I was quite moved when I saw this photograph of Susan B Anthony’s gravesite and all those “I voted” stickers on her gravestone. We all owe her and those others over the many years who suffered terribly to gain this right. I was just reading some of the analysis of Tuesday election and how the majority of voters were white men. Last I looked that wasn’t what America looks like. So, why is that what the voters look like? I’m... Read more
Of course today is Fireworks Night in Great Britain, also called Guy Fawkes Day or Night. The official holiday celebrates the thwarting of a plot to kill king and parliament. Others, those who are not particularly positively inclined to their governments, celebrate the day in honor of rebellion itself. Inspired by the film V for Vendetta the Guy Fawkes mask was adopted first by the hacktivist group Anonymous, and later by the American Occupy Movement and has become ubiquitous around... Read more
Okay, I’m not afraid of all Christians. Some even, as people like to say, are my best friends. And I mean it… But. I just saw my first Christmas advertisement on television. And it sets me to thinking. Yes, never a good thing. But now that Halloween is over and we are quickly skipping over Thanksgiving and rushing madly into the Christmas season I find myself thinking of the seasonal outrage of so many of those in the majority with... Read more
(Editors’ Note: This article is part of the Patheos Public Square on Politics in the Pulpit. Read other perspectives here.) “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…” The point here is not to protect the state from the church, but to protect the many churches from the state, to prevent co-option of one religion into the state. This is often missed in the contemporary dialogue,... Read more
ONCE I WAS A SKELETON A Homily for Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls James Ishmael Ford 2 November 2014 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island For us, as children, mostly, of the west, we have inherited the observation of this turning of our planet between autumn and winter within an amazing collection of opportunities to notice. But these days it’s mostly that triple holiday of Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls. We Unitarian Universalists tend to join them into... Read more
Jim Austin the cognitive scientist and Zen practitioner was passing through Providence on his way to one of the Dalai Lama’s brain science conferences to make a presentation. He is a Brown alum, his daughter lives in the vicinity and he’s both an old friend and a friend of our sangha. So, instead of our usual Monday evening sit this week, we set up a lecture. (The Unitarians who love a good conversation about meditation came in droves.) Jim made... Read more
A SPIRITUALITY FOR THE BARELY RELIGIOUS A Meditation on the Currents of a New Humanism James Ishmael Ford 26 October 2014 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text Blessed are the man and the woman Who have grown beyond their greed And have put an end to their hatred And no longer nourish illusions. But they delight in the way things are And keep their hearts open, day and night. They are like trees planted near flowing rivers, Which bear... Read more
Neurologist, researcher, and Zen practitioner, James Austin, MD, will be speaking at the First Unitarian Church of Providence this Monday evening. Professor Austin is perhaps best known as the author of the award winning Zen and the Brain (MIT Press, 1998). His most recent work is Zen Brain Horizons: Toward a Living Zen. Come for this illuminating, perhaps we should say enlightening talk on the relationship between brain research and Zen practice by a leading scholar and long time practitioner... Read more
It was on this day in 1850 that the first National Women’s Rights Convention gathered in Worcester, Massachusetts. Two years earlier Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others had organized a gathering at Seneca Falls, in the Fingerlakes region of upstate New York. At that gathering they agreed there should be a regular gathering focusing on the issues of women’s rights, with a particular emphasis on obtaining full voting rights. The organizers will forever be remembered as part of the... Read more
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