The energy in the sanctuary last Sunday was unmistakable. I felt it in the lobby where flowers we had all brought were being arranged in the baskets for our flower communion. I felt it in the spontaneous response to our graduating seniors and the celebration of Betsy Riddell as Unitarian Universalist of the year. I could feel it in our singing and in the buzz as the congregation came down to take a flower and share a blessing… There was even dancing in the aisles. The Spirit was moving. So many of you have complimented me on delivering such a…

Last Sunday, while we recognized and thanked those congregants who volunteered as teachers of our children and youth this year, I looked out at the faces in the sanctuary. What I saw were smiles. Smiles on the faces of younger members of our community as they recognized their teachers. Smiles on faces of parents. Smiles on the faces of the teachers. And smiles on the faces of everyone else, too. Just about every face I saw was smiling. When the teachers had gathered at the front of the Sanctuary, Cassandra said a sentence or two about what each of the…

The theme of “liberation” has been a rich one for me. From the pulpit it allowed me to speak about Islam and finding of freedom through obedience. It also opened again the conversation about the importance of practice and the possibility of discovering “self” in community. Perhaps “self in community” is the only self of substance. Is our goal liberation into a disconnected freedom? Does the language of liberation call us to a freedom that is isolated and isolating? Or is the liberation we most seek deeply connected and profoundly accountable? I remember that the great movements toward liberation were…

I resist “us and them” thinking in my own spirit and I urge you to resist it in yours. That is no small ask in a time when so much that we affirm is under attack: Children dying in cages on our border, reproductive justice hanging by a thread, massive transfers of wealth to the rich, our election systems compromised not only by Russian influence but by voter suppression and gerrymandering… But it was a report this morning of one more “small” affront that has me steaming. The image of Harriet Tubman was scheduled to replace that of Andrew Jackson…

I am writing from Chicago where I am attending the 175 Anniversary celebration for Meadville/Lombard Theological School, one of only two Unitarian Universalist seminaries preparing ministers to serve our faith. This is the first formal introduction of a new President for Meadville, Dr. Elias Ortega-Aponte. During this past year, I have served on the Search Team that recommended Elias’s appointment. He comes to Meadville from Drew Theological School in New Jersey and brings a commitment to Unitarian Universalism grounded in his work in religious education, theologies of liberation and faith formation. This celebration also includes the opportunity to warmly thank…

“Reproductive justice asserts that all people have the right to bodily autonomy, to have a child (or not have a child), to parent that child with dignity in safe and sustainable communities, and to determine their own reproductive and birthing experiences.”                                       - Black Mamas Matter Alliance This is not a “feel good” message. As we approach Mothers Day, there is one more first for the United States that needs mention: The US has the most deaths resulting from pregnancy and pregnancy related complications of any nation in the developed world. 700 women die each year and that rate has…

I made a mistake this morning. Just up, wondering whether our political system would lurch another step closer to some final melt-down, I turned cable news on. As I watched, I found myself sucked into that world of posturing and lies, that world in which it seems truth cannot survive and where hope is so hard to find. I do not avoid the news these days, though I know some of you do. But I have to be prepared to be present to it. What I find is that without preparation engaging the news of the day does not promote…

I am fond of telling stories about how children who grow up in the First Unitarian community remember highlights from their younger years here. I have loved hearing from adults, some my age and older, who still speak about their roles in our Christmas Pageant when they were children, for example. One of our members, Darin Stewart, shared a story with me recently that brought a smile: Children learn far more from what we adults do than what we say, of course. We liberal religious folks with our love of learning and our academic degrees can forget this. In this…

“Almost Biblical.” That is how one staff member at the church described this week. Between the flood in our own Buchan building and the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, that description had me nodding my head in agreement. In this week when the tulips have finally opened at my house, when we look forward to Easter Sunday and singing “Hallelujah,” one temptation is to focus only on the miracle of rebirth around us and within us in this season. But religious life calls us also to hold disappointment and even the disasters of life. Religious life is…

I always get the words wrong. The hymn “We Would Be One” is a favorite of mine and of many of us: We would be one as now we join in singing Our hymn of love to pledge ourselves anew… My problem is that I learned different lyrics, because this was the official hymn of Liberal Religious Youth, the youth ministry of the newly consolidated Unitarian Universalist Association when I became a UU. “Our hymn of youth” is what we sang and what still is called up for me whenever the simple and stately chords of Finlandia (the tune) introduce…