A friend just posted this on Facebook. A classic of Calvin and Hobbes wisdom. Boy I miss that strip… And it set me to thinking. I must admit to being somewhat chagrined by my friends who exult in advising people to “not be afraid” of change. I’m not actually sure they know of what they’re speaking when they say this, or rather I think they’re often more in Calvin’s camp, meaning they’re all for other people changing. I know I... Read more

Some years ago I was at the installation for a colleague as minister of a Unitarian Universalist church. These things can go on for quite a long time, and I have to admit my mind wandered on occasion. Until, that is, someone quoted a Hindu sage by way of passing on some advice to the new minister. “Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two my life flows.” That caught me. I thought... Read more

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It really is spring. Some places tentative… And for others, no doubt. None whatsoever… On this day in 1802 Dorothy Wordsworth and her brother took a walk where they stumbled upon a “long belt” of daffodils. It inspired her brother to compose a poem… The spirit of spring… Read more

A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION TO LIBERAL RELIGION Unitarian Universalism in a Thousand Words James Ishmael Ford Back in the mid nineteen seventies, after I left the Zen monastery that had been my home for several years, I stumbled upon an early nineteenth century pamphlet titled “Unitarian Christianity.” After reading it I immediately looked for where the local Unitarian church was, now called, I saw Unitarian Universalism. I fell asleep during the service. But, later, at the coffee hour I met... Read more

Jonathan Winters, who occupied my childhood imagination has died. Rest in peace… Read more

There I was, at another of the organizational meetings for Voices of Faith, our attempt at creating a state wide interfaith organization. I like the people, all of them, I think, but it is sometimes hard sledding. Interestingly, the hardest thing is getting people to agree we don’t all think the same things somewhere deep down. For the majority people in our crowd I think it is a gentle imperialism, claiming the other is really just us. Much better than... Read more

August Landmesser, the man who refused to salute… Read more

This past Sunday I experienced the most wonderful thing. Our Unitarian Universalist president Peter Morales and United Church of Christ general minister Geoffrey Black and some three hundred and fifty people came together to call on the Senate of the State of Rhode Island to finish the job begun by the House of Representatives and to respond to the heart call of the governor and the citizens, and to vote marriage equality into our laws. The preparation was hard. Getting... Read more