A friend just forwarded me a story that recounts how television talking head Glenn Beck decries churches that call for social justice, revealing how such are either covert Communists or Nazis. He really is a nutjob. My ongoing concern is that he appears to have a very large following. I wonder if people believe this stuff and bother, or just find him entertaining in a creepy sort of way. I fear some take him seriously. And what a sad universe... Read more

thank you, Will! Read more

THIS SECOND DAY OF JULY ANNO DOMINI 1722, IN THE EIGHTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF OUR SOVERIGN LORD GEORGE… Reflections on the History of the First Unitarian Church of Providence Cyrus O’Neil & James Ishmael Ford 7 March 2010 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text This Second Day of July Anno Domini 1722, in the eigth year of the Reign of our Soverign Lord George of Greate Britain etc. King. To all people to whom these presents shall... Read more

Couple ordained as Zen priests Sensei Melissa ‘Myozen’ Blacker, center, ordains Karen ‘Do’on’ Weik, left, and Jay ‘Rinsen’ Weik, right, during a Zen Buddhism ceremony at Lourdes College on Sunday. Seventeen of the Weiks’ students received the Zen precepts in a Jukai ceremony. Zoom | Photo Reprints By David YonkeBLADE RELIGION EDITOR  toledoblade.com — The Blade ~ Toledo Ohio In what may have been the first ceremony of its kind in the Toledo area, two local Zen Buddhist teachers were... Read more

Today, in 1770, in one of those events that would spark the American revolution, British soldiers fired upon a crowd, perhaps a mob, of Americans in Boston, killing five. The British captain and five of his soldiers were arrested and tried. John Adams, as most know, led the defense team. They were acquitted. The Wikipedia article quotes what Adams wrote about the event in his diary. It is an important document revealing both the mind of the man who would... Read more

Zen & the Business of Death The following is the raw transcription of an interview with Zen teacher and Unitarian Universalist minister James Ishmael Ford, conducted by Holly Haynes, at the time a student at Harvard Divinity School. The date from the transcription service is January, 2006. It is likely the interview took place sometime late in 2005. There have been no attempts to correct even the more glaring mistakes INTERVIEWER: First of all I guess, how do you conceive... Read more

Our administrator at First Unitarian (otherwise known as the brains of the outfit) was by herself in the office. It was getting late in the afternoon, but there was lots and lots to do. Always is… A member of the college-age group, a senior at the large university that surrounds our church walked in. Being one of those kids who are very involved in things small and large, she’d been serving as a liaison for an older returning student, who... Read more

Many years ago I worked for Holmes Book Company in Oakland, California. It was one of those lovely old bookstores that have pretty much disappeared along with the dodo and saying “Joe and me” rather than “me and Joe.” I’d just dropped out of High School and I needed the work. It looked better than bagging groceries. And, and, I can’t say how lucky I was to get that particular job. While my prospects weren’t very good, I had one... Read more

Gary Snyder Tuesday, March 167:30 PMActon Boxborough Regional High School Auditorium36 Charter RoadActon Free Admission Please join us for a special night with a reading by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gary Snyder. Snyder is the author of sixteen books of poetry and prose, including The Gary Snyder Reader (1952-1998) (Counterpoint Press, 1999); Mountains and Rivers Without End (1997); No Nature: New and Selected Poems (1993), which was a finalist for the National Book Award; The Practice of the Wild (1990);... Read more

LEGENDS OF THE DRUNKEN MASTERS Intoxication and the Spiritual Life James Ishmael Ford 28 February 2010 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text Look at the caravan, O guide, all the camels are lined up drunkKing drunk, teacher drunk, friend drunk, all else drunkO Gardener, the musician’s thunder brought forth the cloud of the wine-bearerGarden drunk, meadow drunk, rose drunk and thorn drunkO revolving skies how many times upon this path are wayfarerDust drunk, water drunk, wind drunk, fire drunkThe... Read more