To part 1 It happened, to the best of our ability to tell, just once: an archaeon and a bacterium merged, and both survived as parts of one organism. That happened just once in 4 billion years, and it very easily might not have happened in 8 billion years or 16 billion. (The universe itself, remember, is less than 14 billion years old.) Life out there may not be all that rare, but eukaryotic life? Maybe in 200 billion galaxies averaging 100 billion stars per galaxy, and 1 to 10 planets per star, only one single spot in the whole wide vast universe happened to produce such a monumentally unlikely thing as eukaryotic life. Maybe. The science inspires our spirits into the awe and wonder of this amazing fluke – an archaeon absorbing a bact...

Introducing the #OpenTheDoors2NGOs campaign

from “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman 1. I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.... My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air.... 51. The past and present wilt—I have fill’d them, emptied them, And proceed to fill my next fold of the future. Listener up there! what have you to confide to me? Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening, (Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.) Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab. Who has done his day’s work? who will soonest...

On March 28, 1921, 27 people signed a charter to create All Souls’ Liberal Church. The post 101 Years of All Souls! appeared first on BeyondBelief.

If John Amos Comenius were alive today he'd be 430 years old, and he being called the "Father of Modern Education" one would hope we'd have learned a few things, particularly about how learning works. Jimi Hendrix had a song that asked the question, "Are you experienced?" And while Jimi may have been referring to either sex or drug use, Comenius asked the same in his request that schooling rely on actual experience as the basis of learning. "The ground of this business is, that sensual (sensuous) objects be rightly presented to the senses for fear that they not be received. I say, and say it again aloud, that this is the foundation of all the rest; because we can neither act nor speak wisely, unless we first rightly understand all the th...

Petrichor is what we smell when rain falls on dry soil. It is the scent of the forest floor, of ozone made by lightning, and of the bacteria at work in the earth. It is an intricate expression of the interdependence all around us. Notice something in nature that reflects interdependence.

The leaves I drew yesterday were so shiny that I didn’t want to stop with a line drawing, but went back and added the shadows, shades and sheen. So here is the Western red cedar again.

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 "27 March 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 "20 March 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 "13 March 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 "6 March 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 "27 February 2022 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Sheri Barkers considers how energy work and gardening can combine to create change. Continue reading The Bee Balm is Rioting at The Wild Hunt.

Reading: Instructions on Not Giving Up by Ada Limon  More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate sky of … Continue reading →

Unitarian Universalists speak often of “seeking truth”. Sometimes we are trying to find objective factual confirmable reality - a worthy and almost impossible task. At other times, when we consider our individual “truths” it can be a more nuanced and evolving concept. Let’s explore the complex and competing truths that have shaped each of us uniquely and hold all of us in a shared humanity. Rev. Bowen is a birthright Unitarian Universalist, raised in All Souls Church in Tulsa, OK. She served the Unitarian Universalist Association as a district and regional congregational consultant for 25+ years. Now retired in Albuquerque, she pursues her passion for Unitarian Universalist congregations with a little preaching, coaching and co...

The Holy Life, Farts & All Mo Myokan Weinhardt Senior Dharma Teacher Empty Moon Zen I’ll begin with a story: One day, the venerable Ananda, the Buddha’s first cousin and beloved attendant, sat by the Buddha’s side beholding all that was before them. Ananda said to the Blessed One, “This is half of the holy […]

Sometimes a trail looks easy and turns out to be much harder after you get half way up a steep part. You need to place your feet carefully on the loose rocks and plant your hiking poles in firm ground. There is always a risk of sliding back down the hill. The hardest thing, I […]

We are fed by other beings. We are fed by sunlight and rain, taken in by plants and made into sugar and starch and fruit and leaf. Our survival depends on the interdependent web of existence to feed us. What is feeding you today?

Adrienne Rich as a young poet. Adrienne Rich was 82 when she died ten years ago in California, a long way from the life of privilege and learning into which she was born in Baltimore on May 16, 1929.     Her father was a noted professorof medicine at prestigious Johns Hopkinsand her mother had been a concert pianist.   He was a secular Jew, she a lady-like Southern Protestant.   Adrienne and her sisters were raised as nominal Christians. Both parents cherished learning.   Before she was of kindergarten age Adrienne was reading from their vast library, mostly English poets.   Not trusting their bright children to a drab public education, Adrienne and her sisters were educated at home in that library until the fourth grade.   In her...

Please join us on Sunday (27 March 2022) at 11:00 AM for “Companions for the Journey” with Laurie Lyons, Bennett Upton, and John Tuggle. 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 … Continue reading "All-Ages Worship (27 March 2022)"

On this Sunday (27 March 2022), children and youth religious education classes will resume in person and will happen during our 11:00 AM worship service. We will resume our pre-COVID practice where the children and youth will join us in the sanctuary for the first 15-20 minutes and then we will sing them out to … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education (27 March 2022)"

Please join us on Sunday (27 March 2022) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. This Sunday we begin our work through the book Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad. As the author says, “This is not a book you read, this is a book you do” and we … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 27 March 2022"

Please join us next Tuesday (29 March 2022) 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.

As painful as Joe Pepitone’s story is to read, it can be a meaningful learning experience for the wider Pagan community – especially for those of us who serve in the clergy or other leadership roles. Continue reading Joe Pepitone and the Long Shadow of Abuse at The Wild Hunt.

The book review written by Will Sampson has appeared in FDMC magazine that's delivered to folks in the  woodworking business. In case you missed it, you can read the review online here:  https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/opinion/book-review-wisdom-our-hands/ Make, fix and create...

Scientific name Platycladus orientalis. The branch is so beautiful, I longed to draw every detail. That lasted for, well, you can see. A few twiglets. I need to copy works of some of the great draftspeople to learn better how to combine detail and a more impressionistic approach. It’s so mysterious to me. This is […]

I recently read Sarah Ramey’s memoir, The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness. Published just last year, it is described this way: “In her harrowing, darkly funny, and unforgettable memoir, Sarah Ramey recounts the decade-long saga of how a seemingly minor illness in her senior year of college turned into a prolonged and elusive condition […]

                                 Ida B. Wells, undaunted. The word to describe Ida B. Wellswas fierce.  The word more commonly used, formidable, is entirely inadequate for a life of defiance and struggle that began in slavery during the Civil War and ended just before the New Deal.  Along the way she was the associate or opponent—sometimes both the with the same person—of Fredrick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Francis Willard, Jane Adams, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B Dubois, Alice Paul, and Marcus Garvey.  She exposed the lynch mobs running rampant in the Jim Crow South, helped found the NAACP and half a dozen other important organizations, pioneered the Great Migration from the rural South to Chicago and other No...

When my daughter was small we would mark with a pencil on the inside of a door frame how tall she had grown. It was a ritual in which she found pleasure, comparing how tall she was now, in comparison to how tall she was then. The early marks were painted over years ago when we neglected to tell the painter, not to paint in that spot. But the ritual of marking resumed and now there are marks for the growth of our niece Olivia when she comes to visit as well as Lucy's markings into her adult years. Measuring growth is a good thing. Standardized testing is not. It doesn't measure the things that matter most—the ability and inclination to be of service to others. And the measurement should not be in some kind of abstract form, decipherable...

Fruits attract animals that help a plant spread its seeds. They represent the connection between different parts of our natural world. They represent a plant’s effort to carry itself forth into the world. What will carry you forth into the world today?

A Zen teaching friend shared this Wendell Berry poem today. Now you know the worst we humans have to know about ourselves, and I am sorry, for I know that you will be afraid. To those of our bodies given without pity to be burned, I know there is no answer but loving one another, […]

Please join us on Saturday (26 March 2022) 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 (26 March 2022)"

  DUNE x THE FIFTH SEASON

I was interviewed today for a local podcast. They asked who my fave sports team might be. I answered NERDS. 

We check in with some Pagan theologians regarding extraterrestrial life. Continue reading From Here to Eternity: Pagan Theologians Share Their Thoughts on Extraterrestrial Life at The Wild Hunt.

Unitarian Universalist coach and trainer Peter Bowden offers a live video series to help congregations support online visitors, increase engagement with worship, and amplify advocacy and witness efforts. Continue reading "Video Engagement Strategy with Peter Bowden"

Sunday, March 27, 10:30 a.m. Woven in a Single Garment of Destiny A full-length video worship service Provided by the Unitarian Universalist Association   We’re all connected: an interdependent whole. And as UUs, says UUA president Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, “Covenant is our religious response to our fundamental interdependence.” We make promises about how to be together,   [ … ] The post Sunday, March 27 ~ Woven in a Single Garment of Destiny ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

Pietà carved & gifted to us by Celia James for our Memorial Garden 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— In Christian art, any image that depicts Mary cradling her executed son, Jesus, after his dead body was removed from the cross is today known as a “Pietà”, which simply means “pity” or “compassion.”  But, of course, the title, “Pietà” can be applied to any such depiction because it is a universal, humanist image that speaks to all people regardless of their religion or philosophy of life. It goes without saying that every hour of every da...

For many of us, with the rebirth of spring comes the season of pollen, of allergies, of hayfever, of sneezing and congestion. Our interdependence with nature is sometimes a struggle. What is making you struggle today?

      It was on this day, the 25th of March, in 1811 that Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from Oxford for publishing, and at the same time sending copies to the heads of all the colleges, a brief tract, The Necessity of Atheism. In 1813 he published a somewhat revised and expanded version […]

The Wall of the Vietnam War Memorial in the gloaming with flags, photos, and mementos left daily by visitors. On March 26, 1982 a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the hugely controversial Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.  Less than eight months later on November 13 it opened with recriminations still swirling around it.  The idea for a memorial sprang from Jan Scruggs, who had served as a corporalin the 199th Light Infantry Brigadeand was attending college in Washington studying counseling and hoping to help the notoriously troubled veterans of an unpopular war.  He felt that a national memorial honor the Vietnam War dead would help with the healing.  Scruggs conceived of the project as one that would inscribe the names o...

These leaves take my breath away.

I wrote “unwinding” with one thought in mind and realized I missed the common thought: unwinding, settling down and into a slower, mindful pace at the end of a hectic period. But what I’m thinking of is the physical motion of taking thread off a bobbin or pulling the air compressor’s red rubber hose from … Continue reading Unwinding

Ukrainians have sprung into action to safekeep and preserve their cultural heritage housed in the many museums and other institutions from the predations of war. Continue reading Ukraine fights to protect its cultural heritage at The Wild Hunt.

A program from the first Women's Olympic in Monte Carlo formally known as the  1er Meeting International d’Education Physique Féminine de Sports Athlétiques in 1922. When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to ban women from competing in almost all events at the 1924 Olympiad to be held in Paris, some European athletes decided to take matters into their own hands and hold their own female international competition which was held from March 24 through March 31in 1921 in Monte Carlo.  Popularly known as the 1921 Women’s Olympiad ( Olympiades Féminines or Jeux Olympiques Féminins ) the games were the first of three held annually in the Riviera resort principality. The games were organized by Alice Milliat, the French...

A Q&A with C. Pierce Salguero | I had been teaching Introduction to Buddhism courses for over a decade to both college students and the general public and felt that there was a real need for a better introductory book. I couldn’t find a text for my students that provided an objective introduction to the various forms of Buddhism without being overly scholastic.

Can they be stopped? They can, if enough people vote against them. But we have to persuade people to be concerned about fundamental rights to outvote those who vote Republican because they blame Joe Biden for high gas prices.

“Beside the porch step the crocus prepares an exaltation of purple….” -from the poem “Mud Season,” by Jane Kenyon What do you need to shout an exaltation to the world about? How do you do that?

        In some corners of the Christian church today is marked as a feast in celebration of the life of Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez. He is usually more simply known as Oscar Romero. He was archbishop of the Roman Catholic church in El Salvador. And he outraged many for speaking out on […]

And I am at the back page of the sketchbook my daughter gave me a year or two ago. The last entry: a weeping branch of Chamaecyparis nootkatensis.

A legal filing by the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe in tribal court on behalf of the Skagit River salmon could help further rights of nature cases. Continue reading Rights of Nature case in Pacific Northwest at The Wild Hunt.

By Bev Rivero | In the early evening on the first Thursday in March, an excited crowd of invitees gathered at the Museum of the Moving Image to celebrate the first three titles honored by the new Science + Literature program from the National Book Foundation. In addition to the excitement of chatting in person with book folks, the event was a great start to Women’s History Month, as all three books are authored by women.

My new book, The Wisdom of Our Hands: Crafting, a Life was released yesterday. If you pre-ordered it watch for it in the mail. The book was 20 years in the planning and writing and a long wait for me as the publisher and I worked to edit it, and promote it and the concepts it presents. What comes next is up to you. Will you buy it? Will you enjoy it? Will you find it useful? Will you share your enthusiasm for it to encourage others to read it also? Working with a small press I do not have access to the same level of promotion that's offered to the big names. So at this point, if it has a large impact, it will be because you've helped to make it so. The most valuable thing you can do besides buying it and offering reviews is to tell other...

By Bev Rivero | In the early evening on the first Thursday in March, an excited crowd of invitees gathered at the Museum of the Moving Image to celebrate the first three titles honored by the new Science + Literature program from the National Book Foundation. In addition to the excitement of chatting in person with book folks, the event was a great start to Women’s History Month, as all three books are authored by women.

Sara Palmer May we forever perceive the ways we can empower others. Continue reading "The Power to Save"

                              Kitty Genovese behind the bar at Erv's. Fifty eight years ago today, the grisly murder barely attracted much notice in the press.   Then, as now, street crime in New York and other big citieswas too common to make front page headlines, even when the victimwas a pretty young white woman.   If it hadn’t been for an offhand comment by Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy to a New York Times editor “That Queens story is one for the books” the paper would not have launched an investigation that two weeks later splashed across the front page and seared the conscience of a nation. The sensational account of the crime by Martin Gansberg claimed, “For more than half an hour thirty-eight r...

Elections have consequences. Progress is not an incident, but the cumulative impact of our commitment to justice. Right now, we are witnessing one amazing and crucial consequence of the 2020 election, the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jack­son to the US Supreme Court.  But we know our work is not done. In both Judge Jackson’s confirmation hearing and in state legislatures across the country, hateful ideology and rhetoric are used as a political tool to win points or gain power at the expense of marginalized communities. We see reproductive rights under assault and attempts to systematically strip away voting rights. Our 2022 midterm election will have consequences. It is our work to support and build power in our communities to m...

Amy Banks WomenExplore March 17, 2022 Amy Banks, our speaker, gave both the Focus and the Lecture.  In the focus talk she told us about a very personal experience which is addressed in her book, “Fighting Time," coauthored with Isaac Knapper. Additionally she has authored Wired to Connect , Four Ways to Click , and Mental Health for Women (Coauthor). Several of her lectures are available on YouTube.  Raised in Orono, ME, Dr. Banks is a psychiatrist in Lexington, MA and a Founding Scholar at the International Center for Growth in Connection (ICGC) and a Senior Scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women.  As Amy told us in the opening of her focus, her father was killed in front of the Hyatt Regency in 1979, while at a conference in N...

Sunlight is used by plants to create food from carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Sunlight warms our bodies and helps us make Vitamin D. As the days in the Northern Hemisphere lengthen, let us all, everywhere, appreciate the warmth of sunlight. How does the natural world provide you comfort and sustenance?

      It was on this day, the 23rd of March, 1889, forty admirers of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, took hands and pledge themselves as his followers as the promised messiah and Mahdi. This moment is considered the inauguration of the Ahmadiyya Muslim movement. Ghulam Ahmad was born into an affluent Mughal family on […]

Spring conventionally arrived on Sunday, March 20. Yes, as Pagans, we held rituals and welcomed Ostara, or if you are Druid as I am – Alban Eilir. This is only the beginning though. Seeds, just like the spells we create, take more than uttering words. There is work involved, lots of work. Spring is a […] The post Spring is here! Plant seeds to work on your physical & mental gardens appeared first on Nature's Sacred Journey.

In February the IPCC released their summary report for policy makers on what the stark impacts of climate change and what must be done to mitigate those impacts. Continue reading New report on climate change at The Wild Hunt.

UUSC advocates helped push Biden administration to formally acknowledge the Rohingya genocide.

  A Story   There are many stories.   Some offer wisdom.   Some offer different perspectives.   Some makes us wonder.   Here is a story from Andhra Pradesh in Southern India called “A Pig’s Life.” One day, a guru foresaw in a flash of vision what he would be in his next life. So he called his favorite disciple and asked him what he would do for his guru in return for all he had received. The disciple said he would do whatever his guru asked him to do. Having received this promise, the guru said, "Then this is what I'd like you to do for me. I've just learned that when I die, which will be very soon, I'm going to be reborn as a pig. Do you see that sow eating garbage there in the yard? I'm going to be reborn as the fourth pigl...

 Mardi Gras has been celebrated in one form or fashion in New Orleans for over 300 years.   That, my friends, is a lot of celebrating.   Over the years this carnival has become more elaborate, with more crowds and Krewes—Krewes are the groups that put on each of the parades.   The Krewes were more generous and socially conscious with their throws—the things thrown from the floats.   This year, one parade, Iris, threw branded coffee, red beans and jambalaya mixes, soap, tooth brushes, all of which were made locally.   The king of the Hermes parade threw roughly 100 strands of real pearls, each valued at something-like $1500.   To say that Mardi Gras is a celebration of excess would be an understatement.             

  A Story This is a Middle Eastern story. Down the street and around seven corners, a man and woman were married.             They loved one another.   But very soon after the marriage, the woman was sorry to discover that her husband often came home in a foul mood.   One thing or another happened during the day that made him grumpy or angry.   He carried this burden home with him and was not at all shy about sharing it with her.             "This cannot go on," thought the woman.   She contemplated what to do until finally one day she said, "Husband of mine, I know that your work is difficult and causes you grief some days.   And I've noticed that on those days you come home angry."             Her...

This past Sunday’s Special Collection was for the UU Service Committee’s emergency relief fund for a Ukraine Response. If you missed the opportunity to contribute, and would like to, please do so by Saturday, March 26th. We know the UUSC will do excellent and necessary things ... read more . The post Supporting Ukrainian Refugees appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

We have a few patches of bulbs that we have planted in our front yard. While we have seen crocuses beginning to bloom on our morning walks, ours had yet to emerge until this week. Each day there are more green shoots, with their promise ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – March 22nd appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

  I think we probably can all agree that most of us tend to view the world through our own personal lens, or window as Raimon Panikkar would call it.   Today I want to explore what might change for us when we deeply attend to another person as they tell us what the world looks like through their own lens/window?   I choose to use the word lens rather than window, because the lens metaphor reminds me that often I choose what I focus on, while the window metaphor feels a little too passive.   At least for me, it is easy to forget, as Panikkar reminds us, that I am only seeing only one perspective, that one worldview I've focused on through my lens.   After all, a lens sharpens the details of what I have chosen to focus on.   But what...

Religious Education Classes have resumed meeting IN PERSON. The schedule for upcoming weeks is below the announcements about the K/1/2 OWL program, the 5/6/7 OWL program, and the 11/12 OWL program. K/1/2 OWL (Our Whole Lives sexuality education) – Parent-Child Orientation 4/10! – Classes will begin 4/24. This ... read more . The post RE This Week – March 22nd appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

This month we explore polarities, two things that are both needed, and that exist in tension with one another, such as activity and rest, or an inhale and an exhale. We can’t really choose just one. A paradox is a statement that seems absurd at ... read more . The post March Theme – Paradoxes and Polarities appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

  The worship theme this month is "Widening the Circle." As I reflected on the theme, I thought, "Before we decide how to widen the circle, shouldn't we think about what the heck our circle is?"   And consider which circle we are even talking about.   Are we talking about a circle of concern, in other words, who we are concerned about?   Are we talking about the people here in this congregation or the people who are marginalized, being treated as "less than" by others in our white supremacist culture?   Are we talking about our circle of ideas/values/beliefs?   Many Unitarian Universalists are considering whether to change the Principles and Sources document so that it better reflects who Unitarian Universalists are in the 21st cen...

The numbers here are ok via CovidActNow. And there is a new variant that so far isn’t impacting locally. We have been utilizing masks and distancing in the Great Hall to continue to prioritize the well-being of the most vulnerable among us including those who ... read more . The post COVID Prevention/Response Update March 22nd appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

I don't know about you, but I need to let go of exhaustion and worry about Covid.   I am really done with Covid.   That does not mean I am going to stop wearing a mask, washing my hands, being aware of distancing in public settings.   It just means I am acutely aware of the limited mental and emotional resources I have due to two years of Covid.   I am aware of the sadness, anxiety, and social consequences of Covid.   I continue to limit some of my activities, keep my proof of vaccination with me, and double mask in some situations.               I am in a spiritual place where it is hard for me to even consider what I might learn from my life during Covid.   Part of me doesn't care what I might learn, I just want move ...

I want to start with this poem called "Every Note" by Rev. Aaron Miller.    Rev. Aaron is the pastor of   Metropolitan Community Church in Hartford, Connecticut, a Welcoming and Affirming Community.   Rev. Aaron is a political activist who is dedicated to working for the advancement of LGBTQI justice and equality.   As a transgender clergy person, he is passionately committed to human and civil rights and creating safe and welcoming spaces in our faith communities for all people. Like a note in a song, we are each essential. A beat cannot be skipped without interrupting the song’s rhythm and cadence. Would we say one note is wrong, unnecessary or has less value than another... when the song is so beautiful that it touches our hear...

  This month's (November) worship service theme is Holding History.   And so I have been pondering our country's recent history and how to hold it within me pondering how this congregation might hold our recent history and how those beyond these walls are holding it as well.   This past year and a half have been unlike any other that many, if not all of us, have ever experienced, with Covid and its many resurgences, and political and social divisiveness, with violence and bigotry in the headlines almost every day.   I have been spending time thinking about how I, and we as a society, might create meaning of these past couple years.               So, with regard to this, I want to construct a framework that we might use to...

  There are many stories of Mother Matrina, a nun in the Early Christian Church and a prominent saint in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches.   Here is one:             A young doctor came to see Mother Matrina. "Mother," they said, "I cannot bear all the suffering I see or hear about every day.   It is just too much for me.   I cannot understand why God allows such suffering to exist in the world!"             "There is no way for us to understand the existence of suffering," she replied.   "We must learn just to bear it, with as much courage and love as we can find.   This is the only 'answer' to the problem of suffering we can find."             "But this does not ...

            As we all know, we live in a very divided world.   Divided on ideologies, beliefs, political affiliations.   I use the word divided because I see a lot of people either saying or in some way communicating an us vs. them message – whether it be about vaccines, abortions, voting rights, or so many other things—the message is you are wrong and I am right. Even within Unitarian Universalism, there is division.           During a conversation with Unitarian Universalist ministers this week, we talked about Covid and vaccine mandates, wondering about the Unitarian Universalist Association Covid guidelines.   One guideline says: As a community that values inclusion and collective care, we don’t want to cr...

  Readings The first reading is from the Christian Gospel of John 20: 24–25; this scene occurs after Jesus’s death, when he has appeared to the apostles. 24 But Thomas …one of the twelve [apostles], was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” The Second Reading is from the Leaping Loon blog by Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. Leslie Mills. Today, in common vernacular a Doubting Thomas is someone who will refuse to believe something without direct, physical, personal evidence; in other words, a skeptic. Thomas h...

I am a couple of days late posting as we went up to the north coast, Gualala, for a few days. I travel lighter now in a lot of ways, but one is that I no longer carry a laptop or a scale. The drive wasn’t long in miles but highway 1 is very curvy […]

Frank Leslie's Illustrated carried this "sketch of Grandma Swain voting based on eye witness accounts bit there were no other women in line when Louisa Ann Swain asked officials to open the polls early while she was out and about running errands.  I believe I have mentioned before my considerable pride that my home stateof Wyoming was the first jurisdiction in the United States to give women free and equal suffrage with men in all elections.   This was accomplished in 1869 when the sparsely populated U.S. Territory was still largely raw frontier.   A fair amount has been written on pioneer women office holders like Esther Hobart Morris, a Justice of the Peace in South Pass or Bailiff Mary Atkinson* in Laramie, both in 1870.   Less we...

Growth is beautiful and necessary, and it is sometimes hard. Growth requires us to push outside of our comfort zones and experience something new. How have you been made uncomfortable by growth?

At some point there are no more books, no more classes, no more teachers. There’s just the open sea and the stars and the wind. There’s only learning by doing.

. . . which isn’t a cedar. At least, it’s not of the genus Cedrus. Quite a few conifers not in that genus get called cedars anyway, and this is one of them. It is a member of the genus Chamaecyparis, making it a cypress, though there too, the common name of “cypress” and the […]

Phoenix Phyre festival was shut by authorities, the Artemis Spacecraft, Kūlgrinda sings support for Ukraine and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of March 21, 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

In the early twentieth century, a tradition began of celebrating March 8th as International Women’s Day—an annual invitation to celebrate women’s contributions to events in history and contemporary society. In the early 1980s, this tradition expanded within the U.S. to Women’s History Week, and a few years later, to all of March as Women’s History […]

In our Centennial year, All Souls is honoring members of our church who have contributed greatly to shape how our congregation and community care for each other. Each Sunday, we've featured an honoree, highlighting their service and their meaningful experiences. The post Centennial Awards on Heritage Sunday appeared first on BeyondBelief.

God loves you

 This is my guest editorial from today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper.

To part 1 Talent + Effort Merit, or deservingness, is a product of two factors: talent, ability, natural gifts on the one hand and effort, hard work, training on the other. We'll look at the talent side, and then at the effort side. First, let us ask: from where did the talent come? Some of it came from genes – that’s luck. Some of it came from childhood experiences. But growing up in the right sort of environment to bring out a given ability is not something the individual made happen. That’s also luck. The other factor – effort, hard work, motivation, training -- isn’t always possible to separate from native talent. But whether you have the opportunities for training, have good coaches available, and training facilities, have...

Pocahontas imagined as a Powhatan "princess" with facial features based on her from life 1616 English portrait. On March 21, 1617 Rebecca Rolfe, the 22 year old wifeof John died, probably of smallpox or pneumonia, in Englandleaving behind an infant son, Thomas.  This incident, while tragic was so common that it would hardly be remembered today except for Rebecca’s maiden name—Pocahontas.   She was born about 1598 in what is now Virginia, the daughter of Wahunsunacah, principal chief of a network of Algonquian speaking tribesand known by the ceremonial title of Powhatan.  Her birth name was Matoaka.   A Powhatan girl like "Little Wanton"  from a contemporary drawing by a Virginia settler. Pocahontas,the name by which she was in...

The smallest shoots of growth remind us of the cycles of life and provide hope for something beautiful yet to come. What conditions do you need to manifest something new?

    Thomas Cranmer, theologian, controversialist, one time Archbishop of Canterbury, was tied to a stake and burned to death on this day, the 21st of March, in 1556. Cranmer, one time toady to a king, a priest and prelate, brilliant writer and complicated thinker, the principal architect of a reformed Catholicism in England. With […]