Live Stream Only Beloved Community is a way of being, an attitude, an orientation of the heart.  It is an aspiration and a practice that shapes our relationships with each other and all living things.  What does it require to be a Beloved Community?  How do we live into the tension that exists between the … Continue reading Our Beloved Community

Live Stream Only Humanity has imaged the divine in a myriad of ways – as a comforting presence, as a life-giving, creative force, as a connected web of all existence, as a mental construct projecting and reflecting our human struggles and aspirations.  And much more.  How do YOU imagine God  / Goddess / the Gods?  … Continue reading The God of Our Imagination

Live Stream Only Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi observes that experiences are genuinely satisfying when we are in a state of consciousness called flow.  During flow, we typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life.  And it is a state that can be controlled, not just left to chance.  How does creativity move … Continue reading When Your Imagination Flows

Live Stream Only Langston Hughes has been called the poet laureate of the African-American experience — a visionary writer of the Harlem Renaissance who gave hopeful expression to the aspirations of the oppressed, even as he decried racism and injustice.  His powerful poetry and prose continues to speak to the dream of Martin Luther King, … Continue reading I Dream a World

Feeling stuck and in a rut?  In a relationship?  At work?  At home?  In retirement?  Relating to yourself?  Feeling stuck in the societal rut of polarization and all its manifestations?  Imagination to the rescue, along with some courage.  Or in the words of G.K. Chesterton: “Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell … Continue reading Imagination to the Rescue

Online Only “Be still and God is with you. Be still, and you are never alone.” says Donald L. Hicks.  Whether we perceive God as a creator who pays us special attention or whether we relate to ‘god’ or “the divine” as shorthand for some other, hard-to-express truth, the insight remains the same:  There is … Continue reading Meeting the Mystery in Stillness

The silence of solitude is welcome and needed.  The silence of loneliness feels quite different.  It is a source of pain and distress, common even before the pandemic and ubiquitous now.  Like hunger and thirst, loneliness is a sensation that is telling us something essential is missing – our sense of feeling connected in a … Continue reading The Sound of Loneliness

December carries a tension.  How do we balance the cultural call to be festive, jovial, and active with our evolutionary need to slow down and make time for renewal?  The choir will invite us to “find a stillness, hold a stillness, [and] let the stillness carry [us].”  May we all be so lucky – or … Continue reading Making Space for Stillness

Online Only Community can be an essential factor in our healing journeys. Come listen to voices from within our congregation about how our church or other communities have been a healing presence in their lives.  If you have a story to share, please let Michael know.

Online Only The souls of most nations carry historical wounds.  Different countries have taken different approaches to healing those wounds.  What can we learn from Germany, South Africa, Rwanda and others as we confront the historical wounds that continue to fester within U.S. culture?  How can we move towards healing the long-term impact of the … Continue reading Historical Wounds