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"
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 […]
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...
“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...
Faithful readers of this little blog often ask how I pick the topics for my historical entries, many of which seem to be obscure or exotic. The process is simple, if haphazard. I consult a number of on-line history calendars, many of them specialized—labor, women, Black, music, baseball, etc. But almost every day I start at Wikipedia’s On This Day feature because it is exhaustive and amazingly diverse. Glancing down today’s entries, a number caught my eye, some of which I have already used. And some ignited my inner smart ass. Take for instance, this one: 1393—King Charles VI of France was nearly killedwhen several dancers’ costumes caught fire during a masquerade ball. Not enough information for a blog post, but I ...
William Buttler Yeats died in Menton, France, on this day, the 28th of January in 1939. His body was interred in France and lay there for nearly a decade before his remains were removed to Ireland. In his lifetime Yeats was a poet, dramatist, prose writer, generally considered one of the […]
“I believe that we’re all entitled to our pain—that there’s no hierarchy of grief or fear, in which someone else’s pain invalidates our own. If anything, giving voice to our pain metabolizes it; we come to hold it instead of it holding us. Better yet, sorrow is an invitation to recalibrate our hearts so that … Continue reading Sorrow
We've had a challenging week as a number of students and one staff member were out with illness and possible exposure to covid-19. But it was a good week with students building interesting things with blocks and making bird feeders with the outdoors study group. My assistant Dustin suggested the use of glue sticks for gluing blocks of wood together and we found that even though glue sticks are often almost worthless on paper, they do work with blocks of wood. They are far less messy than wet glue and far safer than hot glueguns. Adding glue sticks to assembly kits we hope to develop will make them a more complete kits, less reliant on other things being provided from a household supply. I've been working on an op ed piece I hope will...
A new documentary that will explore the history and evolution of the Temple of Witchcraft is due to be released late-Spring, early summer. Continue reading Temple of Witchcraft documentary soon to be released at The Wild Hunt.
Jeff Milchen While many corporations offer feel-good commercials promoting multiculturalism and equality, their political arms (like the Chamber of Commerce) and political investments perpetuate the dominance of wealth over our elections and the public interest.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born at the All Saints’ vicarage in Cheshire, England, today, the 27th of January, in 1832. His family produced military men and clerics. His great grandfather a bishop in the Church of England, his father a country priest, later Archdeacon of Richmond. The family were Anglo-Catholics. Charles’ […]
The grim reality is that 77 years after the world got confirmation of the breadth of the Holocaust anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States and in Europe. As the last survivors of the death camps and the Allied soldiers who liberated them dwindle the collective memory has dimmed. Pollsconstantly show that younger people are at best foggy on the reality—many can’t place World War II within 50 years on a timeline, are unsure who the combatants were and on who was responsible for barely understood atrocities. Holocaust denial is on the rise spread mainly by those who try to mask their own intentionsto “complete the job.” Right wing nationalism is making a comeback in Europe making substantial gains in several...
When you can’t find ordinary explanations it’s time to start looking for magical explanations – and sometimes we do. But if you feel like you’re being hexed, there’s an ordinary explanation you may be overlooking.
What a liberating example Janet set with her year of butterflies! When she was very tired or didn’t get to her drawing until very late in the day, she would draw one freehand. Here’s my equivalent, done with Paint 3D (not sure what’s 3D about it, as I did not get that adventurous). It was […]
“If there is one thing that I appreciate about our Unitarian Universalist Association’s invitation to siding with love in these current times, it is that the invitation invites love as an active force in our lives. So much of our understanding of love can be passive—we talk of ‘falling’ in love, or of being ‘helplessly’ … Continue reading Love
Spain moves forward with a proposed resolution that would offer reparations and restitution for those accused of witchcraft in the country's history. Continue reading Catalonia seeks reparation for Witchcraft victims and awards prize to Judith Butler at The Wild Hunt.
Wordle, Wishes, and Boundaries In the beginning was the Wordle. Some people liked it, and some people didn’t. And then more people liked it, and they began posting about it on social media, especially Facebook. And so then more people found out about it. Some people liked it, some people didn’t. So, what can we learn about systems theory from the current zeitgeist of Wordle? First things to understand: There will not be an objective truth that is universally agreed upon. Is Wordle good, is it bad, should people share or not share … this is all immaterial. The issue is: What are your wishes? What are your boundaries? A wish is something you’d like, but in healthy relationships, it is not an expectation. It is not a bo...
“For the past six months, more than 61 million children in roughly 36 million families across the U.S. have received a monthly payment of $250 or $300 per child… [But] tax credits that would have landed in families’ bank accounts beginning Friday, January 14 won’t happen because the Senate could not agree to extend them.” — Coalition on Human Needs The Child Tax Credit (CTC) ended December 30, 2021. It lifted 9.9 million U.S. children out read more... The post Action Alert: Urge Your Legislators to Renew the Child Tax Credit (CTC) appeared first on Promise the Children.
By Amy Caldwell | As we entered our second year of the pandemic, early in the spring of 2021, I was reviewing the changes and additions the monastics of the Plum Village Center for Engaged Buddhism had made for our revised and expanded edition of Thich Nhat Hanh’s classic collection of meditations, “The Blooming of a Lotus.” Upon hearing of Thay’s death last Friday, my mind returned to my reading and that time.
DREAMING THE JESUS PRAYER James Ishmael Ford I find Jesus and the Jesus Prayer on my heart a fair amount of late. And only a little less, Mary, for me as the great Western manifestation of Guanyin. Which in the joining in my heart I guess speaks volumes of me and […]
Last week, a philosopher called Thomas Nail (whose work on Lucretius I particularly admire) published a helpful introductory paper called What is the Philosophy of Movement? A few minutes ago I printed a copy up for an interested member of the congregation and, as I did this, it occurred to me that there may be others of you who read this blog who might be interested in having sight of it as well. I share it because I am fully persuaded that any coherent (enough) modern liberal religion/philosophy must have at its heart just such a philosophy of movement. As teachers everywhere love to say: Discuss! https://www.academia.edu/68573598/What_Is_the_Philosophy_of_Movement
Former Vice President and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and 27-year-old Megan Marshak seen on the wintery streets of New York swathed in fur--not quite the usual attire of political aid and personal assistant. I can’t help myself. In retrospectit seems like such a quaint little scandal. Charmingreally—the short naked final tumble of the recent Vice President of the United States and one of the wealthiest men in the country. It seems almost like a May-December romcom with a dark twist ending. Compare that with the multiple scandalsand affairs of the last Resident of the United States—think Stormy Danniels, teen age beauty queens, and boastful pussy grabbing. When Gerald Ford became President after Richard Nixon's ...
“What, exactly, are we doing when we invite love into our lives? Surely we know that it’s much tidier without it, when things stay at a distance. And yet: I’m sucked in every time, seduced by the possibility of an expanded heart. I hope that never changes.” -Amanda Poppei Invite love into your life today, … Continue reading Messy
presented in a Zoom session of the Unitarian Church of Quincy, Illinois January 23, 2022 First Reading In his 1915 novel Of Human Bondage , William Somerset Maugham wrote: A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves in almost everything that anybody else believes. And he has a very lively sustaining faith in he doesn’t quite know what. Second Reading In 2012, April Fools Day fell on a Sunday. So Rev. Erika Hewitt preached a sermon on UU jokes. She started out by telling a few: Each religion has its own Holy Book: Judaism has the Torah, Islam has the Koran, Christianity has the Bible, and Unitarian Universalism has Roberts' Rules of Order. But eventually she raises the same issue Maugham had poked at almost a century before: Our tole...
The discovery of a large longhouse in Norway could provide more insight for Pagans of Norse traditions; and climate change a possible factor in the Norse abandoning Greenland around the end of the 15th century. Continue reading New developments in understanding Medieval Norse Culture at The Wild Hunt.
Hello, hello~ We hope this finds you well, whether you are reading this from a place that is beautifully snowy, or from someplace a bit warmer. And if you are not well, that you will reach out to us, to a family member, friend, or loved ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – Jan. 25th 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 2/6 topic will be squirrels. Ask your children to watch for squirrels and keep a list of the places squirrels are seen. Also be sure to check out ... read more . The post RE This Week – Jan. 25th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.
How would you express your connections to UUSS? To the Earth? To the Holy/Mystery/More? Using the theme “Connected in Love, We Nurture the Flame” as a spark of inspiration, you are invited to write a poem, chalice lighting, chalice flame releasing, prayer, meditation, a short ... read more . The post Calling you who find a spiritual home with UUSS appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.
As a member congregation of SCM, we share this request from their staff: “Many of our guests have requested personal care items such as toothpaste and deodorant for all genders. These items can be expensive and are often the most requested by our food pantry guests when ... read more . The post Urgent Request from Schenectady Community Ministries appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.
The other day I attended a zoom based meeting of a clergy group I’ve long belonged to. Its origins are as a Universalist clergy Lenten retreat, but wildly evolved since. Mostly its a small group of people invited into an annual gathering with an implied commitment to that annual gathering for as close […]
Next week on February 4 the XXIV Olympic Winter Games will kick off with an elaborate, self-congratulatory Opening Ceremony at the Bird’s nest a/k/a the Beijing National Stadium. The games will be held amid even more controversy and drama then have become customary for modern Olympiads. In protest to rampant human rights violations in China, especially the repression of the Muslim Uyghurs—some charge genocide—in the country’s far northwest, suppression of Hong Kong protests in 2019 and ’20, and a general harsh suppression of speech, art, and even the mildest protests, the United States and many of its Western friends and allies announce diplomatic boycotts of the games meaning that no government dignitaries or officials wil...
Everything doesn’t have to have a deep meaning or purpose. There’s a place for mindless entertainment and for guilty pleasures for which we should feel absolutely no guilt. You like what you like and you don’t need anybody’s permission to enjoy it.