With no creeds or official dogma what are the throughlines that have held steady in our evolution as the liberal, justice seeking faith we are?  What aspirations, visions, and struggles connect us to the Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists of the past 200 years and the movements they helped to shape within our congregations and … Continue reading Throughlines of our Faith

Each Sunday we “embrace the beauty within each of us, yet acknowledge the imperfections that make us human.”  UNLESS, it seems, you are a celebrity leader, dead or alive.  Those leaders we expect to be first-rate and beyond reproach, flawless and infallible, honorable and admirable in all aspects of their public and private lives.  What … Continue reading Hallelujah for Imperfect Leaders

Forgiveness and creativity, wonder and compassion, love and courage, and just about everything else that makes life interesting and worthwhile, depends on our willingness to welcome curiosity into our way of being. It cracks open the doors we didn’t realize existed. It doesn’t take sides as we explore different perspectives. It doesn’t insist on a … Continue reading The Answer to Everything: Curiosity

We aspire to welcome, value and engage the diverse parts of humanity that surround us. What if we approached the diverse parts within us, the varied  subpersonalities that make up our “internal family,” with similar sincerity – including those we’d rather ignore or keep at bay? What if we can’t truly welcome those around us … Continue reading Welcoming Ourselves

As we re-gather in our beautiful sanctuary for our annual water communion service, may we all experience the gift of feeling welcomed, by music, by friendly faces, by open hearts, a caring community, and the joy and curiosity of a Beginner’s Mind. Our water communion ritual honors the varied stories that join us together – … Continue reading The Gift of Welcome: A Water Communion Service

As we celebrate its 100th anniversary, may our annual Flower Communion service remind us once more of the blessings we receive when we are present for one another, sharing, caring, with an open heart, a helping hand, creating community that matters.  Please bring a flower if you can – though we’ll have plenty of extras.  … Continue reading Flower Communion Sunday: Come, Come, Wherever You’ve Been

As we listen to anguish, afflictions, and suffering, how do we become the refuge these voices long to find?  How do we prepare our hearts, our homes, our communities?  How do we balance our need for boundaries with our desire to offer safety, solace, and sanctuary?  The emotional hunger around us is real and so … Continue reading May I Be a Refuge

Mixing humility and arrogance, I will tap into my prophetic voice and preach on how I propose to save the world, or rather how I envision WE ought to save the world.  Let’s reimagine the education of our children.  Let’s rethink how and what we eat.  Let’s…  have you come and tune in to learn … Continue reading My Top 5 Ways to Save the World

For most of my life, I have found it difficult to come to terms with certain core concepts accepted by much of Christianity:  Judgment day, heaven, hell, purgatory, resurrection, salvation, life after death, eternal life, and the ideas of a personified God who communicates with people and an embodied divinity in the human form of … Continue reading Making Sense of Christianity

Contempt has become an addiction in our attitudes towards those on the other side, those who don’t share our values, those who don’t get that we are right and they are wrong.  And it has become tough to quit.  Arthur C. Brooks in his book “Love Your Enemies” makes the convincing case that contempt and … Continue reading Resisting Contempt