January greetings~ 2022 arrived in Schenectady with a quiet, misty morning. On a morning walk, there was a thin layer of ice on the pond at Steinmetz Park, and a small, artificial Christmas tree had been set up on a picnic table, decorated with lights and ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – Jan. 4th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Virtual RE will resume this Sunday, 1/9/22. Sending love and care to our children and adults, our parents and caregivers, and our teachers during these continuing extraordinary times, and always. A Happy and Healthy New Year to All! UPCOMING RE CLASSES: K-6 EXPERIENCES WITH THE WEB OF LIFE:  These ... read more . The post RE This Week – Jan. 4th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Courage is derived from the Latin word for heart. To be courageous is to speak and act and feel from one’s heart, particularly when afraid. How might you live with courage as 2022 begins? What would it mean for UU Schenectady to make courageous choices ... read more . The post January Theme – Courage appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

The UUSS Board of Trustees will be hosting two Congregational Conversations at the beginning of the new year. The first will be via Zoom on Tuesday January 11th at 7pm. The second will (hopefully) be in person after church on Sunday February 13th at 12pm. There is ... read more . The post Upcoming Congregational Conversations January 11th and February 13th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Would you like to have your words or art woven through worship and other UUSS activities? Using the theme, “Connected Through Love, We Nurture the Flame,” as inspiration, you are invited to write a poem, chalice lighting, chalice flame releasing, prayer, meditation, create visual art, ... read more . The post Calling all Poets, Writers, and Artists! appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

By Jonathan Rosenblum | Once again, Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant and her Socialist Alternative organization have beaten the political odds. Last month, she defeated a million-dollar recall campaign by real estate developers and landlords, Democratic Party leaders, big Trump donors, and newspaper editorialists, who all teamed up to evict the eight-year councilor from City Hall.

A new year brings fresh possibilities and is often a time when our spirits rise. And yet a year ago as we prepared for progress we were confronted with a deadly insurrection where armed right-wing militants attacked our Capitol and tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. We have worked hard all this past year to build a multi-racial democracy and combat the attack on voting rights and democracy waged on our Black, Indigenous and people of color communities. Finally, the Freedom to Vote Act, and other democracy legislation may be taken up by the Senate. Yesterday, Majority Leader Senator Schumer called for a rules change in the Senate to keep the filibuster from blocking democracy. At the same time, the same faction that led t...

An article in the New York Times describes those who live their lives surrounded by real books as being "Book-wrapt." https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/24/realestate/why-do-people-keep-books.html   Books that have brought changes in our lives can feel like friends and are held close. I had a book that I kept at bedside for years until I recently decided to loan it to a friend. It was about the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest during WWII. I kept it at bedside because my father was there, had described to me how beautiful the forest was, and neglected to tell me of its horrors. His 104th Infantry Division, the fighting Timberwolves, had played an important role there in the attempt to end the Nazi regime. There are things that happen in wars t...

                                                       Here We Come A-Wassailing  sung by Jean Ritchie.      Note — As we close in on the end of our Winter Holidays Music Festival we will spend two days on the close of the Twelve Days of Christmas as observed in British tradition and the Anglican liturgic calendar on January 5.   The next day, the Feast of the Epiphany or Day of the Three Kings will wrap things up. Twelfth Night is the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany (and the end of the Christmas Season.   In Englandespecially it was one last eruption of gaiety and mirth before the more somber and sacred reflection of the Epiphany—somewhat analogous to Mardis Gras or Carnival before Lent . A ra...

      When I was a child I was fascinated with a Bible my grandmother owned, which had in addition to the text a commentarial column which included a chronology of the events recorded. At the very beginning was the date 23 October, 4004, before the common era. That’s when God created the world. […]

Living in interesting times is no fun. We don’t have to like it, but we do have to deal with it. That’s best done by observing the evidence, drawing reasonable conclusions, and making good plans. And then by acting with wisdom and persistence.

I always appreciate invitations to new ways of thinking.  At 17 years old, I heard a Catholic clergy person say that there are “many paths to God.” As a strict Muslim at the time that way of thinking was unimaginable. I invited myself to consider this idea over the next few years and eventually landed … Continue reading Open Mind

In this week's Pagan Community Notes: Sacred Space Between the Worlds conference reschedule because of Omicron, Pagan police in the UK join the fight against extremism, crossings of the veil, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of January 3, 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

Today’s needles are those of Pinus sabiniana. The Audobon guide calls it “digger pine,” but when I looked it up online in search of a larger photo to work from, the common names that kept coming up were foothill pine, towani pine, or most often, gray pine. I thought the clue to the change was […]

                                        Go Tell it On the Mountain sung by Billy Porter and the Howard University Gospel Choir. Of all the announcement carols Go Tell It On the Mountain is unusualfor 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 was being celebrated.   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 . Go Tell it on the Mountain. It has been dated to 1865 and may reflect the widely celebrated moment when the 13th Amendment to the Con...

Originally published in December 2018. You have heard the expression, “There, but for the grace of God…” As a boy, I often wondered about that expression because it seemed to paint God as having preferences. Does that mean that God didn’t like me because I was legally discriminated against? Does that mean God prefers people with a lighter shade of color? Does that mean God is white? For a young mind, these ponderous questions brought with it an anxiety and a search for reassurance. That’s when I began to feel this thing called grace. Grace is not about preference. Grace […] The post The Goodness of God is Grace appeared first on BeyondBelief.

I love giving invitations to my home. I love sharing my space, always including food, with friends and family both new and old. However early on in my marriage I realized my partner didn’t share that interest. Their invitation was based on other dynamics and we had to come to compromise about the how and … Continue reading Giving

Introduced in the US, invasive in Australia, and a real pain to draw the way I tried it. I really wanted to get the tangle of needles and their contrast against the dark shadows, but whoo is that tough with pencil on white paper. For similar trees over the next few days, I may try […]

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 "2 January 2022 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 "26 December 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 "24 December 2021 Christmas Eve 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 "19 December 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 "12 December 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 "5 December 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 "28 November 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

TWH sits down with the band, Tuatha Dea, to discuss their new release and progression as a group on their ten-year anniversary. Continue reading Tuatha Dea “Irish Eyes” release highlights new dimension at The Wild Hunt.

Happy New Year! Here we go again. We don’t know what this year will bring, but the one thing we know is that it will bring something. We’ll adjust to it or not, depending on whatever remains of our flexibility and hope. As long as I can, however, I am going to spend as much […]

      KEIZAN JOKIN’S ZAZEN YOJINKIWhat to be aware of in zazen, sitting meditation Translated by Thomas ClearyTimeless Spring : A Soto Zen anthology. Weatherhill, Tokyo-New York, 1980, pp. 112-125. (A couple of years ago I shared the translation of this text by the Venerable Reiho Masunaga. Possibly the most important early text on […]

Dr. Dale Arnink, who passed away on November 3, 2021, was our Minister Emeritus for more than 20 years, following 24 years as our called minister between 1976-2000. In August 2005, just before he departed Los Alamos for a few years to provide interim service at the church in Rio Rancho, Dale delivered a remarkable sermon on why grace is not just amazing, but vital. Join us to hear this sermon, as recorded.

  Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle (Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella) by  Renée Fleming and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Note —Now that we have gotten past our New Year’s posts, it’s a good time to remind folks that we are still in the Twelve Days of Christmas and traditional, religious, and secular songs are still appropriate! The French have a very deep traditionof Christmas carols.   In fact, the word carol comes from French country dances that celebrated events throughout the year, but especially during Christmas.   Words were put to these lively dances creating songs very different from the announcement and nativity hymns sung for masses .   Coming from the peasantry the songs often celebrated the lowly witnesses or p...

Please join us on Sunday (2 January 2022) at 11:00 AM for “What Ties It All Together?” by Rev, Barbara Jarrell. Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. We will not be open for in-person worship service during the month of January 2022. Due to how transmissible the Omicron COVID variant is along … Continue reading "Online All-Ages Worship (2 January 2022)"

For Sunday (2 January 2022), our adult religious education class is taking a holiday break. On 9 January 2022, we will resume our discussion of the podcast episodes 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 … Continue reading "No Online Adult Religious Education on 2 January 2022 — Class Resumes 9 January 2022"

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"

Please join us next Tuesday (4 January 2022) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch (please note the new day of the week for Zoom lunch). Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

Our monthly Give Away the Plate contributions go to a local organization that best exemplifies our Unitarian Universalist principles and values through their work in our community. Our January 2022 Give Away the Plate recipient is Volunteers for Youth Justice and will go toward our sponsorship of their annual Gumbo Gladiators fundraiser. Volunteers for Youth … Continue reading "Volunteers for Youth Justice — January 2022 Give-Away-The-Plate Recipient"

Receiving an invitation is so fun! Whether by snail mail or electronically, I always get excited when I open an invitation. When is the occasion? Will I be able to go? Who else will be there? What will we do? What do you hope to receive today?

Happy New Year from The Wild Hunt! Editor-in-Chief Manny Tejeda-Moreno lays out where he sees 2022 going. Continue reading Editorial: A look ahead into 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

      Peggy Teresa Nancy Kennett was born at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England, on this day, the 1st of January, in 1924. Houn Jiyu Kennett was the first women Soto Zen master to teach in the West. Her teaching career also opens questions of orthodoxy and authority that begin to define the outer limits […]

John Keats by Joseph Severn 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— Whilst returning home from a Christmas pantomime in 1817 the poet John Keats (1795-1821) got into conversation with his friend Charles Wentworth Dilke (1789-1864). Thanks to a letter to his brothers we know that during this conversation several things ‘dovetailed’ in Keats’ mind, and “at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously — I mean Negative Capability, that is when a man is capable of bein...

1964: My brother and I at a civil rights march. Either my sign is turned sideways to the camera or it fell off. I first learned about race from my father when I was a small boy who had just moved to Florida in 1959. He explained that ignorant people think skin color makes a difference in whether one person is the equal of another, and the most ignorant people refer to black people as “niggers”, and if he ever heard me use that word, I would get the worst spanking of my life. My family got caught up in the civil rights struggle in the early 1960s. I went on my first march for integration in 1964 when I was nine. At one point, we could not get fire insurance because word was out that the Klan would burn us down. They never did, perhap...

What we accomplish in 2022 will not be done with flash and dramatics. It will be done with quiet spiritual practice, with a commitment to deeper things, and by doing the kind of things that require careful planning and stealth.

Part Six of a history I’m writing, telling the story of Unitarians in Palo Alto from the founding of the town in 1891 up to the dissolution of the old Unitarian Church of Palo Alto in 1934. If you want the footnotes, you’ll have to wait until the print version of this history comes out … Continue reading "Unitarians in Palo Alto, 1926-1947"

                                                       New Year's Day by Taylor Swift.   For Americans New Year’s Day is a kind of low key and lethargic holiday.   Many New Year’s Eve revelers nurse hangovers.   For others it’s a spend the day in pajamas and robe affair to veg out in front of the tube and watch the Rose Parade and endless college bowl games.    It is the biggest day of the year for ordering pizza delivery.   New Year's Eve has long been an amateur night with excessive drinking and mixing of libations, National Hangover Day is an appropriate designation for the first day of the year. There have not been many songs for January 1.   For years we were stuck with U2’s first big ...

The power of invitation and intention go along with each other. On this, the first day of a new year, we have an opportunity to set our intentions for 2022–to invite into our year qualities that will guide us in the months to come. What are you inviting into your life in 2022?

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind." - Kurt Vonnegut This site has been working hard, so it's retiring now.

The meditation group led by Larry Androes will not be meeting on New Years Day (Saturday, 1 January 2022). This meditation group will resume meeting on Saturday, 8 January 2022. This group is a sitting Buddhist meditation including a brief introduction to mindfulness meditation, 20 minutes of sitting, and followed by a weekly teaching. The … Continue reading "No Meditation Group on 1 January 2022 — Meditation Resumes 8 January 2022"

I don’t usually do New Year’s resolutions, but I’ve thought of two that would improve my life that I think I can actually carry through for an entire year. One is to draw a leaf every day of the year. In this I was inspired by my friend Janet, who drew her way through a […]

I am finally embarking on a project to go through all of my papers, now in boxes in the basement. These range from files that I brought from my office when I retired 3 1/2 years ago, to boxes that I have carried around since college. This week I have been going through a box […]

TWH Editor-in-Chief Manny Tejeda-Moreno reviews the biggest stories from 2021. Continue reading The stories that shaped 2021: a Pagan perspective at The Wild Hunt.

    Today is the last day of the year of our Lord 2021. I’m not going to say good riddance. Well. At least not without some qualification. For many of us it’s been hard. No doubt. And there’s not a lot of evidence it’s going to get better any time soon. But. And. In […]

When I talk about class, defenders of capitalism complain that socialists want to divide us. They don’t understand that socialists are universalists who want to unite everyone by ending the class system that capitalists maintain.When capitalists say talking about class divides us, they’re refusing to admit there’s a difference between who we are and what we own. Terms like rich and poor or

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: 1. One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race by Yaba Blay 2. Atlas of the Heart: Mapping […]

Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is often cited by people who miss one or more of three essential points:1. King criticized black middle-class people as well as whiteSome say King was only criticizing white moderates and quote bits like this:I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White

The cusp of the New Year is always a moment for pause and reflection, looking back over the winding paths that have brought us to the present while gazing ahead toward the road stretching before us. Here at Side With Love, we too join in this practice of breathing in all that has been, and exhaling our hopes for all that is to come.  2021 brought us both the unprecedented, and the all-too-familiar. And while we could catalogue all the heartbreaks of what it means to be alive in this moment, at this turning of the year, your Side With Love team is choosing to look back on this year through the lens of gratitude. Today, we reflect and offer our deep thankfulness for our life-giving faith, for the movements that are leading us and imaginin...

                                                                 Auld Layng Syne performed by the Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. 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 defianceof any and all changes in musical tastes and styles. Most of us know that the song comes from a poemby 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 Poem...

The sixth day of Kwanzaa celebrates Kuumba, the principle of creativity. People are instructed to reflect on what they can do to leave their communities more beautiful and whole. What are the ways you can add beauty to the world (and to your community) in 2022?

TWH asked our resident tarot expert and news editor, Star Bustamonte for some spiritual insights on the year ahead, Continue reading A tarot spread for 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” — Desmond Tutu

2022 will see UUSC build partnerships in Haiti to lift up civil society organizations and center their leadership.

Giveaway285, CC BY-SA 4.0Thinking about prejudice in Igbo society, I had a simple realization: caste is race because it’s about our parents, not us. Most Americans think race is based on what we look like, but the old phenomenon of race-passing shows that’s not true—in this century, Rachel Dolezal and Jessica Krug were able to pass as people of color until their parentage became public knowledge.

                                                                      What Are You Doing New Year's Eve  by the Orioles. Back in the day everyone who was not a misanthropeor a shut-in went out on New Year’s Eve.   The toffswore their white ties and tails and 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 of 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.   And it was not just attractive youn...

      It’s the eve of the eve of a new year. At my age with little time to squander, nonetheless I have to say about 2021, goodbye, and good riddance. Although I am not particularly sanguine about how 2022 will shape up. People like to note it is the year, after all, that […]

The past is the past and we can not change it.  The future can be different if we choose to make it so.  We can grow a vision of a more peaceful, happier and harmonious future and work toward it.  The mystery is how we trade complacency for action. What is the next thing you … Continue reading The Future

Tibetan slave, working in the field while shacked“I may not be free under Chinese Communism, but I am better off than when I was a slave.” —Wangchuk, quoted in “In Tibet, a Struggle of the Soul”“Old Tibet was dark and cruel, the serfs lived worse than horses and cattle.” —Dechen Chökyi Drönma, the 12th Samding Dorje Phagmo, quoted in “Female living Buddha condemns Dalai Lama”“When the Chinese

The number of lawsuits filed in connection with climate change, global warming, and environmental concerns has sky-rocketed in the past decade. Continue reading Lawsuits as a tool to mitigate the climate crisis at The Wild Hunt.

Sunday, January 2, 10:30 a.m. Group Healing and Transformation on the Labyrinth Path An Online Service with Lay Speaker Karen Szklany Karen’s first introduction to walking a labyrinth path involved a group gathered around creativity and artistic expression, and that has shaped the relationship she has developed with labyrinths over the past 20 years. When the   [ … ] The post Sunday, January 2 ~ Group Healing and Transformation on the Labyrinth Path ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

      “Hello Goodbye” Living in the Kali Yuga with a Little Help from the Beatles Silvio Nardoni (My friend Silvio Nardoni is a Unitarian Universalist minister as well as a practicing attorney. He shared this with me and I thought it a perfect New Year’s reflection. I asked for permission to share it, […]

                                             River by Joni Mitchell.   Last week CBS broadcast the 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 spiritsas 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 emerged from ...

The Top 10 posts of 2021 on Under the Ancient Oaks: dealing with troublesome leaders and toxic ancestors, the Law of Attraction, who put the Odal run on the CPAC stage, what kind of a witch do you want to be, and more.

Ujamaa, or cooperative economics, is the fourth principle of Kwanzaa. How do you support Black- and brown-owned businesses with your spending?

Opposition by Columbia's Indigenous communities to illegal mining, the presence of armed groups in the region, and a proposed dam project results in a series of violent attacks on their sacred ceremonial houses. Continue reading Indigenous ceremonial centers destroyed in Colombia at The Wild Hunt.

Wow. It’s been a year of change. As 2021 winds down, I’ll briefly summarize the changes I’ve seen in Unitarian Universalist congregations — some positive, some not so positive, some neutral. Not-so-positive (A) Enrollments of children and teens appear to be falling precipitously. We don’t yet have official numbers from the year-end certification count, but … Continue reading "The UU year in review: 2021"

The Door of No Return, jbdodane, CC BY 2.0“African chiefs were the ones waging war on each other and capturing their own people and selling them. If anyone should apologise it should be the African chiefs.” — Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda, 1998“We cannot continue to blame the white men, as Africans, particularly the traditional rulers, are not blameless. … In view of the fact that the

  四相詩Poems on the Four States Bu Fu-Ta-shih ［傅大士］ (497–569) Fu Ta-shih was a householder, whose teachings and actions led him to be revered as an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya. Birth Relying upon the ovum, consciousness arises, birth arises from love and desire. In a time now past he grew up, today he returns as […]

                                                       The Seven Principles by Sweet Honey and the Rock. Today is the third 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 .   Beginning on December 26 and running through January 1, candles are lit representing values.   Each of the values is given a Swahili name.   Today is day three— Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) “To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems, and to solve them together.” A Kwanzaa button from the collection of theNational Museum o...

“Because we live with mystery, we trust that which is deeper than we know—which touches our hearts—which steadies us and rekindles our spirits—which, finally, in faith, may be named the love that has laid hold upon us, and will not let us go.” -George Kimmich Beach What will your faith not let go of today? … Continue reading Faith

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, Happy Kwanzaa! A new documentary about Heartland Pagan Festival, an update on Scottish Parliament's exoneration of witches, and more news! Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of December 27, 2021 at The Wild Hunt.

      Today, the 27th of December the Roman and Anglican churches mark out as a feast for John the disciple of Jesus, sometimes called the Apostle, sometimes the Evangelist, sometimes the Beloved. The Orthodox celebrate his life in September. I cannot think of him without thinking of John the Revelator… As with all […]

                                                       The Holly and the Ivy sung by Annie Lennox. Today we feature one of the oldest English carols , The Holly and the Ivy.   Its origins are shroudedin the mist of time.   Pagan greenery was anointed with Christian symbolism. The most familiar melody of several that have been set to the is very old and resembles the songs of the Tudor era 1485–1602 which is why it is a favorite of Madrigal Singers . The earliest surviving mention of the song in print occurred in the early 19th Century when collecting folk music became fashionable.  The earliest recorded version of the lyrics was in a broadside published by H. Wadsworth in Birmingham between 1814 and ...

“May we know once again that we are not isolated beings but connected, in mystery and miracle, to the universe, to… community and to each other.” -Anonymous What connections do you feel today? How do you remind yourself that you are not isolated?

    THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS A Meditation on What Comes Next James Ishmael Ford Here we are. The day after Christmas. With a cup of coffee in hand I turned to the Associated Press newsfeed. The lead story this morning was that Desmond Tutu, retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, hero of the anti-apartheid […]

Antonio Pagliarulo describes how his Christmas even changed from his Italian family ritual for removing the evil eye. Continue reading Old-World Magic Transformed My Christmas Eve at The Wild Hunt.

Don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I feel like a grinch. The holidays are fun, but also hard. Expectations often exceed the reality, but there are small miracles that happen too. We had fun, good times, and some chaos that was stressful. I ate and drank more than I should have. As a result, I […]

Pcb21, CC BY-SA 3.0Studies of anti-racism training find it doesn’t work or makes racism worse. The reason seems counter-intuitive to anti-racists: Teaching people to think more about race can make them more racist. But the reason is clear if you remember this old observation:“Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind

A repeat of a video sermon from 12/6/2020 - Rev. John shares some thoughts on the importance of pausing amidst the daily rush.  

                                                       The Wren in the Furze by the Chieftains. Today is the second day of the 12 Days of Christmas, a day with multiple personalities as we will see.  The Brits and the residentsof other former pink blotches on Queen Victoria’s globe like many Americans usually spend today, Boxing Day, storming the malls and shops on what is the busiest retail sales day of the year. Disgruntledgift recipients hit the refund and exchange desks while others spend the gift cards and even old fashion cash.   But unlike Yanks they do it on an official National Holiday as a paid day off.  Officially December 26 is just another Bank Holiday.  But Boxing Day is a treasured t...

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?!”

The first day of the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa asks people to reflect on the principle of Umoja, or unity. Who do you feel unity with? Reflect on what is keeping you from feeling greater unity with all of humanity.

Please join us on Sunday (26 December 2021) at 11:00 AM for ‘A 2022 Poetry Survival Kit:  Poems to Get You Through the Year” with Rev. Barbara Jarrell, Susan Caldwell (All Souls Director of Religious Education), and poetry contributions from our members and friends. Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. For this … Continue reading "Online All-Ages Worship (26 December 2021)"

For this Sunday (26 December 2021) and next Sunday (2 January 2022), our adult religious education class is taking a holiday break. On 9 January 2022, we will resume our discussion of the podcast episodes Learning How to See with Rev. Brian McLaren, Father Richard Rohr, and Rev. Jacqui Lewis. They are discussing the 13 … Continue reading "No Online Adult Religious Education on 26 December 2021 and 2 January 2022 — Class Resumes 9 January 2022"

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"

Please join us next Wednesday (29 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.

In a special Yuletide offering, Karl Seigfried addresses the god Odin, giving thanks for his gifts at Midwinter. Continue reading Column: To Odin at Midwinter at The Wild Hunt.

This morning, I went for a walk up in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I was expecting showers, and forecast warned me there might even be thunderstorms. But I was not expecting hail. In places, the tiny hailstones covered the ground, looking so much like snow that I decided it was a white Christmas — just … Continue reading "White Christmas"