Today the 11th of November is the feast for Mercurius, soldier and martyr in the Coptic Church. He is similarly honored in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church on the 25th of this month. In the official story he was martyred at the order of the pagan emperor Decius. But there’s another story with a strong following, that it was he, guided by an angel who even provided the sword, who assassinated the emperor... Read more

    HISTORIES OF THE ZEN MISSION TO THE AMERICAS AND THE WEST What follows is a review of Richard McDaniel’s Zen Conversations. However it is much more than that. It’s a review of the histories of Zen’s mission to the West, focused on North America. I read it and found it an invaluable resource. I was able to obtain permission to reprint from the author as well as the original publisher, the Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies.  JIF  ... Read more

    I’ve only been to King’s Chapel in Boston twice. They are a delightful anachronism. Arguably the oldest Episcopal church in the United States, King’s Chapel became Unitarian in the years following the Revolution. They’ve kept a version of the Book of Common Prayer which is the basis of their corporate and individual worship. The Reverend Carl Scovel, once minister of the church writes “King’s Chapel is an active institutional member of the Unitarian Universalist Association, but remains a... Read more

  Today is All Soul’s day. In the Western Christian calendar its the conclusion of Allhallowtide. It is a day to pray for the dead. For Christians its usually for the Christian dead. The Roman Catholic church has a developed theory of the afterlife and speaks of a place between death and paradise for believers who have issues clinging to them. It’s called purgatory. Whether it’s a place or a state, whether it involves fire or cleansing; well, that’s not... Read more

    The Reverend Doctor DAVID P. KEYES (1945-2022) The Ministries and Faith Development staff of the Unitarian Universalist Association offer our condolences to the family and colleagues of the Rev. David P. Keyes, who died on September 13, 2022, at the age of 77. David was born on January 21, 1945, in Kansas City, MO to G.J. Keyes and Carolyn Keyes Ellis. He spent his childhood years in Kansas City and Gallatin, MO mostly with his grandparents. His own... Read more

    Going back to a year that might have changed my life Yes and . . . A Zen Jesuit Response to my blog posting Best Read on Jesus and His Message Dear James, Your “Best Read on Jesus and His Message” was more than quick summation of the Jesus sayings, miracle stories, resurrection narratives, including possible source materials, how they were collected, and the way the early church used them, including the split between the Jerusalem vs the... Read more

        Today is the 31st of October, in our Western calendar Halloween. In my corner of the world Halloween is basically about small children, and sometimes not so small putting on disguises and hoping to extort candy from the neighbors. And, yes, for some adults costumes, as well. And for a subset of them, alcohol driven parties. But I believe there’s something mysterious and wonderful about Halloween that allows children and adults and excesses of several sorts.... Read more

        It was today, the 30th of October, 1938 that Orson Welles broadcast a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds, causing panic among some of the audiences across the United States. I understand it, the narrative of the panic in the country has generally been overstated. But there was panic. These things do happen. I think of how easy it is in anxious times, to misread, to overreact, and sometimes to do... Read more

            Today I stumbled upon a meme today quoting the Congregational minister Robin R. Meyers “Consider this remarkable fact: In the Sermon on the Mount, there is not a single word about what to believe, only words about what to do and how to be. by the time the Nicene creed is written, only three centuries later, there is not a single word in it about what to do and how to be – only... Read more

        We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn. A red wing rose in the darkness. And suddenly a hare ran across the road. One of us pointed to it with his hand. That was long ago. Today neither of them is alive, Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture. O my love, where are they, where are they going The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.... Read more