Thursday, 29 July 2010, 08:21 am PDT
Unitarian Universalism: The Institution of Spiritual Freedom
A 2008 501(c)3 nonprofit organization candidate
Featured Ministers
judge blocks; gov appeals; many still protest
Judge Bolton's injunction "does not stop immigrant communities and their supporters from being terrorized in Arizona, it just limits the reasons for which they can be terrorized," ac... [read more]
the yes church
Arizona, the Night Before
I just got back to my homestay from an excellent non-violent civil disobedience training put on by the Ruckus Society and the Catalyst Project. It was held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregati... [read more]
The Latest Form of Infidelity
Summer-dry season
This afternoon, I took a break from not writing the things I’m supposed to be writing, and went out to the Baylands nature preserve for a walk. We’re now fully into the summer-dry seas... [read more]
Yet Another Unitarian Universalist
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We’ll Get What We Are
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the phrase I’ve used for the title of this post: “We’ll Get What We Are. ” It’s something that Christian Smith said in his ... [read more]
Phil’s Little Blog on the Prairie
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At Least We Can Try
I just finished an intensive course in public theology at Meadville/Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago. Other than the blistering heat, the ideas and energy expresse... [read more]
Rev. John Morehouse
One of the things...
ministers dread, and nearly all of us have to cope with at one time or another, is a string of deaths in the congregation within a relatively short period of time. It's hard on our psychic energy... [read more]
Ms. Kitty’s Saloon and Road Show
Soul-Lessons from Loved Ones with Neurological Conditions
All my life I have pursued intellectual hyper-drive. For shaking off the Midwest-- San Francisco. For culture -- New York City. For politics -- DC. For social justice --... [read more]
PolityWonk
What dreams may come
IDEAS: Where should we assign the burden of proof for ideas about the afterlife? [read more]
Ideas from UU World
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
I’ve been on a path far from the circles of Unitarian Universalists the past 3 years. Today I was out and about wearing a T-Shirts I bought off a C*UUYAN (young adult ministry) Steering Co... [read more]
RadicalHapa
"Make of yourselves a light."
My Zafu A couple of weeks ago I gave an address which explored our particular church's covenant. In a way this is an expansion of the call to meet in 'the spirit of Jesus. 'There are a lot of '... [read more]
Caute
Ministry is Dangerous
Many of you know that I recently went through a time of liminality and discernment about the path toward practicing my ministry, sparked by the military choosing to offer me Reserve Military Chapla... [read more]
Celestial Lands
BEYOND 28 FLAVORS: Ice Cream Theology
Part of the joy—and perhaps the lure—of simple living is that you choose to manage only what lies within the scope of your actual capabilities and not to live under the pretext of unlimited ass... [read more]
A Jersey Girl in Kentucky
Gone Sitting...
Jan & I are off to sesshin at our Boundless Way temple in Worcester, leaving auntie & the cats in charge of the old homestead. Sesshin means to touch the heart mind. And frequently one does... [read more]
Monkey Mind
Church of Sighs and Broken Alleluias and Mustard Seeds: Read When Your Heart Is Ready
Make sure, if you are interested in missional church and community renewing living, and I hope you are and will be, that you read this. There I was this evening, at dusk, following one of those ins... [read more]
Planting God Communities
The Four Thoreaus and You
Many of the Unitarians and Universalists who came after Henry David Thoreau struggled with his model and message. To them it was by no means clear what Walden meant for our spiritual movement, even... [read more]
Thousand Voices
Immigration Reform: How Are We Called to Act?
Here's the sermon I gave today about Arizona's immigration law. If you can watch the video clip “UUs Stand on the Side of Love in Arizona” from http://www. uua. org/events/generalassembly/201... [read more]
Drink from the Stream
Bless the Animals
“Bless the Animals” service was presented by Rev. Fred L Hammond to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tuscaloosa, Alabama on 18 July 2010 © Chalice Lighting written by Rev. Fred L H... [read more]
A Unitarian Universalist Minister in Mississippi
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#46 Hikers on Pilgrim Routes: A Cautionary Tale
No longer content to hike the Appalachian trail or climb Denali, devout secularists have turned their sights on pilgrim routes. One such route is the Way of St. James which wends through rugged ... [read more]
The Naked Theologian: stripped-down theology
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Facebook: An Argument for Friending Your Congregation's Members
As ministers, we all know too easily the arguments to not "friend" members of our congregation on Facebook and other social networking sites. It blurs the professional boundary... [read more]
Rev. Cyn
Get mad at Girlfriend, Kill a bunch of people.
It's a common formula. It happened today, here in Albuquerque. It happens a lot. Here are some of the most infamous. .which is to say, the ones where more than two people died. T... [read more]
iMinister
Odds & Ends
It's Marriage -- No Adjectives Needed
I am so pleased to be one of the religious leaders selected to be part of the Washington Post's On Faith panel. Organized by Sally Quinn and Jon Meachem, each week we are sent a question to consi... [read more]
Sexuality and Religion: What’s the Connection?
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Student Essay Insanity™ #69!
Picture from Engrish Funny The Regents' Exam has come and gone for another semester, but I still have a treasure trove [sic] of bloopers to share with you. Some of them I included simply because t... [read more]
Educated & Poor
Trip to the River
Sunday, July 18 Moments of Grace 4 years ago, I said to The Husband, “Our vacations are always going to where family is. We need to find a place and go on a trip, just us and the kids. ”... [read more]
The Journey
What's Your Real Religion?
Take the Test
UU News
Bangladesh Supreme Court Appellate Division Restores Constitutional Provision On Secularism
The Financial Express reports that on Tuesday, the Appellate Division of Bangladesh's Supreme Court upheld, with certain modifications, a High Court decision that declared illegal the Fifth Amendm... [read more]
Religion Clause
Americans by Choice
Danielle Ofri appreciated a pro-immigration this past Independence Day. [read more]
Beacon Broadside
Standing on the Side of Love campaign celebrates first year
NEWS: UU antioppression campaign gains visibility, supporters. [read more]
News from UU World
Our rarefied culture
LIFE: I feel comfortable in a Unitarian church only because I am not ethnocentric. [read more]
Life from UU World
UUs draw attention to Arizona, and other UUs in the media
UUs continue to call attention to Arizona M & C, a trade journal for the convention industry, touches upon the UUA’s debate about GA 2012 in its discussion of the harmful effects of SB 1070. ... [read more]
UU’s In the Media
Featured Podcasts
The People with Eyes on Our Feet
The People with Eyes on Our Feet -- Sermon delivered by Rev. Denis Letourneau Paul July 25, 2010 [listen to the episode]
First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco Podcast
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Authentic Living, Luke Stevens-Royer, July 25, 2010
Unity Church-Unitarian of Saint Paul, MN
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I Know This Rose Will Open
Copyright © 2010 know this rose will open. "Oh, yeah, right! " I can hear some of you, I can hear myself, sometimes say. What about those cramped, little places we can find ou... [listen to the episode]
UU Church of Berkeley
"In Persuit of Pleasure"
Sermons from First Unitarian Society of Madison
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A Patent of the Heart
Sunday Morning Worship at All Souls
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Facing Change by Rev. Bruce Marshall
May 16, 2010 - "I am all in favor of change-just as long as it doesn't affect me. Perhaps I am not unique in this. We applaud change as a value but resist when it actually alters our lives.... [listen to the episode]
DMUUC Message
"The Beginning of All Things" - May 16, 2010
This final component of our many-part sermon series on creation stories will focus on the Big Bang, looking at the scientific wonder behind the origins of the universe, and at all the things we do ... [listen to the episode]
Bull Run Unitarian Universalists
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Graduation Homily
Sunday Morning Worship at All Souls
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The Summer of Our Content
Sunday Morning Worship at All Souls
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Featured Blog Posts
Depression Update
A few weeks back I mentioned that I had entered a period of depression. With an increased dosage of Lithium, it subsided temporarily. Unfortunately, it has now returned again. Sometimes depresse... [read more]
Comrade Kevin’s Chrestomathy
Today’s Almanac—July 29, 2010
On July 29, 1869 American novelist and dramatist Booth Tarkington was born into a comfortable, upper middle class family in Indianapolis, Indiana. His long and very productive career w... [read more]
Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout
Targeting Civilians
The Dawn's Editorial on the murder of Mian Rashid Hussain by the Pak Taliban, HT Pakhtunkhwa Peace Forum Monday’s suicide attack in Peshawar near the home of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minis... [read more]
Pfarrer Streccius
already yours...
In reply to what can only be called an unbridled fan letter from Chrisopher Pearse Cranch, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:"My dear sir, I recognize with joy your sympathy with me in the same tast... [read more]
Boston Unitarian
Just For Me
Tonight, the German band I play in performed before the start of the Sound Of Music production at a local outdoor theatre. These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Lots of fun, but e... [read more]
Everyday Unitarian
the personal is not political
I've been thinking about systems and the flaw of identity politics. That reminded me of the saying, "the personal is political," a term I agreed with before I began to understand pow... [read more]
it’s all one thing
Haiti: Six Months Later
We’ve passed the six month anniversary of the 7. 0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The quake killed nearly a quarter of a million people, and o... [read more]
The Wild Hunt
Hot (blog) summer in Britain
The British Unitarians and Free Christian bloggers seem to be countering the mid-summer slump that’s withering the bloggers on this side of the Atlantic. And they have an energy that its wort... [read more]
Boy in the Bands
LeBron James and Lady Gaga Matter…or How UU Culture Inhibits UU Growth pt.3
I got a very nice email from a reader of this blog who asks the simple question of how does one become more multicultural. While I plan on doing a private email to that person, I thought I would ... [read more]
east of midnight
Ketchup Day 1: Success on most fronts!
I’m really impressed that I was able to do almost all the things on my list of daily goals for myself on my first “workday” day of my Ketchup vacation: I cleaned the bathroom, I d... [read more]
uuMomma
Revolutionizing Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Structures – Part 2 – Goodbye C*UUYAN
I don’t like C*UUYAN either. I talked earlier about the problems I’ve got with the Office of Youth and Young Adult programming (well, at least how unhelpful their damned website it) and now ... [read more]
Spirituality and Sunflowers
The best of Jane Austen
High school would have been more enjoyable had this work been recommended rather than "Sense and Sensibility". [read more]
Cuumbaya
Schools without Principals
Just as in real estate they say the three key things are “location, location, location”, when it comes to formal institutions like schools, businesses, religious congregations, or even just tea... [read more]
Lefty Parent- Living and Parenting Without The Rule Book
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Salvation -- July 2010 UU Salon Topic
The July 2010 UU Salon topic is "salvation. " Here are the questions for all of us to consider:What is it? Who gets it? How do you get it? I'm going to start off with a short segmen... [read more]
Liberal Faith Development
The seeds of justice
David Brooks has written a column for the New York Times in which he discusses the idea that morality is a product of our evolutionary past. According to this view, our ancestors developed a sense... [read more]
Find and Ye Shall Seek
Recommended books on the Universalists
The Boston Unitarian asks "I am trying to remedy my somewhat woeful knowledge of Universalism and (as you know) just picked up an e-reader. I was wondering if you could suggest maybe 5 books... [read more]
SC Universalist
Final texts of GA resolutions now available
Here are the final texts of the Actions of Immediate Witness, business resolutions, and responsive resolutions adopted by the UUA’s 2010 General Assembly. Actions of Immediate Witness Clea... [read more]
General Assembly Blog
The Collection of Geniuses
(A couple of years ago, I posted a few of the parables of Safed the Sage, which was a popular series of columns written by the Rev. William Eleazar Barton about a century ago. For some reason I wa... [read more]
the Socinian
Jack Rushes Down the Beanstalk
Though the harp was As light as the air,It slowed Jack still,Climbing with only one hand. “Let me be,Let me be,”The harp plucked. “I will sing only to those I wish to see! ”“Oh, shut up! ... [read more]
Deity and Its Double
Food Trucks
Miracle Mile Lunch Trucks examines the competition between “permanent” businesses and food trucks in one neighborhood in Los Angeles: For food truck lovers — and there are many in thi... [read more]
Surviving the Workday: Spirituality at Work
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