WE ARE NOT IT. BUT IN TRUTH. IT IS US. IT IS YOU. IT IS ME. James Ishmael Ford A Facebook friend invited people to share their favorite brief quote from scriptures. Something that touches the heart deeply. While he is a Christian minister, he explicitly made sure the invitation extended to the wider company of faiths. He was reaching for sayings that were deeper into the bones than memorized. For him it was “For God so... Read more

      Many of my friends look askance at how the Buddhist practice of mindfulness is being packaged and sold as a nostrum for much of what ills. Others are deeply concerned how Hinduism’s yoga through a fascinating history of mutual appropriation and adaptation has finally been taken over by gyms. There are too many examples of how the word Zen is coopted to sell products to list. Let’s just say from deodorant to booze, it is long… Bewailing... Read more

        The incomparable Evelyn Underhill was born on this day, the 6th of December, 1875, in Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands, England. Her father Sir Arthur Underhill was a successful barrister with a practice in London. Her mother, Lucy, was the daughter of a justice of the peace. An only child, Evelyn was mostly educated at home, and then at King’s College for Women, in London. There she read history and botany. Her first book featuring light... Read more

    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