In 2007 the United Nations designated today, the 2nd of October, as an International Day of Non-Violence. They chose Mohandas Gandhi’s birthday, observed in India as Gandhi Jayanti. Of course it comes a day after the most recent mass shooting here in America, this time at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon. We human beings are in some ways quite resilient. We bounce back, and we go forward. Evolution favors large numbers not individuals. And that resilience has put us... Read more

It was on this day in 1910 that Bonnie Elizabeth Parker came into the world. It would be a brief and violent run… Read more

(The SZBA board, except for Koun Franz, pictured in inset, who met via Zoom. From left to right, James Ford, Mary Mocine, Daishin McCabe, Taihau Priest, Ryushin Hart, Alan Senauke, Domyo Burke, and Tenku Ruff) Throughout the year the Board for the Soto Zen Buddhist Association gathers by video conference. Once a year there is a face to face meeting. On alternative years it takes place in conjunction with the bi-annual meeting of the Association at one of the large... Read more

The wreck of the Old 97 took place on this day in 1903. Read more

The Anglican communion marks today as a feast in honor of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes. The English speaking world owes him honor as one of the principals among the forty-seven scholars who proved a committee could in fact produce a literary masterpiece, what we now call the King James Bible. I have friends who cast about earnestly looking for evidences of God’s hand. Something, I fear, not often in evidence. However, thinking of forty-seven scholars producing something for the ages comes... Read more

I must admit I’ve not devoted my full attention to the pope’s visit to the United States. I find him an attractive figure, and particularly am impressed with his devotion to the poor, and appreciate his challenge to unfettered capitalism and his call to religious attention to the ecological crisis. However, while he has moved the issues to the back burner and has provided a more compassionate face to their enforcement, he has not moved from the church’s Medieval understanding... Read more

The author of numerous cultural commentary “Yogiisms,” such as “It ain’t over till it’s over” and “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” and almost incidentally a baseball player and coach, came to that famous fork in the road and took it. He died on Tuesday. He was ninety years old. A loss for all of us… Read more

SPIRITUALITY AFTER GOD: A TERRIBLE AND BEAUTIFUL PRESENCE A Few Words on Why I Don’t Believe What I Don’t, and Why I Believe What I Do James Ishmael Ford In a recent blog posting I celebrated a singular Anglican thinker, but quickly digressed into a rumination on how I find the premises upon which the Christian churches are founded to be past unlikely. I continued to say there could easily be a new church not based in theism, but elsewhere.... Read more

Sunday evening as Jan and I were driving along Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach (in California for those who live near other Long Beaches) we noticed the Mary shrine attached to the Sagely Monastery was particularly lovely, with flowers and candles already lit and maybe half a dozen people there offering prayers. It was all quite wonderful. I recall the first time we drove by that corner of Ocean and Redondo and saw what appeared to be a couple who... Read more

THE BOOK OF JONAH: A Rosh Hashanah Meditation James Ishmael Ford 20 September 2015 Pacific Unitarian Church Rancho Palos Verdes, California A Story Now God said to Jonah, “Arise, go to Los Angeles, that great city, and cry against their wickedness.” But instead Jonah rose up to flee to Seattle and went and found a ship. God sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest, so that the ship was about to be broken... Read more