As it happens today is Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s eighty-sixth birthday. Not one of those days normally celebrated. But, that acknowledged, a day I hope we will take note of. And a life, I for one, hope is extended for years to come… Joan Ruth Bader was born on this day, the 15th of March, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the second child and second daughter of Nathan & Celia Ginsburg. Her father was a... Read more
A Celebration of Communion for Unitarian Universalists & Other Religious Liberals Preface Since first celebrated for Maundy Thursday in 1995, versions of this service have been used within Unitarian Universalist communities across the North American continent. All are welcome to adapt it and use for their communities. Acknowledgements are appreciated. The sources upon which this service are based are many and varied. But grateful acknowledgment must be given especially to the Anglican liturgical scholars Dom Gregory Dix and... Read more
Jean Louis Kerouac, or maybe it was Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac was born to a French-Canadian family in Lowell, Massachusetts, on this day, the 12th of March, in 1922. Of course, we know him as Jack Kerouac. The Wikipedia article on Kerouac gives us a pretty good summation of the person and his legacy. “He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is... Read more
It was on this day, the 11th of March, in 1984 that Rinzai Zen master Soen Nakagawa died at Ryutakuji monastery in Japan. I shared this last year. Felt appropriate to offer it again. In my study of Zen come West, Zen Master Who? I wrote about him. Through his regular visits, his Dharma heirs, and others he taught, Soen Nakagawa would become one of the most important figures shaping a Western understanding of Rinzai... Read more
I was recently a bystander on a Facebook thread about being Buddhist and Christian. My name was raised as an example of someone, how shall we say, “spiritually fluid.” A lovely term coined by Duane Bidwell, a professor at Claremont School of Theology, Presbyterian minister, and long time Buddhist practitioner. I raised my usual objection that being a Unitarian Universalist is not (necessarily) being a Christian. And that, me, while I am a rationalist and naturalist (common characteristics... Read more
I wrote this a couple of years ago. I think it worth sharing again. Tommy Dorsey, Jr, was born on the 7th of March, 1933, in Santa Barbara. The youngest of ten, he was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. He dropped out of college and joined the Navy, only to be discharged when discovered in a relationship with another male sailor. Tommy wound up in San Francisco where he became a drag queen, and an... Read more
Maurine Stuart was born on this day, the 3rd of March, 1922. I wrote of her in my book Zen Master Who: Maurine Stuart, one of the first female Zen masters in America, was also one of the first to give Zen a Western face. Maurine was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1922. In 1949 she received a music scholarship to study in Paris with renowned conductor Nadia Boulanger, who would later become the first woman to conduct a... Read more
Horace famously wrote “Carpe diem, quad minimum credula postero.” Which translates roughly as Seize the day, don’t put faith in tomorrow.” And, well… I have just done an astonishingly silly thing. I have accepted a ministry. On April 1st I will become the part-time minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim. At the very same time we are launching an expanded range of practice and study opportunities for our Orange County branch of the Empty Moon Zen... Read more
In Quest of an American Zen Reflections as the Empty Moon Zen Network creates a sangha in Anaheim, California James Myoun Ford At the beginning of April, our Empty Moon sanghas currently meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach and the Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church in Costa Mesa will consolidate as a single group, meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim, California. As part of this consolidation and move, I will be assuming responsibility... Read more
ALL BEINGS, ONE BODY: A TRUE HISTORY OF UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM A Sermon delivered at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles On the 24th of February, 2019 James Ishmael Ford 24 February 2019 I’m pretty sure the first time that Unitarian Universalism floated to consciousness for me was pushing on forty years ago when I was working at Wahrenbrock’s Book House in San Diego. It was one of those great bookstores of what is becoming a bygone... Read more
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