My district clergy retreat is winding down. Our program was driven by a curriculum called “Whose Are We?” I admit I was grumpy going into it. The assumed theism (oh, no, you don’t have to assume a deity, perhaps your larger is the community…) annoyed me no end. But the deal for me in these things is as colleagues when called together we show up. I don’t have to be happy. I just have to be there. Okay, and maybe... Read more

Yesterday on Facebook in response to the killing of Osama bin Ladin, I made a statement about our radical interdependence and at the same time the sadness of our human condition. I prefaced that with an observation that Mr bin Ladin was a bad man. And that I experienced a lifting of my heart at hearing of his death. I used the word “glad.” Some people objected to these two things. One commentator suggested I should no longer teach the... Read more

Channing Gray writes at today’s Providence Journal: “When Providence’s First Unitarian Church went looking for a new minister three years ago, 40 percent of the congregation when surveyed expressed an interest in Buddhism. “So it’s no surprise that the man hired for the job, The Rev. James Ishmael Ford, is not only a Unitarian Universalist minister but a Zen Buddhist priest, and that there are now a couple of Buddhist meditation groups offered at the church that are open to... Read more

A HYMN TO THE MOTHER A Case for A Spiritual Environmentalism James Ishmael Ford 1 May 2011 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text For I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one. I am the whore and the holy one. I am the wife and the virgin. I am the mother and the daughter. I am the silence that is incomprehensible and the idea whose remembrance is frequent. I am the... Read more

The Dedication of the Boundless Way Zen Buddhist Temple in Worcester Diane Fitzgerald, President, Leadership Council In 2005, the Zen Community of Boston and the Worcester Zen Community joined together to create Boundless Way Zen. Multiple practice centers in Massachusetts and later in Rhode Island and Connecticut formed a network of sanghas supported by our Guiding Teachers, James Ishmael Ford, Melissa Myozen Blacker and David Dae An Rynick. This open and flexible community of practitioners would come together for multi-day... Read more

Not from the abbey, silly… I had no intention of witnessing this event. We’re at home in Pawtucket, and were awake at our ordinary time, made breakfast and sat down together, turning on our local news. Always concerned with the weather situation… Only to tune in as Ms Middleton was escorted down the long aisle of Westminster Abbey. I’ve got to say the live trees were a nice touch. We didn’t look for another channel. Now, I’m an American. That... Read more

According to Wikipedia on this day in 1253, “Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for the very first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.” Not personally my cup of dharma. However his school is the foremost of the Lotus Sutra schools and has had considerable influence in the shaping of Buddhism in the West, particularly among people of color and the working classes. Read more

Emily Dickinson sings to us Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune–without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I’ve heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me. In general a Zen Buddhist might warn... Read more

IT’S ALL ABOUT HOPE Easter Meditations James Ishmael Ford Cathy Seggel 24 April 2011 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text I love Jesus, who said to us:heaven and earth will pass away.When heaven and earth have passed away,my word will still remain.What was your word, Jesus?Love? Forgiveness? Affection?All your words wereone word: Wakeup. Antonio Machado, translated by Robert Bly James Allow me to put an end to any speculation on the matter. There is no part of winter I... Read more

God is dead… What was is gone. What will be, who knows? Right now, it’s closing time… Read more