“Toward a Buddhisto-Christian Religion” by Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000) (from “Buddhism and American Thinkers”, eds. Kenneth K. Inada and Nolan P. Jacobson, State University of New York Press, 1984, pp. 1-13). A digital copy of this essay can be borrowed at the following link: https://archive.org/details/buddhismamerican0000unse/page/10/mode/2up A recording of Hartshorne giving a version of this essay can be heard at the following link: https://archive.org/details/hartshorneabuddhistchristianphil Hartshorne’s connection with the Unitarian movement can be read about at the following link: https://uudb.org/articles/charleshartshorne.html —o0o— Prefatory Remarks to Charles Hartshorn’s Essay (Kenneth K. Inada and Nolan P. ...

How do we prepare for Tower Time? How do we make our way through it? With our eyes wide open, our intellect fully engaged, and our magic running wide open.

      CHAN: ITS MEANING FOR MODERN CIVILIZATION Shin’ichi Hisamatsu Chan means Emancipation and Construction As to the question, “What is Chan?” if one is to be brief, it may perhaps suffice to utter just one word or, indeed, to utter no word at all. If, however, one is to elaborate, it may be […]

  Jail Brakers , the program that offers support and services to the familiesof incarcerated individuals, and the experts at Prairie State Legal Servicesare offering a special sealing and expungement of cannabis records andconvictions presentation at the McHenry County Board of Health office, 620 Dakota Street, Crystal Lake on Saturday, September 3 from 2 to 5 pm.   Use the main entrance at the rear of the building. After the State of Illinois legalized recreational use of cannabis—marijuana—the Legislature passed an automatic expungement of the records of those convicted of simple possession of small amounts of the drug.   Many others, however, convicted of possession of larger quantities and/or sale and distribution are required...

A recent Sunday morning, the Rev. Scott Sammler-Michael, senior co-minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, NJ had us thinking. He asked, “What would you say God is? What would you say God is not?” in his similarly titled sermon. There were many different responses to these questions and all like-minded and agreeable to […] The post My Pagan view of the deities — what God is and what they are not appeared first on Nature's Sacred Journey.

The  myōgō/nembutsu is at the top and centre At the end of July, as some of you know, we at the Cambridge Unitarian Church were pleased and honoured to welcome Enrique Galvan-Alvarez a Jodo Shinshu scholar and priest ordained at the Nishi Hongan-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan. Enrique had joined us for many of the Wednesday Evening Conversations during which, since January, between six and ten of us explored the classic Jodo Shinshu text, “The Tannisho.” Enrique’s deep knowledge of the Jodo Shinshu tradition were invaluable to our conversations as was his openness to the traditions, insights and concerns of our own Unitarian, Free Christian and Universalist tradition.  L. to R. Me, Susanna, Riena and Enrique As I have mentioned else...

The droughts being experienced around the globe have revealed both archaeological wonders and stark reminders of history. Continue reading A round-up of ancient and modern objects revealed by drought at The Wild Hunt.

Hello UUSS, This is the beginning of our sixth year serving as your Co-ministers! We are so grateful to have had a bit of time of vacation to rest a bit and connect with friends and family. Our time of study leave gifted us with some much ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – August 30th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

2022-23 Religious Education classes begin on Sunday, 9/25! To register your child(ren), click HERE . Below is a list of this year’s awesome RE offerings. Please note that this is a tentative schedule while we’re inviting folks to teach, facilitate, and advise. A final schedule will ... read more . The post Religious Education News – August 30th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

You cannot make somebody else heal, or do the healing work for them. It is hard to watch people we love struggle, but it is important to remember that there is no timeline, no deadline, and healing is different for everybody. -Marin Smith (CLF) How do you make space for others to heal?

When the tired bones settle downupon the cliffsto see the greatest show on gaiabeyond the watercolor imaginationof an unheralded genius so ends the day, blue keep aloft in the skiesthe sun makes its retreat past mountain rangesto illuminate other places over the vast oceanthe gold-dust scattered deepens and the far cornerbecomes indigo then violet beauty, … Continue reading "Journey’s end"

    The 30th of August the ever delightful Episcopal Church celebrates a feast in honor of the life and ministry of Charles Chapman Grafton. I wrote about him a couple of years ago. And it feels time to revisit… Born a Boston brahman in 1830, Grafton was educated at Philips Academy and Harvard College. […]

                                               Fashionable and foppish young Henry Bergh returning from Europe. Henry Bergh  was a softy.  A sentimental fool who could not abide to witness the sufferingsof animals and small, helpless creatures.  And that made him a damned annoyance, and worse, a meddlesome nuisance to honest men who were simply trying to get the most out of livestock that God had clearly given them dominion over.  It said so right in the  Bible,  didn’t it?  To make matters worse he was richer than Croesus and had money to burn and spread around courts and newspapers to persecute men for doing as they saw fit with their own damned property!  And he was sl...

On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, we urge the Biden administration to do more to end this pattern of human rights violations.

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, FOX News downplays aggression at Pagan events, U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercept canopic jars and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of August 28, 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

Healing always takes time – whether it’s a cut or a scratch or a relationship that needs attention and listening and understanding.  We must be patient and do the work required to allow for healing. -Judy DiCristofaro (CLF)

    On the evening of the 26th of August, 2022, in Long Beach, California, I was honored to give Mo Myokan Weinhardt and Tom Daimon Wardle denkai transmission within my Zen lineages. This is the first step of transmission within our Zen sangha. The new Dharma Holders are authorized to gather and lead communities […]

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Despite his many accomplishments, Oliver Wendell Homes, Sr. is best remembered today as the father of the great Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., he of the impressive mustachio and beneficiary of a bestselling fictionalized biography and an even more fanciful MGM movie.  The father, who evidently did not engage a good press agent, would probably have been both proud and amused.                          The famous son, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The senior Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 29, 1809. Like his nearly exactly contemporary, Ralph Waldo Emerson, he was the son of noted liberal minister and a descendentof poet Anne Bradstreet.  Unlike...

For the past month, we’ve been living in Westport, Mass., and I’ve been commuting to my new job in Cohasset, Mass. It’s at least an hour and a half drive, more if there’s traffic. By the time I come home, I’m often tired of driving. Fortunately, there’s a rest area almost exactly halfway between the … Continue reading "The Ted memorial rest area"

Devotees of Hekate are asking the British Museum to keep a statue on display after an exhibition rather than return it to storage. Continue reading Hekate devotees request British Museum keep statue in public view at The Wild Hunt.

“In my mind, there is a direct relationship between the healing of my body and the healing of the world. Where healing and peacemaking are one, they are the bridge between individual healing and the healing of the community. I do not ask for my healing without committing entirely to the healing of the other … Continue reading Healing Ourselves

They say it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. That works for lakes too, I guess, although I am glad for both the beauty of the trees and for their shade. I know the lake is there. Of course, maybe the lake isn’t really there even though you know it should […]

In the early days of May 2022, the U.S. experienced another mass shooting motivated by an ideology called “replacement theory.” How and when did this theory emerge? How has this idea affected persons of color? How can our awareness of this harmful ideology foster our work as compassionate humans? This talk will touch on these questions and others in an attempt to come to grips with difficult events in our history and our present moment.

A sawmill is closing in Hong Kong due to the government's plan for a massive homogenized renewal and development project. An article in the New York Times, Wood is Life, describes the philosophy of the owner and operator of the mill.  He thinks young people could learn a great deal from wood. “I hope they’ll learn from its resilient nature and stay grounded and not run away from difficulty.” When I've asked my students  whether  they want me to make things easy for them, or difficult so they learn more, they choose the latter. In my wood shop I've been making a prototype cedar box for a Veteran's  class  on Wednesday  and making inlaid boxes to fill orders. Make, fix and create.

Dr. Martin Luther King's ringing  I Have a Dream  speech was the highlight and climax of the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington and helped change America, but the March itself was bigger than any one man. Like a lot of people back in ’63 I was glued to the television for the beginning-to-end coverage provided by CBS News of the March for Jobs and Justice on August 28.  I was a 14 year old in Cheyenne, Wyoming at the time.  I was both thrilled and awestruck.  Listening to Dr. King’s I Have a Dream Speech literally changed my life. The March was the brain child of labor and Civil Rights leader A. Phillip Randolph. The march originally was the brainchildof an elder of both the labor and Civil Rights movements.   A. Phil...

I’ve learned some things this year. Discipline is important. Discernment is more important. Spiritual practice is most important. It’s the foundation of any good religion, including our contemporary Pagan and polytheist religions.

Please join us this Sunday (28 August  2022) at 11:00 AM for “Oil and Water:  A Water Communion Service” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in person at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA  71106 if you are able to … Continue reading "All-Ages Worship (28 August 2022)"

Please join us on Sunday (28 August 2022) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. On this Sunday, we will begin a two-part exploration of the movement for LGBTQ+ rights within the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Summer religious education is more art and activity-based. All children and youth are with us in the 11:00 AM service for the first 20 minutes or so and then are dismissed to their activities. On Sunday (28 August 2022), Maggie Molisee will be back to work on the mural with the group.

Please join us next Tuesday (30 August 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.

Do you have a bucket list – a list of things you’d like to do before you kick the bucket? I understand the appeal of a bucket list. I don’t have a written-down list, but sometimes I’ll have a thought of something that I’d like to do one time before I die. Some of those things I have since done, others I may yet do, others I probably won’t get to, and others I’ve forgotten or lost interest in. The key point is that it really doesn’t much matter if I get to them or not. The measure of a life is not the list of things you did once. It’s all the things you did over and over, making each time fresh. So: back to Jinniu and his rice pail and his laughing and dancing. As you hold that image in mind, there are a couple things yo...

Ever since then, across six decades, I’ve associated the forest – any forest – with dwarfs, elves, secrets, songs, trolls, traps, witches, wizards, and other mysterious manifestations. All unknowingly, my ex-monk philosophy professor father was laying the tracks for my later embrace of Norse mythology and Ásatrú religion. Continue reading Column: The Stories of Our Lives at The Wild Hunt.

Sixteenth century Jewish mystic Isaac Luria told a story of creation in which God, in order to make room to create the world, stored divine light in earthen vessels. Some of these jars broke, and the light that they stored scattered with the broken pieces of clay. In Luria’s account of creation, the goal of … Continue reading Healing the World

To sit upon a cushionmandala-embroiderednot to flush the mind of all thoughtinstead to wrestle with the selfexistence as sufferingsuffering as craving the breath slots inas the zen of assemblingfurniture bought cheaplyfrom familiar corners of the Webalso the struggle as the partsjiggle, pop, settle, breakbreath goes in and out of rhythm seeking not perfectionsenses aflame may … Continue reading "Cool in the crucible"

The delegate caucus. Two years ago, the Republican National Convention which renominated the former orange Resident of the United States was in full ugly swing. This verse erupted after stepping out my back door at 1:30 am.   Unlike the pleasantly cool night this year in McHenry County it was close and muggy.   I was trying my best to keep from being over-exposedto the Trumpista hate fest, but it kept creeping in on newscasts and social media.   No wonder I was restless.   Surrealism anyone? "Mistah Chairman, I Rise to a point of order!" The Convention of Crickets August 26, 2020   The Convention of Crickets nominates the Night. The Fireflies and Cicadas             concur. The Night accepts             and bla...

Please join us on Saturday (27 August 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 (27 August 2022)"

For the past few years, troubled as they have been, the energy leading into the arrival of autumn has been all about getting ready; preparing for lean times, stocking up, building community connections, and helping one another. That need still exists, of course, and is more important to be met than ever it has been. Continue reading Column: Autumn is Coming at The Wild Hunt.

One of the difficult parts of healing from COVID-19 is that in many people, long after the virus is gone from our bodies, our brains struggle to return to health, remaining foggy. It is a pathway of healing that most of us are not used to – and it means we have to re-think our … Continue reading Healing in the COVID Era

There is a picture of me as a child frowning over my book at whoever is behind the camera interrupting my read, and I think it is the perfect depiction of my relationship with books. I’ve always loved books, and nothing else made sense to me. If I couldn’t share stories with people, what else could I do? 

Under the withered treeby the exit-rampheat-shimmered asphaltI draw in sulphurand exhale rose-breathvibrant springtime birdsongwithin primeval, ever long I take in poisonto then speakwith loving-kindnesslove, the last well run drywhile anger fills with dustswept in, disappearsa transformation happens here.

Some reflections on eating around London...

Prayer for Students Beloved, grant courage, heart, and curiosity to all who learn this season, to enter their studies, to meet new classmates and returning ones, to meet new teachers and returning ones, to grow stronger and steadfast in their pursuit of learning. Bless those who are students, learning the...

                                           Tony Pastor in all of his splendor.   It was America’s most beloved—and most heavily romanticized—theatrical form for 50 years bringing inexpensive, wholesome(mostly) entertainment to the working and middle classes of big cities and burbs in the sticks alike.  It employed singers, dancers, musicians, comedians,magicians, acrobats, animal acts, rope spinners, and even celebrities fallen on hard times with nothing to exhibit but their presence by the tens of thousands transforming a handful of disreputable saloon theatersand traveling troops into the might industry called Show Business.  Vaudeville, as it came to be called, became an unquenchable font of talent ...

Alfred North Whitehead said in his essay on the Aims of Education,  " In training a child to activity of thought, above all things we must beware of what I will call “inert ideas”—that is to say, ideas that are merely received into the mind without being utilized, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations."  That's where the hands come into play, for as Charles H. Hamm had noted, the mind seeks the truth but the hands discover it. Utilizing, testing, and throwing into new combinations is what the hands do best. Whitehead had described a learning in depth process starting with romance of the idea, then the development of precision in the application of that idea, culminating in what he called "generalization" or the ability to ...

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A Texas church has announced it will pay damages for performing an unauthorized and modified version of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway play, "Hamilton," that included several evangelical segments, one of which demonized homosexuality. Continue reading Texas church will pay damages for its “Hamilton” performance at The Wild Hunt.

I spent an academic year interning for UUSC and I learned some invaluable lessons.

By Alan Levinovitz | As long as national parks have existed, people conceived of them in religious terms. In his book “Discovery of the Yosemite,” the nineteenth-century explorer Lafayette Bunnell described the valley as hallowed ground. Yosemite wasn’t just beautiful, it was holy, “the very innermost sanctuary of all that is Divine in material creation,” a place where visitors could “commune with Nature’s God.” When his companions failed to behave respectfully, Bunnell reacted as one would in church.

Daily Compass returns after a prolonged period necessary for healing. It is a stretch, a reach, a challenge to move forward into the future while staying connected to our daily meditation tradition. Tell us about a time you’ve returned to something after an absence. How did it feel? What was difficult about it?

Where the sprawl of concreteEndsReplaced with boundless treesThe true north as the surveyorWould tell youCities to towns to villagesTo a gas station sellingExpired hard candy and PepsiThe dead-straight 5 gains itsSlalom features through the mountainsWeaving between the timber trucksTowards a state line signifyingNothingHeading towards the landOf the Willamette and the ColumbiaGridlocked bridges and trolley bellsThe … Continue reading "Forgotten north"

We finally got two solid rain storms this past week after a long drought. What a relief! And now four very tiny frogs have appeared in the pond. (I don’t know what happened to the one we had before that was a little bigger.) A few days ago, this new water lily flower started blooming, […]

A half-decade after the Burmese military viciously expelled the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority, justice is in short supply.

In a previous post I outlined some reasons why I don’t want to wear a preaching gown. In this post, I’ll do my best to give some of the many good reasons why Unitarian Universalist ministers should Geneva gowns, or other types of preaching gowns. First, women ministers are held to impossible standards of dress, … Continue reading "Preaching gowns, part two"

  Although no illustrations accompanied the  New York Sun  stories of a civilization on the Moon, artists and publishers were quick to produce prints depicting the alleged flying humanoid residents and other wonders. Almost a hundred years before Orson Welles soiled the knickers of radio listeners across the country with his broadcast of A War of the Worlds , a New York newspaper had many of its readersconvinced that the world’s most famous astronomerhad observed a civilization on the Moon through a powerful telescope. On August 25, 1835 the New York Sun published the first of six articles which claimed that noted Britishastronomer Sir John Herschel made the observations through a powerful new telescope “of a new design.”   The...

I was trying to explain to someone why I don’t wear a preaching gown, or any other clerical vestments. It’s kind of a long explanation, so I thought I’d turn it into a blog post. Unitarian Universalists ministers who wear gowns to preach typically wear one of two types of gown. If they have a … Continue reading "Preaching gowns"

I've gotten my quality award base to the point of gluing it up. Sanding will come next, then finish, then shipping to the supplier who will attach an acrylic block containing the essential information of the award.  Cutting the miters and assembling the base reminded me of a question asked by a member of the Central Indiana Wood Workers. He asked about the need to stand miters before assembly.  There are three good reasons to leave a well cut joint alone. First, in sanding, however much one tries to be perfect, the perfect joint will be made less perfect. Secondly, sanding dust will fill the pores of the wood, making glue less effective in securing the joint. Third, sanding adds an unnecessary step in which mistakes can be made. How ma...

The case: At each meal, Master Jinniu himself would bring the rice bucket to the front of the Zen hall, dance there and laugh loudly, saying, “Dear Bodhisattvas, come and eat rice!” (Xuedou said, “Although he behaved that way, he was not [simply] kind.”) A monk asked Changqing, “An ancient worthy said, 'Dear Bodhisattvas, come and eat rice!' What does it mean?” Changqing said, “That is exactly like praising and giving thanks at the midday meal.” ( Blue Cliff Record , #74)I want to talk to you today about that koan that Tracy read – look at some of the lessons it offers. It’s about how we become genuine, authentic – become who we are – and that the way to do that is compassion. But first, what are koans? In the 12t...

No archeologisthas the power of Solsummer soul unrelentingcourt of last appealrefuses a reprieve the currents ceasethe ripples endthe inhabitants flee if they have the powerunearthed the hunger stonesour ancestors telling uswhat we already know the famine agebegunbeyondthe bed riven withfissures in a kilncrafted in greed a mountain of goldcannot buy a single dropof the Loireabundant … Continue reading "Eden to eternity"

TWH explores the use of cover crops in the fight against climate change. Continue reading Cover crops and sustainability at The Wild Hunt.

Mobilizing UUs in solidarity with Indigenous front-line communities is a critical part of our climate justice work. Communities where Black, Indigenous, and People of Color live are hit first and worst by the impacts of climate change and the pollution that causes it. Our climate advocacy must center the lived experiences and knowledge of these frontline communities. UUs Beth Ogilvie with Starr King Unitarian Universalist Church and Colleen Cabot with First Unitarian Church of San Jose reached out to Side With Love to share an important call to action put forward by the Protect Juristac Advocacy Partners Coalition. Please read their update, take the actions they share, and consider what climate justice looks like in your community? Wh...

Who’s your favorite people’s historian, and why is it Howard Zinn? He’s ours, too, and today, August 24, he would have turned one hundred. He wore many hats: social activist, professor, author, and playwright. He meant so much to us here at Beacon Press. Going through the books we published of his, including his memoir, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train,” we get a little misty eyed. To celebrate his hundredth birthday, we pulled some beloved quotes that showcase his life’s worth of wisdom and insights on hope, the politics of writing history, the power of social movements, nonviolence, class, race, education, and much more.

A few years ago my wife, daughter and I visited Jim Thorpe, PA, a small tourist town in the Poconos.  It is a delightful small town that got the idea that they could capitalize on the fame of the World's Greatest Athlete with whom the town had no prior connection. There's a new biography of Jim Thorpe reviewed in the New York Times, "PATH LIT BY LIGHTNING: The Life of Jim Thorpe," by David Maraniss.     In the meantime, I'm working on an Arkansas Governor's Award base for the Arkansas Quality Awards commission and planning for a veteran's class next week. Make, fix and create...

Remember eternityWhere the forest growsDies, rots, burnsFrom ashes to canopyTowering shadows,Coolness even on aJuly day blazing Footfalls silentBouncing gently on the mossPast lichen-drenched logsIn the cycle towards oblivionMystery aboundsSpiritual and sacredAt dusk the fairies danceLeaving their circles toThe other sideCuriosity comes, chided by senseThat their realm is not ours Remember eternityWhere the forest grows

                                    Rev. Theodore Parker in 1855. Theodore Parker was born on August 24, 1810 inLexington, Massachusetts.  His large family had deep roots in New England.  His grandfather was the Captain Parker who commandedthe militia on Lexington Greenin the opening skirmish of the American Revolution. He was scholarly and devout but lost both parents and his seven of his nine siblings by the time he was 27, mostly to that scourge of the era consumption (tuberculosis.)  The losses confirmed his rejection of Calvinist orthodoxy. As a youth he was unable to afford tuition at Harvard, so he read the entire curriculum on his own.  He dallied as a school masterand toyed with the idea of becoming a la...

    Blood, that wears treason in his face, Villain complete in parson’s gown, How much he is at court in grace For stealing Ormond and the crown! Since loyalty does no man good, Let’s steal the King, and outdo Blood! John Wilmot, History of Insipids Thomas Blood died on this day, the 24th of […]

In pain we are onethat which cannot healfull and completecracked not brokenpottery beautiful when the piecescome together throughsweat and toil the raw heart hurtswhen touchedbeating remindingeach of us we are still alivein pain we are one risesoarknow that each timewe take flightthe ground will never be the sameupon our returnlet us love our cracks“that whatever … Continue reading "Raw heart"

Research suggests that drought may have been an instigator in the shift to Islam as a religious practice within the Arabian peninsula. Continue reading Extreme Drought may have created conditions for Islam to emerge at The Wild Hunt.

Our Co-ministers Rev. Wendy Bartel and Rev. Lynn Gardner are on study leave this week focused on faith development, spiritual deepening, continuing education, worship research and writing, and many, many administrative tasks in preparation for the coming church year. The post Co-Ministers Colloquy – August 23rd appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

RE classes will resume Sunday, 9/25! To register your child(ren), click HERE : Below is a list of this year’s awesome RE offerings. Please note that this is a tentative schedule while we’re inviting folks to teach, facilitate, and advise. A final schedule will ... read more . The post Religious Education News – August 23rd appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

I suspect we could all make a long list of the major problems facing us today—from threats to democracy at home, to global climate change, and so much more. As the author and activist Grace Lee Boggs used to say, “Another world is necessary.” But she didn’t stop there. She would add, “Another world is […]

  Bartolomeo Vanzetti (left) and Nicola Sacco being escorted to their trial. Left wing organizations —what was left of them—were forced to go on the defensivein the wake of the mass suppression and repression of the Red Scare following World War I.   For much of the following decade a lot of their organizational effort went into raising money and consciousness for the legal defense of scores of martyrs and for the support of the families of jailed militants.   The same pattern happened after the McCarthyite suppression of the 1950’s and in the backlash against student radicals, the anti-war movement, and militant Blacks and other minority movements in the early ’70’s.   But no case in any of these three eras attracted as mu...

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, author Rachel Pollack hospitalized, megalithic stones on the Iberian peninsula, zodiac drinks and food, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of August 22, 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

Mobilizing UUs in solidarity with Indigenous front-line communities is a critical part of our climate justice work. Communities where Black, Indigenous, and People of Color live are hit first and worst by the impacts of climate change and the pollution that causes it. Our climate advocacy must center the lived experiences and knowledge of these frontline communities. UUs Beth Ogilvie with Starr King Unitarian Universalist Church and Colleen Cabot with First Unitarian Church of San Jose reached out to Side With Love to share an important call to action put forward by the Protect Juristac Advocacy Partners Coalition. Please read their update, take the actions they share, and consider what climate justice looks like in your community? Wh...

During the peak of the pandemic I fell woefully behind on both posting the texts of my sermons and keeping my sermon index up to date. One of my sabbatical projects is to work to rectify that situation. This morning, I finished updating my sermon index. It now is complete from 2006 to the present […]

    “Make of yourself a light”said the Buddha,before he died.I think of this every morningas the east beginsto tear off its many cloudsof darkness, to send up the first signal-a white fanstreaked with pink and violet,even green.An old man, he lay downbetween two sala trees,and he might have said anything,knowing it was his final […]

A fanciful European version of the Pueblo uprising. On August 21, 1680 the embattled Spanish at Santa Fe , Nuevo México broke a week-long siege by members of several Pueblos and fled south to El Paso del Norteabandoning the northern province of New Spain to the native residents.  Despite repeated efforts the Spanish were not able to retake control of the district for twelve years.  It was the first successful expulsion of Europeans by a native peoplein North America and only one of a handful of instances it was ever accomplishedeven briefly. Spanish settlement of New Mexico dated to 1598 when several hundred Europeans established the settlement of San Gabriel across the Rio Grande from San Juan Pueblo. About 1608, they moved their cap...

Deborah Castellano’s new book Magic For Troubled Times is the closest thing you can get to apprenticing under an experienced witch without actually going to the witch’s cottage and stirring her cauldron while she explains the spells you’re helping her cast.

With great anticipation, we invite you to UU Wellspring! UU Wellspring is a year-long Unitarian Universalist program of spiritual deepening and connection. The post UU Wellspring appeared first on BeyondBelief.

LREDA and UUMA Colleagues may use this video for worship, etc. free of charge. Please be sure to use my correct pronouns – they/them – when giving attribution. Click here to support my work. “This I Know” – A Blessing for the Ministries of the Rev. Misha Dawn Sanders and Northwest Unitarian Universalist CongregationWritten by HP […]

Netflix's The Sandman hits on magical themes and considered the degrees to which all beings - even deities- can transcend their origins. Continue reading The Sandman: where nightmares and fantasies strive for agency at The Wild Hunt.

Sundays – June 5, July 17, August 21 @ 1-2:30 pm Join us in making Seed Balls! We will be distributing the seed balls to communities that have been affected by the NM fires. Event is for kids and adults of all ages! Everyone welcome! LA Seed Library Project & The Unitarian Church of Los …<p> Seed Ball Sundays Read More »

    The Dark Soil of GodA Zen Meditation on the Psalms James Ishmael Ford The earth belongs to the Divineand everything on it.For the Divine wove it out of the emptiness of space and breathed life into every corner,bringing forth all life,and all of it precious. Who is fit to care for thisand worthy to act […]

A faith journey is never a smooth road - the landscape changes, as well as our vantage point; sometimes our wanderlust gets the better of us; sometimes the place we've settled no longer fits. How do we navigate the path? What's the destination? Or is the journey the whole point?

Even when you have hiked a particular trail many times, there can still be surprises. We saw both a gopher snake and a bobcat this week, rare sightings on familiar trails. Of course, they live here and were likely right there behind the bushes and in the grass all the other times we trundled by […]

We only saw two Fringe shows our last two days in Edinburgh. Tuesday we went to “Are We All in a Cult?” by an obscure comedian whose stage name is Mowten and about whom I can find precious little information on the internet. And Wednesday we went to Dana Alexander’s “Don’t Start Me on White […]

 Devastation after the Rochester, Minnesota super tornado of 1883. It was a hot, muggy day in southeast Minnesota on August 31, 1883.   Joseph Lenard an eyewitness to events that day would later recall in the History of Olmsted County, Minnesota: At Rochester the day had been hot with a strong southeast wind, the air was smoky and oppressive, the heavens were overcast with clouds of a dull leaden line, and there were, apparently, three strata, all moving in different directions. In other words, conditions were ripe for violent weather. At 3:30 in the afternoon a tornado estimated as an F3 in the modern rating system touched down near Pleasant Grove, about 16 miles southwest of Rochester.   Two people were killed and hurt.   It was th...

Please join us this Sunday (21 August  2022) at 11:00 AM for “No, We Are Not a Christian Nation:  The Rise of Christian Nationalism and What the Founders Had to Say About it” with Susan Caldwell and Barbara Deger. We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in person … Continue reading "All-Ages Worship (21 August 2022)"

Join us next Sunday (28 August 2022) at 11:00 AM for our annual water communion worship service. We will have more details on this service next week as we mark the end of summer in our church community.

On Sunday (28 August 2022), join us from 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM for our annual end of summer swim party and potluck. Bring a dish to pass and join us at the home of Kathy Osuch and Mike Roberts (their address will be available on the All Souls Caring Connection Facebook  Group, on the … Continue reading "End of Summer Swim Party (28 August 2022)"

Join us on Sunday (11 September 2022) at 11:00 AM for the annual presentation of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award. The Emerson Award is given annually by our congregation to the individual or organization in the wider community whose life and work best exemplify the values and principles of liberal religion. In 2022, we are … Continue reading "2022 Emerson Award Honoree"