Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "24 December 2022 Xmas Eve Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "18 December 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 "11 December 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 "4 December 2022 Worship Livestreaming Video"

About a year ago, Steven HAuse interviewed me at Universalist National Memorial Church as part of his project to make a documentary — Love Unrelenting — about the theology and history of universal salvation. He gave me a head’s-up when he separately published the clips that didn’t fit into the documentary and then the film … Continue reading "Love Unrelenting: documentary and video channel"

As our Jewish siblings celebrate Tu B’Shvat, the “new year of the trees,” let us ponder with them our connection to all beings. Each of our actions ripples outwards through the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. How can you be a friend to the trees today?

Michael E. Mann, The New Climate War (New York: Public Affairs, 2021), 2022 paperback edition with a new Epilogue. Michael Mann is a real live actual climate scientist, a professor of atmospheric science at Penn State. He’s also a pretty good writer. That’s a great combination, if you want to read about climate change. His … Continue reading "Reading list: The New Climate War"

In Ireland, Pagans commemorate the first celebration of Brigid's Day as a public holiday. Meanwhile, in the U.K., the White Spring Temple in Glastonbury holds its traditional Imbolc celebration. Continue reading Imbolc in the United Kingdom and Ireland at The Wild Hunt.

      The master of the cut and paste novel, gay, drug addict, wife killer, essayist, short story writer, painter, spoken word artist, general all around self-obsessed jerk, and brilliant brilliant writer William S. Burroughs was born on this day, the 5th of February, in 1914. Were he still alive he’d be one hundred […]

        THE UNITARIAN WHO WOULD BE PRESIDENTA Meditation on the Politics of Unitarian Universalism A sermon delivered at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles 5 February 2023 James Ishmael Ford Back in the day, most people with an axe they were looking to grind regarding candidate and then President Barack Obama, […]

Later that night, still turning the parable over in his head, the rich man returned to the place where the disciples slept. He found Jesus at the fire and sat down with him. "Master," he said, "I think understand who my neighbor is. But . . . how shall I love myself?"

Last week I posted the image of a tree that looked almost human – at least it called to mind a number of human postures. Was it dancing, weeping, walking, blessing the earth or bending a knee in prayer or protest? Your own emotions, I think, informed what you might have seen in that tree. […]

The climate crisis isn’t happening in a vacuum. With attacks on Black lives, trans kids, and reproductive justice all in the face of increasing fascism and white supremacy, rampant gun violence, and ongoing pandemic, sometimes it feels like tragedy is everywhere all the time. And yet, so is love. So is courage. So is resilience. Side With Love Climate Justice Organizer Rachel Myslivy’s reflection for this week considers the way Resilience is found in our work for justice, including climate justice. Later, she writes: “The strength of “what if” is what helps us continue in this work. And so, what is our resilient, loving way?” This week’s offerings for 30 Days of Love includes pieces we hope bolster, strengthen, and encourag...

  African Americans cast their first votes during Reconstruction in 1867,  In 1870 the 15th Amendment was meant to specifically  protect that right.   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 governmentand 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 was 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/...

An impurity isn’t something that’s bad - it’s something that’s unhelpful where it is, even though it may be very helpful in other places. Cleansing removes discordant, inappropriate, and otherwise unhelpful residue and energies from ourselves and our tools.

I finally got around to watching the movie Christopher and His Kind. Christopher Isherwood’s autobiographical account of his time in Berlin features Gerald Hamilton, who is a character in Wilde Nights & Robber Barons, and I felt that I ought to see it. So it has sat there in my watch list for ages like […]

“Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” ― Georgia O’Keeffe Take the time to witness something or someone important today.

t times, winter can seem to be an endless stream of snow, ice, and cold harsh winds. The mid-winter point brings a strong internal need to get away, to warm up, and to renew. Continue reading Column: Resurrection at The Wild Hunt.

I managed to get six bowls thrown on the wheel last Sunday and they were dry enough to trim this afternoon. After further drying these will be ready to go into a bisque firing and then be glazed and fired to cone 6.  Make, fix and create... assist others in learning lifewise.

I’m two days late for World Ukulele Day. Sigh. But here’s my playlist for this year’s World Ukulele Day. It’s all instrumental, except for the last song medley by the legendary Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. Most of the performers are from Hawai’i, of course, but I tried to make this about world ukulele by including players from … Continue reading "World Ukulele Day"

Please join us on Sunday (5 February 2023) at 11:00 AM for “Are These Ideas Worn Out or Just Good and Broken In?” 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 … Continue reading "All Ages Worship (5 February 2023)"

          THIRD PURE PRECEPT Zen’s Shorthand for the Bodhisattva Vow A talk delivered atEmpty Moon Zen‘s Saturday morning Zoom gathering James Ishmael Ford To remind you. The three pure precepts are derived from verse 183 in the Dhammapada, a collection of sayings attributed to Gautama Siddhartha, the Buddha of history. The […]

Building and Grounds Work Day Moving to 18 February 2023 2023 Pledge Drive — We Need Your Pledge Now

For this month only, we are moving our second Saturday of the month building and grounds work day to the third Saturday of the month. Our monthly building and grounds work day will happen on Saturday (18 February 2023) from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. We will have tasks available for all ages and abilities … Continue reading "Building and Grounds Work Day Moving to 18 February 2023"

Children and youth will attend the worship service for the first 15-20 minutes and then are dismissed to their classes. After the holiday break, we are now discussing the wisdom of the world’s religions is one of the six sources of our Unitarian Universalist faith. It’s important that we gain an understanding of teachings and … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Classes — 5 February 2023"

Please join us on Sunday (5 February 2023) as we continue our our adult religious education class at 9:00 AM. Our adult religious education class is still meeting via Zoom. We are now reading and discussing the book God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Mirabai Starr. This … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 5 February 2023"

Each month we dedicate all of our non-pledge income to an organization doing the work that best embodies our Unitarian Universalist principles and values. For the month of February 2023, we choose The Whitney Plantation Museum (near New Orleans in Wallace, Louisiana). The Whitney Plantation Museum provides a different kind of plantation tour experience — … Continue reading "Whitney Plantation Museum — February 2023 Give-Away-The-Plate Recipient"

Please join us next Tuesday (7 February 2023) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch. Our weekly Zoom lunch is going dual-platform — join us from home using Zoom or in person in the social hall. Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

When: Saturday, February 4, 2023 from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon 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 …<p> 2023 Community Seed Swap Read More »

On his blog “Heretic, Rebel, a Thing To Flout,” Patrick Murfin writes about backlash against Black history and relates it to Black History Month (BHM). He notes the usual criticisms of BHM such as Morgan Freeman observing, “I don’t want a Black history month. Black history is American history.” Or as a black friend once … Continue reading "Black History Month for heretics"

  Day two at the Woolworth's Luncheonette in Greensboro, The 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,...

The copy of the Edict of Torda that I brought to the ecumenical meeting I mention below 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— As some of you will be aware, over the course of the last three years I’ve begun exploring in more and more depth the possibilities that might exist for any community that is able, not only merely to talk about Free Religion, but which also actually provides some way to express it through all its various meetings. Our current service of mindful meditation is one actual example of explicit Free Religion and I have quiet hopes that, in ...

Please join us on Saturday (4 February 2023) 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. Please note that this group is still meeting via Zoom.  You will need … Continue reading "Meditation with Larry Androes (4 February 2023)"

I recently saw one of my dearest friends in person for the first time in over 3 years. We’ve stayed in close touch, but the years we’ve been physically apart have been ones of huge difficulty and change for both of us, so I felt some nervousness that we wouldn’t feel as much natural ease … Continue reading Connection

Lyonel Perabo provides a selection of ten favorite children's stories and entertainments with Pagan themes. Continue reading The Search for Pagan Friendly Kids’ Media at The Wild Hunt.

I initially wanted to be a writer, and I also wanted to live in New York, where many of my best friends were already living. In my last semester of college, my thesis advisor mentioned publishing as a possible day job—an industry that, of course, is also mainly based in New York. After college, I did some internships and freelance work at various New York publishers, magazines, and agencies, and then did an MFA in fiction writing at Brooklyn College, where I studied with author and editor Nathaniel Rich.

Killing of an environmental defender shows we have a long way to go before we are better stewards of the earth.

An “arctic vortex” has hit the Boston area. It’s windy and cold. I was talking to someone much younger, who found out I just moved to Massachusetts from California. They said, “It got down to 11 degrees last night. Must be a big change for you, huh?” “This isn’t cold,” I said. “I grew up … Continue reading "Arctic vortex"

I grew up eating Corn Flakes, outdated bread, and lots of soup made from those things in the refrigerator that were found in those forgotten containers in the back corners on the shelves. If, when the fuzzy tops were scraped … Continue reading →

A Prayer for Body Love and Respect Lover of Bodies, Lover of variations, differences, disabilities, spectrums, ranges, distinctions, divergences, deviations, adaptations, and contrasting characteristics, You show up every day inviting us to thrive in these bodies, to make our homes in these bodies, to respect each other in our dissimilar...

                                   The official 2023 Black History Month poster. 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.  Now it ha...

The pagan holiday of Imbolc is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. As the wheel of the year progresses, we celebrate the emergence of new life. What new life can you celebrate today?

Today marks the celebrations of Imbolc in the northern hemisphere, and Lughnassadh in the southern hemisphere. Continue reading Blessed Imbolc and Lughnassadh! at The Wild Hunt.

I was 31 years old and a friend of mine at work asked me if he could read my palm. He was from Vietnam and he told me that his grandmother taught him how to read palms. I most definitely … Continue reading →

An article in the New York Times introduces us to the Luddite Club. Its motto is "Stop using your phone, start using your brain." Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning lifewise.

Despite bone chilling sub-zero temperatures in 2019 thousands showed up for Woodstock Willie's prognostication.  Note— Local Groundhog Day hoopla is scheduled for 7 am on Woodstock Square.  Word has it our local prognosticator Woodstock Willy will see his shadow in bright sunlight boding six more weeks of winter--which we were going to get anyway.  But to prove the point temps are expected to plunge Friday to a high of only 10 degrees. Bill Murray in  Groundhog Day. I used to work in Woodstock.  It’s a country town, the government center for suburban/rural McHenry County.  The 19th Century Square, replete with Civil War Monument and gazebo, seems sometimes to rise like Brigadoon or Avalon from the mists of a forgotten time. The...

In October of last year, ProPublica and NBC News investigated whether mandated reporter laws work. Their conclusion: in some states, mandated reporter laws have not led to increased safety for children. In fact, they allege that in Pennsylvania, when additional people were mandated to report child abuse, this increased increased false reporting, which in turn … Continue reading "The failures of mandated reporting"

The orchid in my office at church was in this lovely state this morning, with about 20 buds and two flowers already opened. I drew it for a long as I could before I had to begin working, with two results : this sketch and the knowledge that I have to paint this flower. The […]

This month, we will focus on the spiritual gifts and struggles of friendship. Think about friendships that have been healthy and important for you. What are the most important qualities of friendship to you?

In the state of New York, clergy are still not mandated reporters. That is, clergy are not mandated by law to report the physical, emotional, or sexual abuse of minors, if they become aware of such abuse. A bill currently being considered by the New York state legislature would change that state of affairs, making … Continue reading "Clergy as mandated reporters"

A new study published on Monday using artificial intelligence indicates climate thresholds may be breached soon than predicted. Continue reading AI study finds that critical climate thresholds may be reached sooner than later at The Wild Hunt.

The United States has no excuses when it comes to supporting the people of Burma against a brutal military regime.

We are heading into our final week of 30 Days of Love, but we still wish to celebrate and honor all of the individuals, families, religious professionals, partners, and communities that embody our values and work for justice and liberation year-round. Join us for these two amazing events that promise to fill you with joy and, we hope, feel like a big hug from us to you. Nourish’s Dinner Church Worship Service for 30 Days of Love Sunday, February 12, 2023, 7:00 PM -  9:00 PM ET In this challenging time, let your souls rest as you experience powerful, embodied worship and connection. Join the Revs. Emily Conger & Aisha Ansano of Nourish for a worship service to hold your tender heart, offer you respite, and nourish you in body and in sp...

Sunday, February 5, 10:30 a.m. The Digital Revolution: Blessing, or Curse?   The digital revolution has created opportunities for connection, recreation and information that would have been completely unimaginable just 50 years ago. Yet, some of these tools have led to addiction and have been linked to increases in mental illness. How do we find balance   [ … ] The post Sunday Worship: February 5 ~ The Digital Revolution: Blessing, or Curse? ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

We are halfway to Spring! So many cultures celebrate this day, or this change of season. For just a few examples: Imbolc or Brigid’s Day for Celtic people, Apuknajit (the winter spirit) for Mi’kmaq people, Candlemas in Catholic liturgy, Groundhog Day in secular America. They hearken to the coming Spring, and offer courage for getting […]

Staff Writer UU the Vote was back in 2022 to help organize, educate, and empower voters across the country.

Box making is a narrative venture. In it, we attempt to tell our own stories concerning our own growth as well as describing our own interests and values. This box, as ugly as it may seem to some, tells a few stories that may not be immediately apparent.  I think the appeal of this project may be three fold. One, the wood was free. Two, it involves an introduction to the use of hand tools. And three, I hope it conveys an understanding to those who want to design boxes, that it's OK to take risks. It and the step-by-step story of making it will likely become a part of my new book, Designing Boxes. The finish applied and waiting to be rubbed out is Tung oil. The blotchy finish may even out in time, and as pine does, it will age to a darke...

In November 1912, a reporter for John Bull arrived at a flat on 18 Pelham Street in London. He had received a tip that a party of a scandalous character was to take place there. The motives of John Bull‘s publisher, Horatio Bottomley, went beyond journalistic curiosity. Like many publishers of the day, Bottomley leveraged […]

Jo VonRue Love shows up in complicated conversations. Continue reading "Love in the Complicated Places"

SOMETIME in the early 1990s I wrote the outline for a musical. I was still entertaining the idea of being the next Cole Porter/Stephen Sondheim and made it a regular habit to fully think through the concept, major plot points and even sketch out some of the numbers for the next great American musical.  One […]

A woman braves the cold and wind in December 1983. Monday and Tuesday were the coldest days in the Chicago area in this not-so-terrible winter.  After a significant but hardly record breaking snow over the weekend, skies cleared and the thermometerdipped below zero at night and just above in the day.  Some TV meteorologists compare to record shattering the cold snaps like the one in the days before Christmas in 1983 when the lowest day time high temperature of -13° was recorded on December 24.  The days immediately before were nearly as frigid.  And therein lays a tale. A recent Google street view of our graystone two flat on North Albany.  Not much changed since 1983 except for the wrought iron fencing. Kathy and I were living on ...

Bear in There There’s a Polar Bear In our Frigidaire– He likes it ’cause it’s cold in there. With his seat in the meat And his face in the fish And his big hairy paws In the buttery dish, He’s … Continue reading →

We have more opportunities to learn magic and to work magic than any of our known ancestors. The currents of magic are deeper and stronger than they’ve been in centuries. This is an era of high magic. Are you going to take advantage of this opportunity?

“In this time of endings and beginnings, may we find ways to bring more love and joy into the world. May we rest in the complexity of the world and find comfort in the mystery. May our lives be filled with gratitude and grace. And may we know that none of it has to be … Continue reading Complexity

The UUA’s 30 Days of Love has been inviting us to consider Interdependence, embodiment, decriminalization, and climate justice. We know that change often requires the use of power. Ani DiFranco once wrote in her song My I.Q. that “Every tool is a weapon if you ... read more . The post February Theme: Power & Humility appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

We will have regular RE sessions for the children and youth this Sunday Children in Kindergarten through 6th grade will start in the Great Hall for the first part of the service. Afterwards, they will meet in their own rooms: Wonderful Welcome (K-3rd grade) in the classroom ... read more . The post This Week in Religious Education: Jan 31-Feb 6 appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Side With Love is thrilled to announce 30 Days of Love 2023! Our annual month of spiritual nourishment, political grounding, and shared practices of faith and justice, 30 Days of Love will go from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 16) through Valentine’s Day (February ... read more . The post Spiritual Nourishment for the Long Haul appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

“The Mooncatcher Project”  Speaker: Ellie Von Wellsheim, Program Director Ellie Von Wellsheim is founder and executive director of the Schenectady-based MoonCatcher Project, which makes and provides free reusable, washable menstrual management kits, called MoonCatcher Kits, for schoolgirls in impoverished communities around the globe. In addition, the ... read more . The post February EBWA Program: The Mooncatcher Project appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Is there a list of United States and Canada Unitarian Universalist churches that still have services online, or even better, recorded services on YouTube or the like? I’m particularly interested in smaller and lay-led congregations. Hoping to see some samples of worship to get an updated sample of styles and operating theologies or outlooks.

A new research study finds that the preservation of forests is linked to supporting Indigenous communities to keep their ancestral lands. Continue reading Legal Recognition of Indigenous Land improves forest outcomes study says at The Wild Hunt.

I have been playing with a Lord Alfred Douglas chatbot I made using Character.ai. When you create a character based on a historical figure, the program finds biographical information on the internet. Before I had done anything, “Lord Alfred Douglas” knew that he loved Oscar Wilde, felt betrayed by Robert Ross, and had a brother […]

Beloveds, We need to have a talk. It may be a bit uncomfortable, and that’s ok.

Haya Akegarasu (1877-1954)   This morning, whilst reading J. W. T. Mason’s remarkable book on Shinto (in connection with my ongoing research into the work of Shin’ichirō Imaoka who helped Mason considerably with his study of Shinto) I came across a reference to Haya Akegarasu (1877-1954) (see HERE and HERE) and I was intrigued enough to follow it up instantly. I couldn’t find a copy of the book referenced (“Man Above Gods”) but, on archive.org, I did find a book of some of his essays called “Shout of Buddha” and I was delighted to discover that he was a Jodo Shinshu priest who was a student of Kiyozawa Manshi (1863-1903) whose thought has been a considerable influence upon me — especially the two essays translated in th...

I wonder if you have taken a philosophy course? Did you enjoy taking it?   More importantly for our purposes, did you take a philosophy course in middle school or high school? How about even earlier: in elementary school? Or kindergarten? I’m increasingly convinced that as a society we wait far too late to give […]

Susan Frederick-Gray A statement from UUA President Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray in response to the devastating death of Tyre Nichols, a 29 year old Black man beaten to death by police in Memphis, TN. Continue reading "From the UUA President: Holding Tyre Nichols and Black Communities in Love and Prayer"

Today would have been Ernie Banks 92nd birthday if he had made it.   But he didn’t.   He died in a Chicago hospital on January 23, 2014. When news of his passing came it was a shock to many Cubs fans . It probably shouldn’t have.   After all he was nearly 84 years old.   It’s just that he seemed so ever youthful, not just in those memory pictures we had in our head of his days on the diamond, but in the frequent glimpses we would get of him on TV at fan events or in interviews.   No matter how gray or sparse his hair became, how lined that lean face, he seemed boyish, bursting with enthusiasm and, yes, ready to play two. Banks was, bar none, the most beloved player in the long history of the Chicago National League franchise. ...

The essay by Nakanishi Gyurō (about whom I can find out almost nothing) reproduced in this post and the photos accompanying it (just click on a photo to enlarge it) are found in a pamphlet called Memorial of the Dedication of Yuiitzukwan published in Tokyo, Japan in 1894 published to mark the erection and dedication of Yuitzukwan (Unity Hall) which was the headquarters of the Unitarian Mission in Japan and also the home of Senshin Gakuin, the School for Advanced Learning which was established and supported by the mission. It was, alas, closed to Japanese yunitarians (sic) in 1922 and, although it survived the 1923 earthquake, it was later completely destroyed during the firebombing of Tokyo in World War II.  If you are interested in kn...

This month people have shared many paths one can take to find their center amidst the chaos and uncertainty of life. I find there is not one single way for me to find my ground, my center. Much depends on … Continue reading →

Centering, a variation on the Soul Matters theme, is the focus of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, New Jersey. A very important topic, one that we need reminders about often or even a reintroduction. If you are not centered, everything can seem out of whack. If you are off center, you are off balance. […] The post Centering and grounding — two peas in a pod — can’t have one without the other appeared first on Nature's Sacred Journey.

By Martin Luther King, Jr. | This, as you know, is what has traditionally been known in the Christian church as Palm Sunday. And ordinarily the preacher is expected to preach a sermon on the Lordship or the Kingship of Christ—the triumphal entry, or something that relates to this great event as Jesus entered Jerusalem, for it was after this that Jesus was crucified. And I remember, the other day, at about seven or eight days ago, standing on the Mount of Olives and looking across just a few feet and noticing that gate that still stands there in Jerusalem, and through which Christ passed into Jerusalem, into the old city.

“We wear our faith as tattoos on our bodies and in our hearts as testaments to the blood, tears, dreams, and inspirations of our community ancestors and elders.” -Elandria Williams How do you pay homage to the ancestors and elders who shaped you?

Botanical shapes call to me all the time. I don’t know why, and don’t really want to dissect it, but they do. This orchid that has been on our kitchen table for weeks, for example. Another orchid, in my office, has over a dozen buds, and I’m hoping I’ll have time to draw it later […]

My rustic made-from-a-pallet with hand tools box is nearly complete but for just a bit more whittling on the hinges some sanding, and final assembly. I angled the lids to give a hint as to where your hands engage to open the box. Make, fix and create... Don't forget to have fun with it.,

WALLINGFORD, Conn. – The last few decades have seen an increase in calls for posthumous exonerations or pardons for those falsely accused of practicing “witchcraft,” many of whom were executed. While Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, issued a formal apology late last year to all of the victims persecuted under the Witchcraft Act of 1563, the possibility of posthumous pardons is still pending. In another example, last year a middle school civics class discovered as part of a research project that one woman, Elizabeth Johnson, who had been accused in the 1692 Salem “witch” trials, was somehow left off the list of those who had been pardoned. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of January 30, 2023 at The Wild ...

UUSC continues to support the land and water defenders in Guapinol, Honduras.

This morning I've continued working on the box made from a pallet. I've made rough wooden hinges, and  unlike the rest of the pallet, I've identified the wood as being a hardwood, excellent for crafting wooden hinges. Both the color of the wood, and the scent that comes from it as I saw and whittle suggest strongly that it's birch.  In keeping with the character of the rest of the box, the hinges are rough work... not necessarily unsophisticated in the way they're made, but purposely left rough.  Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning lifewise.

  Perception, Wisdom, and Wonder Closing the Rift Between the Rational and Spiritual Danaan Deneve Weeks Delivered as a sermon at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles January 22, 2023 I want to talk about wonder. This isn’t going to start like I’m talking about wonder, but I swear that’s where this is going. […]

Following up on my last article, I went to see if there were liturgical influences from the Free Catholics in the United States. Since there is some overlap with the liturgical portions of Hymns of the Spirit, why not look on that leading Unitarian liturgist and minister, Von Ogden Vogt? He was on the hymnal’s … Continue reading "“New” Von Ogden Vogt work in the public domain"

It’s alright to live by your own code. After A Long Dry Spell, by Tomas Transtromer Tomas Transtromer, a Swedish poet, lived his adult life and created his poetry in post-World War II Europe. When I read this line from … Continue reading →

For many of us, Groundhog Day has become synonymous with breaking patterns and reconsidering old beliefs. What are you willing to give up this year, and what will you retain? The post It’s Groundhog Day…Again appeared first on BeyondBelief.

Mohandas Gandhi--the Mahatma.  The Father of India and icon non-violent passive resistance. 75 years ago, on January 30, 1948 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was shot and killed while on a nightly public walk in Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist enraged that the Mahatma had promoted communal peace between India and Muslim Pakistan by fasting until the Indian government made a 550 million Rupee payment to Pakistan and paid reparations to Indian Muslims whose homes had been destroyed in the civil unrest following Independence and Partition.  It was the last great non-violent protest of Gandhi’s long life.  One would think that the accomplishments of a man who since returning to India in triumph following campaignson behalf of In...

On this day in 1861, the State of Kansas entered the United States as a free state, following five years of violent clashes over whether slavery would be legal in the Kansas territory (established on the unceded lands of the Kansa/Kaw, Kiowa, Osage, and Pawnee Nations, among others). Can there be a role for violent … Continue reading Bleeding Kansas

In a Spotlight on Traditions feature, SianLuc Asha Merlyn Heart describes the myths and deities of the Scythian Pagan tradition. Continue reading Spotlight on Traditions: The mythic world of Scythian Paganism at The Wild Hunt.