Friday, 27 January 2012, 10:15 pm PST
Unitarian Universalism: The Institution of Spiritual Freedom
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It looks as if our dog Sandy is coming to the end of her life. The vets tell us she is in heart failure, and she is on a series of medications to help her heart work and to help keep fluid out of h... [read more]
The first question that everyone should ask when the President of the UUA writes something for us all to consider is: for whom and to whom is he speaking? Some people like to talk about 'The UUA'... [read more]
Freely Following Jesus Wildflower Church Austin TX Jan. 22, 2012 The reading from Mark 1:14-20…a part of the weekly lectionary, a way churches of different traditionsall read and comment on the s... [read more]
Eyes shut with the DP on White Fen For various reasons I haven't been able to get out much on the bike this month and, to be frank, I was going completely shack-simple. Alas, when I got up this mo... [read more]
Did you get a look at the bodyguard for the Australian Prime Minister today? I want to be that guy. The Australian PM, Julia Gillard, was surrounded by an angry group of aboriginal protesters and s... [read more]
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 will someday be remembered, either as the day the citizens of Indiana received their wake-up call, or the day on which the decline of worker pay and workplace safety b... [read more]
Well, I am counting down the weeks LEFT in my sabbatical now. Not altogether with trepidation, because I am actually feeling energized and ready to get back to work. I love almost everything about ... [read more]
Well, I am counting down the weeks LEFT in my sabbatical now. Not altogether with trepidation, because I am actually feeling energized and ready to get back to work. I love almost everything about ... [read more]
During the four years I spent at Iliff School of Theology, in Denver, I had many opportunities to experience ministerial responsibilities. The required curriculum at Iliff gave me some of those bu... [read more]
The UUA President, the Rev. Peter Morales published a working paper titled "Congregations and Beyond" last week. It's available in its entirety here. In it he says, ... [read more]
My heart had a visitor this week. Knock, knock. "Yes? " "Hi, I’m anger. " "Oh, yes. I recognize you by the tightening I’m feeling. You’re here about t... [read more]
The Buddha taught again and again: Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anythin... [read more]
Peter Morales' paper, Congregations and Beyond (found here) raises some interesting issues for UU's and other religious people, especially those in small denominations and those... [read more]
I have spent the past five days vacationing in Key West and I give it an enthusiastic thumbs up. Peace Bang’s Top 6 Reasons To Vacation in Key West, Florida: 1. Although it has a reputation a... [read more]
UUA President Peter Morales’ column, “Congregations and Beyond,” has me simultaneously excited and disappointed. Peter writes, “The central conviction driving this proposal is that our core... [read more]
I am currently reading W. E. B. Dubois classic "The Black Reconstruction in America. " In a section describing the treatment of the African Americans in Louisiana shortly after the Civil... [read more]
Break not that circle of enabling love, Where people grow, forgiven and forgiving, Break not that circle, make it wider still, Till it includes, embraces all the living. –Hymn 323, Singing th... [read more]
Langston Hughes writes. .. "Bring me all of your dreams, You dreamers, Bring me all of your heart melodies, That I may wrap them in a blue cloud cloth Away from the too rough fingers of the ... [read more]
IDEAS: Unitarian Universalists remain unreconciled four decades after controversy over 'black empowerment' nearly tore the UUA apart. [read more]
Reading before the sermon is available here. ** “What can we say,” asks economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, “about the [Occupy Wall Street] protests? First things first: The protesters... [read more]
In search of an Honest Person by Rev. Fred L Hammond Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tuscaloosa January 15 2012 © In our story for all ages, we heard the story of Clementine Hunter, an a... [read more]
See all blogs entries from A Unitarian Universalist Minister in Mississippi
Emerson wrote that a “person will worship something, have no doubt about that…That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. ” In ... [read more]
While cleaning out the many boxes of junk from my old Division II University office, I found about a dozen pages of essay bloopers I'd scribbled during Regents' Exam and Freshman Writing Project ... [read more]
"My grandmother used to tell me stories about how they would put straw under the eyelids of slaves so they couldn't fall asleep," he confided to me. JT and I took many classes togeth... [read more]
Happy New Year to you all. Here are my top 10 predictions on sexuality, religion, and public life for 2012. Tell me what you think! 10. The Republican candidate for President will run on an unamb... [read more]
See all blogs entries from Sexuality and Religion: What’s the Connection?
‘Congregations and Beyond’ This past week Unitarian Universalist Association President Peter Morales published “Congregations and Beyond,” encouraging all Unitarian Universa... [read more]
Today is the United Nations'-declared annual International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. Haaretz reports on plans in countries across Europe for marking the ... [read more]
UU human rights lawyer calls for end to torture The Rev. Karen Tse, a UU minister and human rights lawyer, says that in the Year of the Dragon, it is time for us to finally stop torture. Watch Tse... [read more]
Educators block social media because they believe it threatens the personal and emotional safety of their students, but they are missing opportunities to use these channels to promote learning. ... [read more]
The UUA Board of Trustees was charged with nominating one or more persons for the Moderator position effective with the election that will occur at GA in 2013. The Board has interviewed the recomme... [read more]
See all news results from Unitarian Universalist Association: Top Stories
See all podcast episodes from Unity Church-Unitarian of Saint Paul, MN
The Spirituality of Needlework with the Stitch and Bitch Group (led by Sandy Greenberg and Lynne Godfrey) will address how creative activities can enhance your spiritual life, encourage a med... [listen to the episode]
Candlelight Christmas Eve Service: A Child’s Christmas in Wales -- Sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Stephen H. Furrer December 24, 2011 at 4:45 pm [listen to the episode]
See all podcast episodes from First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco Podcast
The dark of winter surrounds us. The sun appears for only nine hours a day. We are held in the womb of the night. Dark, starry skies embrace us in the infinite Darkness invites us to come ... [listen to the episode]
Come celebrate the gift of our beloved community as we reflect on what this moment in our congregational history calls us to do. We'll also have a child dedication at this service. [listen to the episode]
See all podcast episodes from Bull Run Unitarian Universalists
I rarely link to existing articles, but I think these two are deserved. Cynthia Nixon: Bisexuals? We get no respect This one is better. [read more]
This is quite a long piece (over 7000 words) weaving a narrative thread through my young life that I think illustrates a key principle of unschooling. That principle is that the natural desire and ... [read more]
See all blog entries from Lefty Parent- Living and Parenting Without The Rule Book
In a recent editorial for the Huffington Post Josh Schrei argues that the real difference between Hinduism and other world religions is that Hinduism is an “open source” faith, and that... [read more]
Scientists, debunking Warmism today in WSJ, recall Lysenko (photo at left) who did science the Proletarian Way. This is not the way science is supposed to work, but we have seen it before—for exa... [read more]
This isn’t for me. Really. But in a larger sense it may be for all of us. Does anyone have experience buying a house or apartment with a non-relative on a cooperative basis? Since strong hous... [read more]
That's true for me, anyway. If you define yourself artistically as a blogger or commenter or networker, go you! But I'm not, so I'm radically simplifying my online life. If I've unfollowed or u... [read more]
This poem by Unitarian minister, translator and eminent musicologist John Sullivan Dwight was well read this morning. Truer words. .. " Is not true leisure One with true toil? ... [read more]
It was a foggy night, but it had been a perpetual state of fog since I arrived on Friday. I had to use the vacation days by the end of the month or they were lost forever, and I happened …... [read more]
then the Mormons and now the Catholics. I don't ever remember seeing so many ads on TV for church in my life. It is getting kind of crazy. Growing up in the 80s in northern Iowa, religion really w... [read more]
In an article at uuworld. org that came out today, it was written:"This GA, termed a "Justice GA," will be almost entirely focused on social justice issues related to immigrati... [read more]
My quarterly column is up at the UU World web site. If you read this blog regularly, you'll suddenly understand where the ideas in May's My Volo Credere post came from. More and more, I'm seeing... [read more]
I have spent the past five days vacationing in Key West and I give it an enthusiastic thumbs up. Peace Bang’s Top 6 Reasons To Vacation in Key West, Florida: 1. Although it has a reputation a... [read more]
It takes a lot to get me to go to a movie theatre; other than going to see the 3 D version of ‘The Lion King’ the last movie I saw in theatre was ‘Up In The Air’. With that ... [read more]
I left full-time academics in 1999. It took a year of exploring the idea before I handed in my resignation, and another year and a half before I finally left. Academic institutions have a year-lon... [read more]
See all blog entries from Wandering Monk, Reluctant Gyrovague
Excepert from Rev. Q. H. Shinn's coloumn "Personal Expericnces In Making Universalists" that appeared in the March 6, 1906 issue of ONWARD"Now I'm going to tell about a Flor... [read more]
Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm. net [read more]
The Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence has extended an invitation to members of their local Occupy movement to camp at their church. The initial expected numbers are about 12-15 peopl... [read more]
I apologise to those readers I still have for neglecting my blog, but I've been in prison the last few months. Several prisons, in fact, including the Womans prison. .. as a member of the Indianap... [read more]
We don’t discipline our son. We don’t spank him. No time outs. No punishments of any kind. We’ve never raised our voice to him. We have never mocked him. We speak to him lovingly, sometimes f... [read more]
It’s a golden fall day here–the leaves have started to turn and the sun is shining brightly so it seems as if Midas has kissed the world. I’m still inside, looking out–but w... [read more]