The Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC) announced its award winners last week and report on the recipients and took a moment to spotlight the organization's work and history. Continue reading Aquarian Tabernacle Church International announces leadership awards at The Wild Hunt.

as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, February 5, 2022 It is good to be back in the pulpit. I miss you when I am gone. Not that I particularly went anywhere. I spent most of the last month holed up in my home office working on finishing the manuscript for the […]

Is the earth a mirror image of the sky? No wonder the ancients thought heaven was above us. For me, God (and heaven) is on this earth. Beauty is in abundance, at least around here. It helps me to believe that God is here with us and not sitting on a throne way up in […]

We kick off February's exploration of "Widening the Circle" with a look at the circles closest to us – our own selves and the people we call "us."

Under stress or despair, I feel as if a completely different person inhabits me. When jealousy arises, I contract becoming stingy and cranky. When fear sweeps over me, my imagination dissolves to one single response. When anger and rage strike, my choices are so constricted I spew forth unhelpfully. Spiritual Practice is like a great reminder. The post Please, Help Me Remember to Be Loving appeared first on BeyondBelief.

Melissa Lewis will be at the church parking lot this Sunday afternoon (6 February 2022) from 2:00 to 4:00 PM to collect food and other items for the Noel United Methodist Church Food Pantry. Items requested this month are Jiffy cornbread mix, canned soups (any brand), and cereal (any brand).

      Joseph Priestley died on this day, the 6th of February, in 1804. He was born into a comfortable dissenting family in Birstall, Yorkshire, on the 24th of March, 1733. As a small child he lived with various extended family. His brilliance was quickly noticed, at four he could recite the entire Westminster Shorter […]

As week 4 of 30 Days of Love begins, I’m thrilled to introduce myself to you. I’m Rachel Myslivy, Climate Justice Organizer for the UUA’s Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team.  As someone who has worked in the climate movement for roughly fifteen years, I know that we all come to the work from different places with different perspectives and strategies. Climate justice requires us to see climate change not as a technical problem to be solved, but as a moral and ethical challenge that we as people of faith need to rise to meet and overcome.   Climate justice requires us to act on the reality that the communities hit first and worst by climate change are the least responsible for climate impacts.  Similarly, climate impacts exa...

Today, February 6, 2022, Ozark Public Television's program Ozarks Watch features an interview with me recorded at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. Locally or on local satellite, look for channel 21. The program airs from 1:30 to 2:30 with my segment being the second half. News around the country is that being an educator is an endangered profession. Teachers are disrespected and undervalued and are leaving the profession in droves. Teachers with a masters degree in education often leave the profession in their first five years. This is in part due to the unreasonable expectations placed upon teachers—too large class sizes, the rigid expectation of teaching exactly by the book, and the use of standardized testing to measure studen...

The first minstrel show established conventions and stereotypes for blackface revues and introduced songs like Jimmy Crack Corn  and Turkey in the Straw.  Note the end men who became the stock characters Tambo and bones. On February 6, 1842 the very first all Blackface revuetook the stage of the Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City.  The Virginia Minstrels launched a new theatrical form with their own entirely self-contained shows after brief trials, first for no admission at a billiards parlor, and in January as part of a larger program at the Chatham Theater. While Blackface performers had been popular on stage for at least two decades, they usually appeared as soloor duet acts or occasionally in short comic skits.  The new show pu...

I plan to get back to the needles once I have my field guide again, but I’m tempted to just draw one of these every day until I have done them justice.

An atheist blogger hopes that reincarnation is real. I believe it’s real, but I hold that belief rather loosely. I might be wrong, and even if I’m not I don’t want to get so caught up in the next life that I neglect to live this life as fully as I can.

      Joseph Priestley died on this day, the 6th of February, in 1804. He was the chemist generally acknowledged as the discoverer of oxygen, and not long after of soda water. Priestley was also an educator, progressive political theorist, and a Unitarian clergyman. According to the Wikipedia article on him, “Priestley’s science was integral […]

In recent years, I have come to embrace joy as an act of resistance. There is so much evil and sadness out there and it was through reading and following Black activists that I realized that we can’t get lost in the idea of finding joy wherever we can. How do you resist the evil … Continue reading Resistance

"Does the toll of work on the physical body bring about a sense of depletion or restoration? Aging is a fact of life. When what we do for a living hastens the spread of life's markings on our bodies, a change can be made. I find that asking this question on a regular basis matters to keep my energetic levels in balance. I ask if what I do nourishes and restores me. I ask if I choose this work today. Each day.  I leave in flexibility to change my mind each day because I am human." Continue reading Column: Time is a Gift of the Great Pause at The Wild Hunt.

Please join us on Sunday (6 February 2022) at 11:00 AM for “Revelation in Relationship” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. For this Sunday only, we will not have an online coffee hour because many of us will be going to the Highland Center for the LA-AID Fundraiser. … Continue reading "Online All-Ages Worship (6 February 2022)"

Our give-away-the-plate recipient for February 2022 is the Whitney Plantation. Every month, we dedicate all of our non-pledge income to an organization doing the work that best embodies our Unitarian Universalist principles and values. We usually choose a local organization but we are changing that for this Black History Month in order to honor The … Continue reading "Whitney Plantation — February 2022 Give-Away-The-Plate Recipient"

When: Saturday, February 5 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm Where: Unitarian Church of Los Alamos 1738 N. Sage St. (Patio outside front door) Bring only packets of seeds you wish to give away entirely. You may not get any back! Take only enough seeds you can use in one growing season. If you are …<p> 2022 Community Seed Swap Read More »

You are invited to a fundraiser for Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention on 6 February 2022 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM at the Highland Center (520 Olive Street, Shreveport LA  71104). Join us for an afternoon of food music, and art as we celebrate one year of advocacy and aid. If you can’t … Continue reading "Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention Fundraiser (6 February 2022)"

Please join us on Sunday (6 February 2022) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. This Sunday’s topic is “Redistricting in Louisiana”: The Special Redistricting Session of the Louisiana Legislature opened this past Tuesday (1 February 2022) and must be completed by 20 February 2020. This Sunday, we will have a … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 6 February 2022"

We will continue to watch the local COVID numbers.  We feel encouraged by the dropping Omicron COVID case rates. 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 be together and nurture … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Updates"

Please join us next Tuesday (8 February 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.

      Inayat Khan Rehmat Khan Pathan died in Delhi, India, on this day, the 5th of February, in 1927. He is more commonly known as Hazrat Inayat Khan. Hazrat being an honorific. And sometimes by the title Pir-O-Murshid, which could be understood as senior teacher and head of a Sufi order. He was born […]

African Americans cast their first vote during Reconstruction,  In 1870 the 15th Amendment was meant to protect the right to vote. Anniversaries of two amendments to the U.S. Constitution which protected and extended voting rights for African Americans and the poor were recently marked.  The 15th Amendment ratified on February 3, 1870 prohibited the Federal government and each state from denying or abridging a citizen’s right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”  The 24th Amendment ratified on January 23, 1964.  Yet today voting rights are under sweeping attack not only in the states of the old Confederacybut everywhere Republicans control state legislatures and/or governorships. The 15th Ame...

I am visiting family without my field guide, so I picked this up in their yard.

Deep calls unto deep, joy calls unto joy, light calls unto light. -Gordon B. McKeeman Where are you being called by joy?

Please join us on Saturday (5 February 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 (5 February 2022)"

Lyonel Perabo recounts his recent visit to the Raymond Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick near Cleveland, Ohio. Continue reading Column: A Discovery of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick at The Wild Hunt.

I like the sense of scale the hand provides. These are such short needles, only 1-2″ long as a rule. This tree, which as far as I know I have never seen, is just barely native to the land that is now the state of California. Its range is mostly in Baja California, Mexico, and […]

A Q&A with Jeanne Theoharis | I think people assume that they know her. Even many people who know Rosa Parks wasn’t just a simple seamstress who accidentally walked into history don’t realize how much of her history—the militancy of her early activism in Montgomery, her activism in Detroit, her work in the Black Power movement—is still largely unrecognized.

Jeff Milchen Reasonable people disagree on appropriate levels of immigration, but to have substantive debate, we must refute racist scapegoating and tactics of dehumanization. 

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— Most of us grew up within a world-view that taught we were beings with distinct and definite limits. So, as I talk to you now, I was taught to view you as a being with distinct and definite limits and you were taught to view me in a similar fashion. You are definitively there, and I am definitively here . . . or so it once seemed. But, as the philosopher Thomas Nail asks in a recent essay, what happens when “we are trying to talk about something without definite limits or a fully positive presence?” What kind of thing i...

Roger Santodomingo, Bruce Knotts An interview with Bruce Knotts, director of the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations and new UU World columnist.

Last night at 9 Ozarks Public Television broadcast an interview with me and I forgot it was being aired. It will be rebroadcast on Sunday February 7 at 1:30 PM in case you missed it as I did. Later it will be made available on the network website. I'll share the address when its available to me.  Make, fix and create...

Sunday, February 6, 10:30 a.m. Widening the Circle: Tending the Fire at the Center An Online Service with Rev. Lynda Sutherland, First Parish Northboro   This week we join our friends at First Parish Northboro for a combined worship service where Rev. Lynda will speak to the ways in which Imbolc prepares us for growth by   [ … ] The post Sunday, February 6 ~ Widening the Circle: Tending the Fire at the Center ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

I feel like in the COVID world joy is like an overly polite guest who might be waiting for you to invite them to call you after texting. We might feel a fleeting moment of joy, and then too often squash it instead of acknowledging the moment. It takes work to be present for joy … Continue reading Fleeting Joy

As a congregational minister who has been creating worship online and/or outdoors for two years, and will soon, I hope, be resuming indoor services, I read with interest a recent New York Times opinion piece by Tish Harrison Warren, a priest of the conservative Anglican Church in North America. She ends with the reminder, “A […]

Queen Elizabeth II will celebrate her Platinum Jubliee as the British Monarch and some UK Pagans shared their thoughts on the event. Continue reading UK Pagans reflect on the Platinum Jubilee that begins this weekend at The Wild Hunt.

      A Zen teacher was once told he was going to hell. He said that was certainly fine by him. The person was taken aback, and asked, why? The teacher said so I can help. It was seventy-nine years ago, today, the 3rd of February, 1943. Methodist minister George Fox, Rabbi Alexander Goode, […]

Last year The 1619 Project , a long-form journalism project developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from The New York Times , and The New York Times Magazine , came under attack.  The highly praised series and book re-examined the Black experience in the New World from the importation of African “indentured servants” to the Jamestown Colony in 1619.  It clearly showed that the generational experience of slavery continues to put African-Americans at a social and economic disadvantage and laid the blame for that on the development of an explicitly racist ideology that still lurks not far below the surface of polite white society.  Naturally the right wing propaganda machine when on a full-press attack on the series and on it’s a...

My dog brings me so much joy! The way she is so happy to see me. The way she spends every evening on my lap.  The way she snuggles next to me when we go to sleep. Whenever I am feeling low, I just cuddle with her and I feel better! What brings you reliable … Continue reading Dog Joy

“…[there are] levels in what counts as political. As you dare to witness police arresting people, or dare to ask a woman who is saying ‘no’ to a man’s hold whether she’s all right, whether she wants to leave, you notice that it is quite different to do that than to organize a demonstration against … Continue reading "Noted without comment"

Blessings on the Turning of the Wheel! Continue reading Blessed Turning of the Wheel: Imbolc/Lughnasadh at The Wild Hunt.

I wasn’t able to capture most of them with my camera, but I want to speak of bird visitors nonetheless. This morning little winter goldfinches, with their olive feathers, were flocking to our bird feeder, and to the water, and to the dead heads of bee balm never cut down, and likely full of lovely […]

This is a link to the article in  Independent  School if you want to read it online and pass it along for others to read.  NAIS - School News: Two Decades of Woodshop Class . Today we're out of school due to a serious winter  storm watch. Hopefully as the temperature is dropping below freezing we'll avoid the worst effects of ice accumulation that breaks trees and power lines. I'm working on promotion of my new book by writing op-ed pieces to submit to various newspapers and magazines. It is fun to reflect on the various benefits of woodworking education.  In the wood shop at School this week my students  helped me by whittling pens and allowing me to take photos of them as they worked. The photo shows a  simple jig for drilling...

Since the cult classic movie Groundhog Day came out in thirty years ago in 1992 the minor folk holiday of the same name has taken on a new meaning.   Now it denotes being stuck in a time loop, living the same day over and over and over.   It has certainly seemed so the last two years as the Coronavirus pandemic sent us all into isolationand dread. In 2020 in Woodstock, Illinois where the movie was filmed the usual enthusiastic crowd gathered on the Square after several inches of overnight snow for the annual prognostication by a supposedly hibernating large squirrel .   All the other customary hoopla went on as planned.   The spread of the Covid-19 from China to the U.S. had only recently been confirmed and although there was concern...

JeKaren Olaoya I affirm that I am worthy of being good enough to touch hearts and souls, and connect others to Spirit. Continue reading "Claiming My Worth"

Is simpler always better in ritual? So much depends on the tradition, the group, and the goals of the ritual. But there are four elements I believe are always necessary in a group ritual.

      Celebrate this unlikely oracle, this ball of fat and fur, whom we so mysteriously endow with the power to predict spring. Let’s hear it for the improbable heroes who, frightened at their own shadows, nonetheless unwittingly work miracles. Why shouldn’t we believe this peculiar rodent holds power over sun and seasons in […]

Amidst the harshness of our world, it is an important spiritual practice to claim (or reclaim) joy. To wrap it around us like a blanket against the coldness of our world. Joy keeps the ember of our soul burning when forces outside of us would conspire to snuff it out. Find something today that makes … Continue reading Joy

By Leigh Patel | On January 24, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases that have upheld the use of affirmative action in college admissions. The cases, one filed against Harvard University and one against the University of North Carolina (UNC), have been organized financially and in media by Edward Blum, a legal strategist who has worked for years to lodge attacks against affirmative action. Although not a lawyer, Blum uses strategy of media and message and is also the president of Students for Fair Admissions, the organization that filed both lawsuits that will all be heard in the highest court in this land. What is affirmative action and what is at stake?

We discuss Kemetism and how some modern practitioners bring ancient religious practices into the modern-day. Continue reading Egyptian Archaeology, Dignity and Ethics at The Wild Hunt.

As human beings, we are capable of doing very difficult things if we understand the purpose. When we don’t know the purpose, or want to support it, even simple tasks feel meaningless. This month we explore purpose. How might purpose connect with your search for ... read more . The post February Theme – Purpose appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Upcoming RE classes: K-6 Experiences with the Web of Life:  These nature lovers will meet again Sunday morning, 2/6, from 9:30-10:15. Our topic for the day will be squirrels. Be sure to check out last week’s parent email for a fun squirrel assignment! Here’s the link to Experiences with ... read more . The post RE This Week – Feb. 1st appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Register to join one or more of the upcoming GA 2022 prep webinars let by members of the UUA Board. Continue reading "Prepare for General Assembly with the UUA Board of Trustees: Attend Board-Led Webinars About the Governance Process at Multiplatform GA 2022"

Day two at the Woolworth's Luncheonette in Greensboro, North Carolina James A. McNiel and Franklin McCain from the first day action were joined by fellow students William Smith and Clarence Henderson.  What were the thoughts of the young black man behind the counter?  About the same age as the students he may have needed the job to support his family.  Were the students jeopardizing that?  Did he view them as privileged and spoiled students?  Did he yearn to join them? There was no charismatic leader that day, no eloquent preacher, no carefully planned campaign.  Just four young guys, freshmen no less, from an obscure public college for Negros, the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina.  One afternoon, February 1, ...

An article about the Wisdom of the Hands program at the Clear Spring School is in the Winter 2022 issue of "Independent Schools Magazine" that's published by the National Association of Independent Schools.  The article tells that we are celebrating our twentieth year of a program designed to bring the hands to greater focus and attention in schools. Over the years we've had a number of articles about the program in various woodworking magazines, and mention in the New York Times and Boston Globe. This is the second article about our Wisdom of the Hands program in "Independent Schools Magazine." Yesterday in class we whittled  writing pens to allow me to take a few photos for a magazine article. The kids enjoyed it and tested their wor...

      Brigid was born in 451 in County Louth. Traditions say her mother, Brocca was a Christian Pict slave. Baptized, tradition says, by Patrick himself. Brigid was said to exhibit signs of holiness from early on, including giving away her father’s money and goods to the poor. She became a nun, and with […]

I couldn’t resist drawing the cone on this one. It was so beautiful in the midst of its bouquet of leaves. The Audobon field guide says this pine was given its common name because when tepee-building Native Americans needed center poles for their houses, they often used its slim, straight trunk.

In the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Tiger starts on February 1. In the New Year’s customs of China, it is considered an invitation to bad luck to begin the year by arguing or fighting with others. What is one argument you can put aside (even if just for the day) today?

It is hard to write about depression on social media. First of all, you are depressed, and that is not a state that is famously good for creative output. Beyond that, there is an unwritten rule of social media that thou shalt be positive. No one wants to hear you whine. I did a quick […]

Violence in Burma has increased by more than 600% since the military coup began on February 1, 2021.

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, Poetic Edda blocks bullet, announcements, and Happy Lunar New Year! Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of January 31, 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

Sun, 17:26: We barbecue in solidarity with our New England relatives. 12� but we are out under the heater. 12�F? You mean Fahrenheit? Never mind. #northeasternuniversity @ Ozdachs Consulting https://t.co/zMkZFCpdZ4

      Thomas Merton was born Prades, France, on this day, the 31st of January, in 1915. His artist father Owen was a New Zelander, his artist mother, an American. They’d met studying art in Paris. Thomas was baptized into the Church of England. representing his father’s Anglican faith. With the onset of the […]

Marianne Schnall We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting. We worry too much. We don't allow our bodies to heal, and we don't allow our minds and hearts to heal. Meditation can help us.

        I’m currently working on a book describing the spiritual journey. What follows I just cut from that manuscript. But it still felt like it might be useful in another context.    As we enter the way we can feel we’re crossing deserts moving toward an oasis with life-giving waters. Sometimes only […]

Scotch Tape in 1950s packaging.  It became a household and office staple. Indulge me.  Close your eyes and try to remember a time when you really did need string to tie up thosebrown paper packages.  When yards of satin ribbon and six thumbs were needed to keep the colored tissue paper prettily surrounding a gift box.  When the ripped pages of your favorite book were doomed to be forever sundered.  When that torn $5 bill could not be mended and spent.  When there was nothing to hold your eye lid and nose in peculiar positionsto frighten your baby siblings. Yes, those were dark, dark timesbefore the invention that rescued us all.  In keeping with this blog’s occasional mission of reminding us of the inventions that really and tru...

Also called scrub pine. “Whitebark pine is considered the most primitive native pine because its cones do not open until they decay.”

“The moment of prayer is an invitation to be calm in the midst of the tumult of the world and our over-busy lives, to bring together thought and feeling, mind and spirit, and to find some center — some still point — of perspective and peace.” -Earl K. Holt Find a moment to pray today–invite … Continue reading Prayer

Replacing a statue of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, Simone Leigh's new sculpture, Sentinel (Mami Wata), whose aspects are found in many African Diasporic Religions. Continue reading Mami Wata statue unveiled in New Orleans at The Wild Hunt.

This week, Rev. John is joined by UU Santa Fe minister, the Rev. Gail Marriner, as we dive into some of the intentions behind our joint efforts in providing aid and assistance to Afghan refugees.

After moving here in the 1970s, as a lifelong Unitarian, Emily Wood began working at Northside elementary school with Mrs. Dorothy DeWitty. She complained to Rev. Dr. John B. Wolf, senior minister of All Souls at that time, about complete segregation. As a result, Church of the Restoration—UU was founded. Emily attended and worshipped at Restoration before returning to All Souls. “I am delighted with the inclusiveness of today, of our church,” Emily said. She was highly involved as President of the United Nations Association which she regarded as an integral partner of All Souls. My work as a Founding […] The post Centennial Award: Emily Wood appeared first on BeyondBelief.

This morning I opened my social media and nearly immediately was gifted with a solitary poem from the Zen priest and hermit Ryōkan Taigu posted by Kuya Minogue. Kuya simply said “Ryokan describes my life,” and offered this verse from Ryokan’s Chinese poems Looking back I see more than seventy years have already passed. I am […]

I have said more times than I can remember, in sermons and in conversations, that if you really need to get somewhere, it doesn’t matter how you go. Run, walk, roll, and if necessary, crawl. I was mainly speaking metaphorically about engaging in the work for justice, but this week, I actually lived the words. […]

Paul McCartney had left the Fab Four and started Wings in early 1972, but everyone still thought of him as that Nice Beatle. Affable Paul McCartney was always the niceBeatle, the one with the boyish smile and easy disposition.  Not much into politics or causes.  That was John’s thing.  One of the most gifted and prolific song writers of all time, he specialized in catchy melodies and memorable hooks.  His lyrics were simple and straightforward.  The deep stuff, well, that was mostly John, too.  As he would put it in the song for his new band Wings, “Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs.  And what’s wrong with that?” But on January 30, 1972 Paul got mad.  Really mad.  Mad enough to write a song. That mor...

This is the 2000th post on Under the Ancient Oaks. Sometimes I’m a reporter, sometimes I’m a columnist, and sometimes I’m a teacher. Here are nine posts from 2008 through 2020 that are more important than perhaps any of us realized at the time.

“Around us, light is returning. It rekindles the spirit of life in the skeletons of trees. It brings forth new shoots from the soil. It wakes us from our winter slumber, and invites us to see what lies beyond.” -Kate McPhee Notice the light around you today–whether it is returning or, in the Southern Hemisphere, … Continue reading Light

Even though it’s only 9 p.m., I had to fight to stay awake and force myself to draw, fast, so that I could go to bed. I didn’t get enough sleep last night, and tomorrow will be a busy day. So I quickly looked up photos of limber pine–so called, a direct translation of its […]

Rolf and Possum want to donate to their congregation’s pledge drive. Problem is, they don’t have any money. Then Rolf comes up with an idea…. As usual, full text below the fold. Possum: Hey Rolf, did you hear about the pledge drive for our congregation? Rolf: No, what’s that? Possum: That’s the way we raise … Continue reading "Possum and Rolf and the pledge drive"

"The earth rotates around an axis drawn from the south pole, through the planet, out the north pole, and up to the pole star. With a bit of imagination, diagrams of this world axis show a trunk with roots in the earth and the pole star at the top of the leader. Old Icelandic poetry tells us of the mighty measuring tree. The growth and life of this tree parallel the growth and life of this world, and none know where to find the beginning point of its roots." Continue reading Column: The World Tree, Heimdall, and All of Us at The Wild Hunt.

      Intimations of Grief A dharma talk by Jan Seymour-Ford Delivered at theEmpty Moon ZenSaturday Zazenkai 29 January, 2022   Zen means participating in loss. – we are present and don’t turn away from our loss and pain Zen doesn’t save us from our lives. I’m … anxious … angry, etc. The “I” […]

Mad Brit Richard Lawrence's pistol misfired when he took point blank aim at Andrew Jackson on the steps of the Capitol.  You have to feel a little sorry for Richard Lawrence.   He was in the right place at the right time, skulking around the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 30, 1835.   A funeral service for a member of Congress was breaking up.   All the dignitaries of the government including the Chief Executivehimself were in attendance and would have to pass within feet of him.   He carried in each side pocket of his coatone cocked and loaded single shot derringer flintlock pistol.   He had a plan.   What could possibly go wrong? Lawrence was a 35 year old Englishman who had been hearing voices in his head for a ve...

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 the Gospel of Luke (17:5-7) we are told that the disciples (actually called “apostles” in this passage) once asked Jesus to increase their faith, a question to which Jesus replied,  “If you have as much faith as a grain of mustard, you might have said to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would have obeyed you.” Of course, the disciples’ question begs another, namely, increase their faith in what? Jesus, God, themselves, nature? Jesus (or rather, Luke) doesn’t even vaguel...

Decidedly not a native, but it was introduced thoroughout this continent and has become naturalized in some parts of the United States. In California, it is cultivated for various purposes,  including Christmas  trees.

                                                    Harvey Cohen designed this  psychedelic poster for the Mantra-Rock Dance in San Francisco. There were a lot of threads to the youth culture being woven on the streets of San Francisco—the older, now established Beats finding new followers for their expressions of alienation , spiritual quest , and rebellion through art and poetry; a ramped-up music scene revolving around a bunch of local bands inventing a new Americanrock & roll sound; a quasi-anarchic radicalism spreading from the Anti-Vietnam War movement and near-by college campuses; the introduction of cheap, free, and then legal LSD and other hallucinogens plus wide spread availability of Mexican ma...

Invitation for me is the sacred duty and role of folks to extend love in the form of hospitality which is a holy virtue in so many theologies. A large part of this is to offer food and drink to all guests (that which feeds all parts of us), and an oft forgotten part of … Continue reading Sacred

Please join us on Sunday (30 January 2022) at 11:00 AM for “Railing Against the Mud” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. Our virtual coffee hour after worship is back. Sol in Minneapolis will be hosting the virtual coffee hour using the Jitsi open-source videoconferencing platform.  You can … Continue reading "Online All-Ages Worship (30 January 2022)"

Please join us on Sunday (30 January 2022) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. We are discussing episodes of the podcast Learning How to See with Rev. Brian McLaren, Father Richard Rohr, and Rev. Jacqui Lewis. They are discussing the 13 kinds of bias that Rev. Barbara mentioned recently in … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 30 January 2022"

We will continue to watch the local COVID numbers.  We feel encouraged by the dropping Omicron COVID case rates. 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 be together and nurture … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Updates"

Please join us next Tuesday (1 February 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.

Please join us on Saturday (29 January 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 (29 January 2022)"

I learned this morning that my interview on the Ozark Public Television's program "Ozarks Watch" will be broadcast on next Thursday February 3 at 9:00 PM and again on Sunday February 6 at 1:30 PM. If you receive Ozark Public Television on your cable channel or set, put these dates on your calendar and watch. The program will be offered online at a later date and I'll share that link when it becomes available. Make, fix and create...

Sheri Barker continues her exploration of the classical elements in this column about the power of fire. Continue reading Column: Elemental Fire at The Wild Hunt.

For many of us, it is hard to imagine a world without police, prisons, and punishment as “justice.” Fear-mongering about a lawless society in which we all have to fend for ourselves has become a talking point in the culture wars reacting to abolitionist calls to defund and dismantle the violence of our current policing and punishment system. Even for those of us who have confronted the ways our current system evolved from structures designed to control and enslave Black bodies and continues to enforce the death-grip of white supremacy on our society, we are so shaped by what exists now that many of us have a hard time conceiving of a different way. And yet, our theological forebears (especially our Universalist ancestors) articulated...