WHAT DO YOU SAY AFTER YOU RUN OUT OF SERMONS ON LOVE? The Vision of the Liberal Church James Ishmael Ford When two individuals meet, so do two private worlds. None of our private worlds is big enough for us to live a wholesome life in. We need the wider world of joy and wonder, of purpose and venture, of toil and tears. What are we, any of us, but strangers and sojourners forlornly wandering through the nighttime,... Read more

  King’s Chapel and its Prayer Book John Harcourt Members of Saint John’s visiting Boston may have discovered King’s Chapel on Tremont Street at the foot of Beacon Hill. Those who have ventured inside for a service may have been vaguely disconcerted. The text in their hands was entitled The Book of Common Prayer; its format and much of the language would have seemed familiar enough. But something seemed odd about it all. And indeed it might King’s Chapel uses... Read more

      I’ve just learned that Sister Elaine MacInnis, Catholic nun and Zen master died yesterday, November 29th, 2022. If I did the calculations correctly, she was 98 years old. A number of years ago I served on the membership committee of the American Zen Teachers Association. It had been formed largely out of a list of names compiled by some of that second generation of Zen teachers including Bernie Glassman and Mel Weitsman. As the organization grew, we... Read more

        There is a tradition. It tells us one of Jesus’ apostles, Thomas, who we know as the Doubter, carried the message of Jesus all the way to India. There he found responsive hearts on the Malabar coast, and a small community began to flourish. Another tradition says that a few centuries later the king of the area, Abenner was told by astrologers that his newborn son Josaphat would one day set aside kingship and become an... Read more

      The Motley Bodhisattva by John Ching Hsiung Wu (I was taken with this brief article in John Wu’s Golden Age of Zen. It offers a taste of the teacher Fudaishi. He is credited with the invention (some articles make sure we understand this is highly unlikely) of a library table for ease of access to the Tripitaka. In Buddhist mythology he becomes the patron and protector of libraries. He was a householder practitioner and a master of... Read more

        Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty, the Only Being, United with all the Illuminated Souls, Who form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance. When I lived in the Zen monastery in Oakland, I served on the jisha team responsible among other things for hosting guests. So, no surprise when the roshi told me we were getting a VIP visitor. His name was Samuel Lewis, and while he was mostly... Read more

      THE GOOSE IN THE BOTTLE Exploring the Possibilities of Interspiritual Dialogue A Sermon delivered at the First Congregational Church of Long Beach United Church of Christ 20 November 2022 James Ishmael Ford First, thank you so much for welcoming me into your community. If you don’t know we Unitarian Universalists and especially the Congregationalist roots of the United Church of Christ share a history. And even today you might imagine a Venn diagram for the UCC and... Read more

    It was on this day, the 19th of November, at the dedication of a graveyard at Gettysburg, after the keynote speaker the remarkable Unitarian clergyman Reverend Edward Evertt held forth for two hours; that President Abraham Lincoln stood and spoke two hundred and eighty five words… Read more