THE LIFE OF OUR CHURCH A Status Report Annual Meeting First Unitarian Church of Providence 22 April 2012 We are tailing in on the end of our two hundred and ninety second year as a religious community. Over these years we have enjoyed good times and have suffered bad times, but throughout this church has been a beacon of light and hope for ourselves, for our families, and for our larger community. We are also coming in on the end... Read more

Word to the wise! If you order If You’re Lucky, Your Hear Will Break now you can get a forty six percent discount off the cover price. $9.08 as opposed to $16.95. Advance words on If You’re Lucky, Your Heart Will Break include: “A book that sparkles with the complexities of humanity, ethical wisdom, and love.” Grace Schierson, PhD, Zen teacher and author of Zen Women. “A must-read addition to the growing literature on Western Zen – with an engaging... Read more

It is hard to believe how much has happened within our Boundless Way Zen project since we first began what would become this community of practice about a dozen years ago. We can now announce the beginning of the Greater Boston Zen Center, our first group with a dedicated space in the Boston area. The grand opening will be on Tuesday evening, May the 15th, 2012. My senior student Josh Bartok is the guiding teacher, and will in due course... Read more

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On Facebook a friend noted how the Rockford files was being made a movie. As an aside he mentioned seeing them in reruns in his youth. I offered how I saw them in the first run. Then I added how I saw Maverick in the first run. Then I added how I saw Crusader Rabbit in the first run. Okay, they never made it to reruns, but they did morph into Rocky & Bullwinkle. They’re so old they were as... Read more

I was listening to a story on Christian Fundamentalism in which one minister expressed the definitive explanation of the famous Jesus parable of the Workers in the Vinyard, a parable that exists only in the Gospel According to Matthew, Chapter twenty, verses one through sixteen. For those who forget these things, here’s how it goes in the good old King James version. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early... Read more

A TRUE FAITH & VIRTUE A Reflection on Theophilus Lindsey & the Origins of Rational Religion James Ishmael Ford 15 April 2012 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text The Brain—is wider than the Sky— For—put them side by side— The one the other will contain With ease—and You—beside— The Brain is deeper than the sea— For—hold them—Blue to Blue— The one the other will absorb— As Sponges—Buckets—do— The Brain is just the weight of God— For—Heft them—Pound for Pound—... Read more

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(Available at Amazon at a pre-publication deep discount!) I was visiting with a friend who is a social media expert and somehow the subject of my forthcoming book came up. It does, a lot, my friends have noted… I’ve washed through the very last time the final, final version of If You’re Lucky Your Heart Will Break: Field Notes from a Zen Life. It’s very exciting. I’ve been told all that remains is the back cover. And when that’s done... Read more

On this day in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act into law. It was a major follow up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Read more