I gather this clip is from a 1984 episode of the Today Show. Contains some timeless wisdom, if you ask me. Read more

This brief interview was conducted with the Reverend James Ishmael Ford by a student at a Catholic college for a World’s Religions course. It took place in the minister’s office at the First Unitarian Church of Providence. Part one Part two Read more

After a notorious career, outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in San Vicente, Bolivia on this day in 1908. Reports of sightings after that have helped to perpetuate a half life in the imaginations of adolescents of all ages & with that a myth is born… (couldn’t find a suitable version of the concluding scene on Youtube, so this will have to do) Read more

ALL BEINGS A Dharma talk Benevolent Street Sangha Boundless Way Zen November 4, 2013 Jan Seymour-Ford Recently I’ve been fostering a heretical thought: What’s so good about independence? For about 20 years I’ve worked in fields that support the rights and dignity of people with disabilities, so this really is kind of a heretical thought. I’ll come back to this. We enshrine independence in U.S. culture. What IS good about it? Well, it stimulates people to get things done. What’s... Read more

The Seikilos Epitaph, dating from somewhere in the vicinity of the first century is the world’s oldest surviving complete musical composition, both words and music, in this case, an ancient Greek notation system. While you live, shine Have no grief at all Life exists only for a short while And time demands its toll Read more

GREAT CLOUDS OF WITNESSES A Hymn of the New Universalism James Ishmael Ford 3 November 2013 Preached at the Installation of The Reverend Christana Wille McKnight As the 32nd Minister of The First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist Taunton, Massachusetts Text A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness.... Read more

The following are a couple of paragraphs cut from today’s sermon. Thought it stood, pretty well, on its own… We religious liberals are notoriously hard to pin down. For much of the twentieth century Unitarian Universalists heavily marked by a naturalistic humanism and the scientific spirit, it was said of us that we believed in one God, at most. In recent decades with the rise of a new spirituality, what I think is best called a New Universalism that line... Read more

On this day in 1611 Shakespeare’s the Tempest played for the first time at the Whitehall Palace in London… Some say his masterwork. Whatever, certainly worth recalling on this feast of all saints… Read more

Today is Halloween. It is also the 496th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his famous ninety-five theses on the door of Wittenberg church. In honor of the occasion I thought I’d pin five theses to the cork board in my kitchen.. 1) God isn’t a person. Get over it. There’s no need to project your image onto the sky. In fact it gets in the way. Rather, if you want to find the divine, open your eyes and open your... Read more

On this day when many in my part of the world are thinking strong thoughts about the possibility of winning the World Series at Fenway Park for the first time since, I believe, 1918. And, yes, in other parts of the country those strong thoughts are being pointed at another conclusion, there’s something for us all to pause and notice. This is the day in 1945 when Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signed that contract with the Brooklyn... Read more