A SONG OF INTERDEPENDENCE A Celebration of Communion for Unitarian Universalists Preface For nearly three hundred years it has been the continuous tradition of the First Unitarian Church of Providence to observe several times a year the ancient rite of Communion. A number of liturgies have been employed over the years. This Unitarian Universalist communion service was compiled and edited by the Reverend James Ishmael Ford, 17th minister of the congregation. The sources upon which this service is based are... Read more

An old friend offered up this little story about the remarkable Zen master, Layman P’ang, his equally awake wife, and their equally wakeful daughter (in Ruth Fuller Sasaki’s translation), each describing the same moment. Layman P’ang ‘was sitting in his thatched cottage one day. “Difficult, difficult, difficult,” he suddenly exclaimed, “like trying to scatter ten measures of sesame seed all over a tree!” “Easy, easy, easy,” returned Mrs P’ang, “just like touching your feet to the ground when you get... Read more

Today is Peter Cook’sbirthday. Wikipedia says of him “Cook is universally acknowledged as the main influence on British comedians who followed him from amateur dramatic clubs of British universities to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and then to the radio and television. On his death some critics choose to see Cook’s life as tragic, in so far as the brilliance of his youth had not been sustained in his later years. However, Cook himself always maintained that he had no ambitions... Read more

As I reflect on the evolution of Universalism in the West I find something rich and exciting. It all, of course, starts with the peculiarities of religion in the West and the whole idea of a soul as something intertwined for a while with the body but is essentially not of the body, and with death goes on to something. Again, in the West, mainly within Christianity and Islam there’s a judgement day based certainly for the mainstream of Christianity... Read more

There aren’t many. But here are two. We can’t look at one of our children without understanding that assertion about the precious individual. Whoever that infant might become, nearly all of us cannot look at her or him and not feel some hint of recognition of preciousness, of possibility, of hope. And, there is, within my experience, no way to avoid the fact we are all related, every blessed one of us, made of the same stuff, blood of each... Read more

Gene Reeves is arguably the foremost Unitarian Universalist Buddhist, a small but significant band walking a path informed fully by East and West. He has doctorates from Boston University and Emory. While his work has been mostly in the academy he is also an ordained UU minister. Among his many publications he is a translator of the Lotus Sutra (Wisdom Publications, 2008), the author of Stories of the Lotus Sutra (Wisdom Publications, 2010) and Editor of A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays... Read more

There’s an old saw among the clergy. If you want a good funeral, die young. Of course there are exceptions, and yesterday my colleague Cathy our Religious Educator and I drove up to the First Parish in Bedford, MA, where we joined an overflow crowd gathered to remember and celebrate the life of someone who had died at the age of ninety-four. Jack Mendelsohn was born in Cambridge, MA, in 1918. He had a BA from Boston University, and a... Read more

THUS THE TEACHING OF THIS CHURCH BORE FRUIT IN THE SERVICE OF THE NATION A Sermon James Ishmael Ford 11 November 2012 Text Shiloh: A requiem Skimming lightly, wheeling still, The swallows fly low Over the field in clouded days, The forest-field of Shiloh— Over the field where April rain Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain Through the pause of night That followed the Sunday fight Around the church of Shiloh— The church so lone, the log-built one, That... Read more

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I’ve found a new blogger I like. Well, I found him a while ago, but I find I keep dipping into his posts. He’s a Christian thinker, by my best read an anarcho-pacifist of some sort. So, what’s not to like, one might ask? Well, he casually throws around the term the “empire” to mean not just America and American culture, but near as I can tell for life in this world where harsh choices are the stuff of life.... Read more