Today the church is closed down due to the snow storm raging across New England. We’ve also canceled this evening’s Zen meditation. Jan is in Long Beach working on the condo, while auntie, the cats and I are sitting together to watch the 1993 film Groundhog Day. A perfect way to spend February 2nd. (Breaking news: it has been announced here in the more or less real world Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning…) Groundhog day is a delightful... Read more

Thomas Merton was born on this day in 1915. One hundred years, today… While it is conventional among Christian churches to acknowledge their holy ones on the day of their death, when they go on to the heavenly reward, me, I vastly prefer acknowledging their birth. After all it is the dawn of something, and with Merton, one can argue he symbolizes a special birth, of a new era of interfaith dialogue, and more. His engagement with the spiritually mature... Read more

It was on this day in 1948 that Mohandas Gandhi, called the Mahatma, the great heart was assassinated. Someone worth recalling at any time, but these days perhaps we need to remember him even more… I recall when Jan & I went to see the movie Gandhi that it was an international affair. For reasons I no longer recall there were in particular a lot of Indian nationals at the screening. But, at least in my memory, the world was... Read more

Twas on this day in 1845 that “the Raven” is published in New York’s Evening Mirror… Read more

Turns out that the antiquarian Horace Walpole coined the word “serendipity. It is first found in a letter dated 28 January in 1754 that he sent to the American politician and education reformer Horace Mann. Mann, as anyone who follows my blog knows, was also a fervent Unitarian and a founder of the First Unitarian Society in Newton, where I served as minister for a bunch of years. The pleasant coincidences just pile up… Read more

Maurice Dollison Jr was born on this day in 1941. He may be better known as Cash McCall. And best known for When You Wake Up… Happy birthday, Cash! Read more

Okay, I’m pretty relentlessly a fan of the scientific method as it has evolved over the years. I really like what can be found in double blind testing. Certainly by testing claims about what presents, decisions can be made that are vastly more likely to be useful than not. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb saying this. Anything that appears in the world is subject to such testing. Everything. Also all the “truths” we find through this... Read more

It was on this day in 1756 that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arrived on this planet. Read more

I am honored to be able to announce that on the evening of January 23rd, 2015, in the ancient and ever renewed ceremony of Inka Shomei I passed on the Dharma as I received it from John Tarrant, who himself received it from Robert Aitken, who in turn received it from Koun Yamada, in continuing succession back to the mists of history and myth of our Zen way. Dosho Roshi was already a successor to the great Dainin Katagiri. This... Read more

THE GREAT WAY OF LIBERAL RELIGION A Meditation on Francis David, George Biandrata, & King John Sigismund James Ishmael Ford First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text In this world there have always been many opinions about faith and salvation. You need not think alike to love alike. There must be knowledge in faith also. Sanctified reason is the lantern of faith. Religious reform can never be all at once, but gradually step by step. If they offer something better,... Read more