We often say in church that there’s a lot going on here at First Unitarian. And indeed there is—all you need to do is look at the weekly enews or pick up the Sunday Bulletin or look over the Path to Engagement publication to see the long list of things that the church offers. Everything from classes to retreats to small group experiences. Everything from choirs to social justice groups to many volunteer experiences. Indeed there are many opportunities, but paradoxically, all those options can feel a little overwhelming when you are new. Making connections in our large community can…

Rev. Bill Sinkford and Rev. Sophia Betancourt Few sermons have generated the level of engagement of last Sunday’s dialogue. Sofia Betancourt, who keynoted Seminary for a Day on Saturday, and I reflected on one of the shifts required to secure Unitarian Universalism as a liberating faith for the future…and the present. We spoke of concepts of freedom liberated from the constraints of power and privilege out of which our faith tradition grew. My conversations and my in-box reflect real engagement, not enthusiastic approval. Re-imagining central religious concepts, like “freedom,” is not done easily. Re-imagining involves a giving up of the…

The poet Mary Oliver died today—Jan. 17—at the age of 83 in Florida. It was in a Unitarian Universalist church service when I first heard a poem by Oliver. I can’t remember which one it was. But I do remember being taken by her work in a way that I had been with few other poems. Oliver’s work, so often invoking the natural world, is particularly accessible in a setting like worship. It can draw you in resonate with a kind of ease and grace. Perhaps her most memorial question is a good one no matter where we are on…

It is the 475th anniversary of the death of Mevlana Jalaluddin al-Rumi. A Sufi mystic, Rumi is quoted as often in UU congregations as almost any other poet. “Come, Come, Whoever You Are,” has become one of our most familiar hymns. What does it mean to sing “Come, Come, Whoever You Are” in a divided and divisive world? I met with one of the Wellspring groups at the church yesterday. We spoke of many things, among them how to reconcile our first Principle, “the inherent worth and dignity of all persons,” with those in our world whose actions are hard…

The gift giving and the gift finding season is hard upon us. The commercial culture that surrounds us is insistent on it. Even if we manage to resist the lure of the expensive “toys,” even if we bake or make our gifts, even if we donate to good causes in someone’s name, the need to find a wonderful gift is part of the challenge of this season for most of us. Rev. David Blanchard tells the story of an African boy who wanted to give a gift to his teacher, who was going home to England: “The child had no…

As the winter solstice approaches, the longest dark of the year, the truth of the seasons and the cycles of life becomes so clear. We live in a culture that praises linear movement toward goals and the “crossing things off our lists.” Earth-centered traditions from many cultures know the reality that “life goes on,” as one of Howard Thurman’s meditations puts it. During these turbulent times we must remind ourselves repeatedly that life goes on. This we are apt to forget. The wisdom of life transcends our wisdoms; the purpose of life outlasts our purposes; the process of life cushions…

It is the season of the long dark. From time out of mind, religious communities have found reason to gather and to light candles against the dark in this season. We moderns know the truth of the seasonal cycles. Some of us can even explain them coherently. The religious impulse to hold the dark at bay still calls us into the warmth and the light of community. We reflect on the spiritual theme of “Listening” this month. The long dark is a time of greater quiet, of more silence but it is also a time of listening. Perhaps this year…

I was in seminary, in the early 1990’s, when progressives began seriously questioning “Columbus Day” and the narrative of Manifest Destiny. That early response to the American Indian Movement was an attempt to correct the American story. To remind you, Columbus never set foot in what is now the United States. He stumbled on Cuba and the islands of the Caribbean when he misjudged the location of China by half a world. Not a discoverer, it would be more accurate to say that his mistake began the European theft of an entire continent and the genocide of millions of its…

Wednesday morning, early, I passed a congregant at the gym. “Are you buoyed, Bill? Are you buoyed, at least a little?” Another friend used that term later in the morning: “I’m feeling buoyed.” Buoyed. Held up. Floating. Light of Spirit. Tuesday’s election offered many reasons to celebrate, especially here in Oregon: movement toward affordable housing, the protection of our ‘sanctuary’ status, the Portland Clean Energy Initiative, the progressive candidates elected. There were far more cheers than moans among the congregants that gathered at church Tuesday evening. Across the nation, it was not a tsunami, but some balancing of power may…

Halloween. All Saints Day. All Souls Day. This is the season when we humans have always sensed that the world of the spirit, or the spirits, is most closely aligned with our world. This is a time when the boundary between the living and the dead seems thinnest, most permeable. The Day of the Dead is celebrated tomorrow. Among us there are many beliefs about what happens when we die. Our liberal religious tradition makes no promises. I am content to let that mystery remain mystery. But even if we do not believe that we will ever come face to…