I see that today would have been Isaac Bonewits‘ sixty-fourth birthday. As he was a regular customer at Moe’s Books in Berkeley at the time I was working there, and there were intersections in our interests, we would talk on occasion. Isaac was a weedy guy, as I recall on the nervous side. Smart as whip. I liked him. He invited me to a party, which I attended for fifteen or twenty minutes, but he was the only person I... Read more

Jalaladin Muhammad Balkhi, the wondrous Jalaladin Rumi was born on this day in 1207. In 2007 he was celebrated as America’s most beloved poet. Probably was true. And if not, should have been… A theologian and mystic he was the founder of the Mevlevi Sufi Order. But, he is best known to us as a poet of love and mystery. A small aside. Of late Rumi’s most popular presenter in North America Coleman Barks has been dragged over the coals... Read more

LIFE’S PILGRIMAGE A Meditation on a Once and Future Spiritual Discipline 29 September 2013 James Ishmael Ford Senior Minister First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text What is rooted is easy to nourish. What is recent is easy to correct. What is brittle is easy to break. What is small is easy to scatter. Prevent trouble before it arises. Put things in order before they exist. The giant pine tree grows from a tiny sprout. The journey of a thousand... Read more

One of the interesting and for once positive unintended consequences of a monumental event like the British conquest of India, was how in their need for administrators, various brilliant young (mostly) men were launched into an alien culture with, as it turned out, a lot of time on their hands. One such was William Jones, who was born on this day in 1746. I gather from the Wikipedia article he is not in fact the first person to notice a... Read more

A friend of a friend on Facebook posted a story from a United Church of Christ regional conference site, called the “Power of God.” The story goes like this. “There is a story of Marie, a devoted church member, who was told, by her doctors that she had a tumor which had to be removed as soon as possible because it presented a life-threatening situation. Marie had strong faith and believed in the power of prayer. She went home and... Read more

Having heard there might be a serious business opportunity in England for a bright and energetic young man, William (the Bastard) and a few friends make a capital investment in some boats and swords and set sail from the mouth of the Somme on this day in 1066. Capitalism without all those pesky regulations or regulators. Ah, the good old days… Read more

In the Anglican church calendar today is the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, commemorating an apparition of Mary, Jesus’ mother, to an English noblewoman at the dawn of the eleventh century. Me, I’ve always liked appearances of Mary, who I’ve noted elsewhere is flat out my favorite goddess. This particular feast represents a significant revival of pilgrimage within the Anglican church, a spiritual practice I heartily approve of. (For those hoping for a small sign of approval…) This particular... Read more

On this day in 1949… Read more

PLUNGING INTO THE UNKNOWN How to be a Peacemaker in a World Torn by Strife 22 September 2013 James Ishmael Ford Senior Minister First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island A Brief Meditation In the King James’ version of the Gospel According to Matthew we are told, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” In more modern translations the text is rendered more literally from the original Greek, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall... Read more

I have the privilege of serving, depending upon who is counting, as the sixteenth senior minister or maybe the seventeenth, of the First Unitarian Church of Providence. It was a delight to have it pointed out that one of my predecessors, the seventh, or, by some reckoning, the eighth minister of our congregation, the Reverend Arthur May Knapp led a, perhaps unique, missionary venture to Japan. First, the Unitarians were invited by the Japanese as what the Japanese seemed to... Read more