May the day be all treats and no tricks… Read more

Jan is a great fan of David Mitchell and really hoped to see the film adaptation of his Cloud Atlas from before it came out. The film was written and directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer. While we seem just too rarely to get out to movies, I have to admit I appreciate doing so when we do. Usually. This definitely fit into the glad we went category. It has been met with mixed reviews, although I... Read more

Got nothing to add… Read more

Yesterday was a long day. First, I drove the hour and a half out to Brewster for a district clergy workshop on clergy sexual malpractice. An informative if not completely fun time. Then, seeing how it ended in time to shoot to Watertown and pick Jan up, giving us some rare time together, even if it was just for a long ride back to Rhode Island, I did it. Apparently I wasn’t thinking as deeply as I should. I had... Read more

Authorization, Ordination, and Transmission Spiritual Leadership Within the Boundless Way Zen Community Josh Munen Bartok Melissa Myzoen Blacker James Myoun Ford David DaeAn Rynick Guiding Teachers Council, Boundless Way Zen The Zen way is about awakening. The shape and various disciplines of the Zen way are all upaya (skillful means), helping us to see through self and other and to find lives of liberation for ourselves and for all beings. The Zen school has developed some powerful means to assist... Read more

IN PRAISE OF POTLUCKS A Meditation on Spiritual Community A Sermon by James Ishmael Ford 21 October 2012 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text Then shall the good teacher say unto them, “Come, you blessed ones, inherit that place prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was hungred, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in, naked, and you clothed me:... Read more

Tricycle editors Alex Caring-Lobel & Emma Varaloucas grilled me a bit and put the results up at Tricycle’s blog. For instance they asked, “You grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist family. How did that upbringing shape the way you approached other religions, like Sufism and Zen Buddhism, later in life?” To which I responded, “When my grandmother died, for complex reasons, including the fact that her church had a brand new minister, I was asked to deliver her eulogy. It... Read more

Another offering from the brilliant Lucas Sabean… Read more

Today in 1859 John Brown led a small band in a raid on Harpers Ferry. The group consisted of twenty-one men, including three free African Americans, one freed slave and a fugitive slave, hoped to spark a conflagration that would consume slavery and burn it from the face of the earth. It would take a while, but it happened… And, so, many call this abortive raid the first day of the Civil War. I find myself haunted by this event.... Read more

On this day in 1384, Jadwiga was crowned king of Poland. Even though a king rather than a queen, the Roman Catholic church has seen fit to canonize her as the patron saint of queens. And I for one am glad to know they have one… (And speaking of the ups and downs of various royals, I see that on this day in 1793 Marie Antoinette lost her head…) Read more