Arriving in Los Angeles is the beginning of Jan’s and my formal holiday. The Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly in Salt Lake served as something of a coda to my first year at the Providence church. And I am ruminating on all that happened. There were wonderful things. And some at least personal losses. I supported the proposed draft revision of the Statement of Principles and Purposes, and after heated debate, during all of which I stood in line to... Read more

Yesterday evening the Reverend Peter Morales of Golden, Colorado, was elected the eighth president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. He is the first person of Hispanic heritage to hold the office. I supported Dr Laurel Hallman’s bid for the presidency. And a scant few hours following the announcements of the results I still have some sense of mourning clinging to my heart. But, I repeatedly said, and genuinely believe, we had been blessed with two formidable candidates for the office... Read more

Very early in the morning on this day in 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village bar frequented by transvestites and others at the edge of the already highly marginalized homosexual community. They fought back… This is generally acknowledged as the marker for the beginning of the BGLT rights movement. The next year the first Gay Pride marches were organized in New York and Los Angeles to commemorate this day. Since then Pride parades have been organized... Read more

Last evening Jan and I heard a presentation from Carlton Pearson and Marlin Lavanhar about how Bishop Pearson’s spiritual journey led to the folding of his Pentecostal Universalist congregation into All Soul’s Unitarian Church in Tulsa. Quite a story. The presentation offered an interesting challenge to contemporary Unitarian Universalists and our relationship with Christianity. We UUs tend to think all religions have something to offer with the possible exception of Christianity. We kind of get the absurdity of this position.... Read more

Stepping Forward from the Hundred-Foot Pole Commenting on the forty-sixth case of the Gateless Gate James Ishmael Ford The Gateless Gate Case forty-six Master Shih-shuang asked, “How will you step forward form the top of a hundred-foot pole?” Commenting on this, another ancient master said, “Even though one who is sitting on the top of a hundred-foot pole has entered the way of awakening, it is not yet authentic. She must step forward from the top of the pole and... Read more

Be ours a religion which, like sunshine, goes everywhere; its temple, all space; its shrine, the good heart; its creed, all truth; its ritual, works of love; its profession of faith, divine living. Theodore Parker It’s now the first full day of the 2009 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association. As I’ve mentioned before its a pretty important one. We’ll be electing our next president and she or he will give face and voice to our little Association for,... Read more

G.A. stands for General Assembly. It is the annual gathering of clergy and representatives of most Unitarian Universalist congregations as well as miscellaneous others. In the past roughly twenty one years, I’ve attended twenty as either a seminarian or minister. I have many criticisms of G.A. I will not bore you with that litany here. This is a particularly important gathering as it will be the one at which we elect our next denominational president. We will also be voting... Read more

Well, here I am waiting at the Las Vegas airport to catch the connecting flight to Salt Lake City. Mildly amusing to have to pass through sin city in order to sojourn a while among the saints. I’m moderately confident this is my first drop down to this particular airport. I sure have no memory of seeing slot machines every ten feet or so… Positively makes me look forward to visiting Mormon country… Read more

Saturday morning Jan & I went out and rented a large pickup truck. I swear it was about a quarter the size of our house. We parked it in front and later that afternoon about a dozen adults trickled in to help decorate it. Our major feature were small posters written by children and a few youth and several adults in the church’s religious education program inviting participants and visitors to Providence’s 2009 BGLT Pride Parade to come to our... Read more

On this day in 1782 the Congress adopted the Great Seal of the United States. Its symbolism has been the subject of conversation from that day… According to Wikipedia, “the only official explanation of the symbolism of the great seal was given by Charles Thomson upon presenting the final design for adoption by Congress. He wrote: The Escutcheon is composed of the chief & pale, the two most honorable ordinaries. The Pieces, paly, represent the several states all joined in... Read more