I have a couple of English Facebook friends so I’ve been aware that a popular television show called, I think, Gearheads, I think about cars has had some major changes of personnel. Some scandal or other. I didn’t pay close attention. Until I just saw that Stephen Fry is coming aboard as host. But then one of my English Facebook friends, or maybe its a friend of a friend made a snide comment about how he has a slew of... Read more

It was on this day in 1612 that Bartholomew Legate was burned at the stake in Smithfield, England. Three weeks later Edward Wightman would be the last person executed for heresy in England. Legate is of interest to me for several reasons, not least of which was the heresy for which he suffered was socinianism, that is believing and preaching the natural humanity of Jesus. Bartholomew and his brother Thomas were born into a merchant family specializing in cloth. Their... Read more

Another under appreciated saint due to having to share the date with a super saint, is St Gertrude of Nivelles, whose feast is today, the 17th of March. Gertrude was a seventh century nun and abbess, and has become the patron of gardeners and most importantly of cats. Be sure to scratch a cat’s ears in her honor… Read more

Yes, this is St Patrick’s Day. And fond wishes for the Irish in us all. But also other things have happened on the 17th of March. One of which was on this day in 1919, when Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama. Nat King Cole was an American treasure, whose brief, he died at the age of 45, walk on the stage of life was flooded with light. So, a tip of the hat, or if one prefers,... Read more

THE PATH OF MERCY A Meditation on the Beatitudes 15 March 2015 James Ishmael Ford First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they... Read more

Last night, traditionally at midnight, with the rite of Denbo, I completed the process of giving Jay Rinsen Weik Dharma transmission. It was a private ceremony held at the Boundless Way Temple in Worcester witnessed by roshis Melissa Myozen Blacker and David Rynick. Sensei Weik is now a fully authorized priest and teacher within the Soto stream of Zen Buddhism. May he and his sangha at the Great Heartland Zen Buddhist Temple in Toledo flourish as a beacon of the... Read more

It’s Pi Day! (And Albert Einstein’s Birthday!) A day for all serious geeks, and wannabes, to party hard! Read more

Western humanism comes to us from Europe, and really begins in the Renaissance, although it rises by looking to classical antiquity, particularly Greece. This Renaissance humanism combined a celebration of the individual with a close observation of the world around us. And it turns out that is amazingly powerful. This humanism, in fact, shattered the world that had been before. Instead of our world being the center of the cosmos, we found the Earth is a small rocky planet, spinning... Read more

No, not the movie. The day. Like today. According to my go to first check (and, no, not my last stop when I want to be sure…), Wikipedia, most scholars say this is a superstition of relatively recent origin, like the nineteenth century. While some like to find origins in the Middle Ages apparently there’s little to support this assertion. It doesn’t get big ’till the twentieth century… On the other hand various cultures have their bad luck days, too.... Read more

Henry Bergh died on this day in 1888. If Unitarian Universalists were just a tad more Christian in our current incarnation, I’d suggest this day be a feast in his honor. Given our givens, probably we should be celebrating his birthday, August 21st. Whatever, his life should be marked out as special and special in a spiritual sense. He was the son of a shipbuilder and a successful one. He attended Columbia University although he left without taking a degree.... Read more