A MEMO TO THE WORSHIP COMMITTEE A Background Document James Ishmael Ford Twenty years ago when I was, as we say in my trade, in search for my first pulpit, I wrote a series of essays about my understanding of some crucial aspects of church life. I am now serving the fourth congregation in my ministerial career. While one should never say never, I do not expect to be in formal search for a call again. Some of what this... Read more

GET ME TO THE CHURCH ON TIME A Religious Call for Marriage Equality A Sermon by James Ishmael Ford 26 September 2010 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text On the 23rd of April 2010, our congregation voted its third covenant since our first gathering together as a congregation in 1720. It reads: We, the members of the First Unitarian Church of Providence, with respect for the worth and dignity of each person, with wonder at the light we know... Read more

I see that today is Merriam-Webster’s birthday. I have vivid memories of the second edition of that dictionary. Throughout my childhood my family was on the move, my father either slipping out of town ahead of trouble, or toward some imagined better place, we never lived anywhere for two years running, I never attended a school two years in a row. But among the very few constants was that in every town there was a library. I lived in libraries.... Read more

I guess it is ask and you receive. Sometimes, anyway… In my immediately preceding post I bemoaned how I could not find the viral happy hand dance version of “We No Speak Americano” on Youtube. Well, this is a plugged in age. And thanks to Paul, here you go… Also, again, thanks to my friend Paul, whatever the language around the clip running around Facebook, the Duo is called “Up & Over it” and they appear not to be Russian… ... Read more

Right now on Facebook, at least in my little corner of it, there’s a bit a viral happy dance racing around. It features a young couple sitting at a table completely deadpan while doing a hand dance on the table. It is a bit of a delight… Sadly, it isn’t on Youtube. The text surrounding it is Cyrillic and so the more likely thing is that it is Russian in origin. But, whatever, I couldn’t track down a version I... Read more

Once again the sometimes challenging, but always compelling Marnie Louise Froberg at her Smilin’ Buddha Cabaret, once sets me to thinking… This time she opens up my heart reflections through an examination of avidya. Avidya is most commonly translated as ignorance or delusion. She explores other ways of interpreting that word and gives it a bit of historical/theological context. I very much recommend it. For me it usually rises in the context of the “three demons” greed, hatred & ignorance.... Read more

As a native Californian now feeling the tendrils of my soul tentatively winding down into the rocky soil of New England, I come reluctantly to seasons. My sentiment for most of my life has been anything more than two seasons is an unnecessary extravagance. Unnecessary or not, the turning of the seasons certainly is relentless… So, a small pause. A mourning of the passing of the summer. And tomorrow a looking to the Autumn… Read more

At the Soto Zen Buddhist Association listserve there has been a sustained conversation around a draft expectation for those ordained within Soto lineages recognized by the SZBA to have an extended experience of monastic training, what are in our tradition called ango. These are ninety-day residential retreats. I am part of significant minority who have expressed serious concern about this as a requirement.There was a thread specifically between the Venerable Kyogen Carlson, co-abbot of the Dharma Rain Zen Center, one... Read more

  There has been quite a bit of information going around the Buddhist blogosphere and beyond about recent and long ago events at the Zen Studies Society, culminating in the announced retirement of their abbot. I’ve been asked twice to sign onto a petition regarding this demanding a more expedited process.  I have witnessed a fair bit of the process leading up to Eido Roshi’s announced resignation as abbot and the upcoming installation of Roko Shinge Roshi in his place.... Read more

THE DOORS OF PEACEA Yom Kippur Meditation James Ishmael Ford 19 September 2010First Unitarian ChurchProvidence, Rhode Island TextHe drew a circle that shut me out –Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.But Love and I had the wit to win:We drew a circle that took him in! Edwin Markham Doug Marlette was among my favorite cartoonists. Mostly I knew him from his political cartoons, which were generally liberal and which appeared pretty much everywhere. Although Tammy Faye Bakker once called... Read more