from the need to fit every truth neatly into our own language. Continue reading "An Atheist's Prayers"

Murfin’s It turns out that this illustration, swiped from a children's book, was actually created by Theresa Murfin! Gotta be some kind of relative!.  Hello, cousin and feel free to stop by for the feast.  We'll make room. Note— This has been one of my most popular, regularly requested, and widely shared of my annual holiday posts. So here it is today, in plenty of time to share with your guests—or your hosts.   This list of rules is particularly apt for those of us who do not live in House Beautiful , Snapchat posts, or Martha Stewart fantasies.   It’s for those of us with cramped space, short time, and real families of blood, choice, accident, or convenience that don’t resemble that famous Norman Rockwell cover or behave ...

        Keiji Nishitani died on this day, the 24th of November, in 1990.\ If you’re unfamiliar with him, and you are interested in Zen, I suggest you may want to learn more. He was one of the principal figures in the establishment of the Kyoto School, which the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, […]

“This is a prayer for all the travelers. For the ones who start out in beauty, who fall from grace, who step gingerly, looking for the way back. And for those who are born into the margins, who travel from one liminal space to another, crossing boundaries in search of center.” -Angela Herrera What are … Continue reading Boundaries

I sometimes like to say that I’m religious but not spiritual, because I associate “religion” with institutions, and “spirituality” with individualism. I’ve come to really dislike the hyper-individualism of the U.S. today, and for me institutionalism lies at the very heart of my religion. So to better express my religious values, I just added an … Continue reading "Institutionalism"

By grieving healthily, the memory of loss gradually transforms its predominate tone: from pain to gratitude for what was. This work can have no deadlines. You’re ready to move on when you’re ready to move on, and you can’t determine in advance when that will be. It takes as long as it takes. You can bring some intentionality to the process, but you can’t control how long it takes. Eventually, on its own schedule, grief work leads us toward gratitude and peace. The other connection between gratitude and grief points the opposite direction. Gratitude contains hints back toward grief. All things must pass. That for which we are today grateful will pass. Today, once again, I am grateful for breathing. Some day – maybe today – my ...

The second part of a two-part series on the Parliament of World's Religions that focuses on the important role interfaith plays for Pagans. Continue reading Interfaith work: The Parliament of the World’s Religions, Part Two at The Wild Hunt.

Susan Frederick-Gray However you celebrate, holidays and rituals are an invitation for reflection. They remind us of our past, and they also invite us to be attentive to the present moment. Practicing gratitude helps us all to be intentional in naming the gifts that surround us, reminding us that we are loved and we all share a fundamental interdependence.

Evelyn Caruso is the new Front Desk Coordinator at All Souls. Stop in the church office anytime between 10 & 3 pm, Monday through Friday to welcome Evelyn to the All Souls family! The post Meet Evelyn Caruso! appeared first on BeyondBelief.

In the conclusion to the “Thanksgiving with Family” series, Muds and Possum talk over the Thanksgiving dinners they had with their relatives. For both of them, it didn’t go as badly as they had feared! As usual, full text is below the fold. Possum: Hi Muds! Muds: Oh, you’re back from visiting your relatives at … Continue reading "Thanksgiving with family, pt. 3"

                                 Poet, mystic, activist Robert Bly. Robert Bly, the iconic and wayward Minnesota poet best known as the founder of the sometimes controversial spiritual mythopoetic men’s movementwhich tried to re-connect masculinity with nature and re-balancethe male role the sacred feminine, died Sunday in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the age of 94.   He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease since at least 2012. Bly, through his publications, seminars, and tribal gatherings nurturednew generations of ecopoets.   The men’s movement he spurred with the publication of his book Iron John: A Book About Men in 1990 exploded in popularity and participation around the turn of the 21st Century. ...

This week may you be blessed with enough nourishing food, good health for you and your family, an opportunity to serve the wider community. This week may you be blessed with enough nourishing connection, emotional health to express joy and grief, an opportunity to know your place in the family of things. (thank ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – Nov 23rd appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

K-6 EXPERIENCES WITH THE WEB OF LIFE: These nature lovers will meet again online on Sunday, 12/5, from 9:30-10:15. It was wonderful getting to see so many of you in person this past Sunday! A big THANK YOU to teachers Joel Best and Ed Kautz for ... read more . The post RE This Week – Nov 23rd appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Our words can be used to heal and to harm. We might intend one outcome and yet the impact is something else. For election season and as we may start gathering with family over the holidays, we may feel a large chasm between what we ... read more . The post November Theme – Building Bridges appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Once again, COVID-19 is preventing us from doing our traditional Dining for Dollars lasagna dinner fundraiser. It still doesn’t feel safe enough for us to gather in groups to cook and pack meals, but with people still struggling we feel the need to do something, ... read more . The post Dining for Dollars – “the cookie version” appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Schenectady Community Ministries/SiCM Food Pantry reports they are happy to get calendars to distribute! Although you can’t drop your spare calendars in the SiCM box on Sunday mornings at the Green Sanctuary table, we are still collecting them. Just send an email to Nancy Peterson ... read more . The post Calendar Collection for SiCM/Food Pantry appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Here are some boundaries to think about and to think with. Meditate on them in the context of your particular situation and see what comes to you. You may be surprised at the answers you find inside yourself.

I recently took an adult religious education class at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, NJ (UUCM) led by the Rev. Scott Sammler-Michael, senior co-minister. The course was on Walter Rauschenbusch’s text “A Theology for the Social Gospel.” He gave us an assignment to define sin and salvation as a UU. This really had me […] The post A Pagan understanding of the Christian’s belief of sin & salvation appeared first on Nature's Sacred Journey.

Finding a physical center is an important part of many peoples’ spiritual journeys. Though our bodies have different ways of feeling comfort and of moving in the world, we can all use our bodies to connect with something greater than ourselves. Take a few moments just to sit today–to center yourself in your body and … Continue reading Sitting

Dr. Sharpie, Rolf, Ms. and Mr. Bear, and Elephant share Thanksgiving dinner together. They wonder how Thanksgiving dinner went for Muds and Possum. Just then, Muds and Possum come home…. As usual, full text is below the fold. Part 3 coming soon. Ms. Bear: Oh good, everyone’s here. Rolf: The food’s all ready, let’s eat! … Continue reading "Thanksgiving with family, pt. 2"

Muds and Possum are worried about going to visit relatives at Thanksgiving, because of uncomfortable conversations with relatives who have differing opinions about climate change, gender, and religion…. As usual, full text is below the fold. Go to Part 2. Possum: Muds, I’m worried about Thanksgiving. Muds: But I thought Thanksgiving was your favorite holiday, … Continue reading "Thanksgiving with family, pt. 1"

An interesting new children’s book of Bible stories is being funded on Kickstarter. The goal: a kid’s book that’s gender-balanced. Why? Because for the majority of children’s Bible story books, “female characters are vastly underrepresented in both the stories and the illustrations.” The illustrations are also going to show racially diverse characters. Admirable, and I … Continue reading "Gender-balanced kids’ book of Bible stories"

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, Secretary Halland announces the removal of derogatory place names, the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magic announces a new exhibit, a new mural in Scotland to Isobel Gowdie, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of November 22, 2021 at The Wild Hunt.

The view from my desk in the Cambridge Unitarian Church What follows here is a lightly edited version of my message to members of the Cambridge Unitarian Church, UK, where I am lucky to be the minister. Having penned it for them, it struck me that some readers of this blog may also want to read it and, perhaps, come along to the Zoom event mentioned. You would be most welcome.   Dear All, It was lovely to see and talk with you all at the last Wednesday Evening Zoom Conversation. Thank you. As promised, here are a few links to introduce you both to the text of the Tannisho and Shin Buddhism . What I am proposing is that during the next few months we talk/walk through the Tannisho chapter by chapter — i.e. one chapter every other week. ...

New Yorkers gobbled up hastily printed extra editions as they gathered in shock on the city streets. November 22 .  For the members of a couple of generations, at least, I don’t have to say or writeanything else.  You know.  The date and the eventare etched in your mind.  If you were sentient in 1963the moment when you heard the news is so solidly etched in your memorythat you can recall every detail—the cast of the light through the window, the muffled sobs or wails, even the smell of that autumn day 58 years ago. November 22, 1963 was, of course, the day President John F. Kennedy was shot while passing the Texas School Book Depository Building in Dallas, Texasin an open car with his young wife, resplendent in pink, sitting besi...

        Fifty-eight years ago today, on the 22nd of November, 1963, in Dallas, the president of the United States,John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. It was a lifetime ago. Actually two lifetimes. The parents of adults today were not yet born. Fifty-eight years is a long time. It made me wonder and I […]

“We speak to the god, the goddess, the spirit of life, the eternal. We speak to the mysterious thread that connects us one to the other and to the universe. We speak to the deep wisdom at the center of our beings. We embody the yearning of all people.” -Susan Manker-Seale What is the deep … Continue reading Deep Wisdom

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "21 November 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "14 November 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "7 November 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"