Part of the whole process of “search,” engaging in the process that hopefully leads a minister within our liberal tradition to a “call,” that is employment, is lots and lots of self-revelation. One thing I’ve said a lot in a lot of different contexts, including here at this blog, but out of various interactions with folk along the way to that election this past Sunday to serve at the First Unitarian Church of Providence, really, really hit me: was how... Read more

Rabindranath Tagore was born on this day in 1861. Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for literature, in 1913. Of particular interest to me is how following his father, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a Hindu-reform movement inspired in part by both English and American Unitarianism, Tagore would be closely associated with this spiritual movement for the whole of his life. (By the bye, as frequent visitors to this blog probably know, I’m quite fond... Read more

The following is an essay written by Victor Lapuszynski. Vic is an old friend and Dharma companion with both a strong practice and a reflective habit. Here he shared a note taking umbrage with my Batchelorphilia, making some very strong points. I think they should be considered by anyone engaged in the conversation about the shape of Batchelor’s Agnostic Buddhism. I had thought to write something to you in response to an older post, but procrastinated. Then you mentioned Batchelor... Read more

Phoebe Ann Coffin Hanaford was born on this day in 1829. One of the first women ordained as a Universalist minister, she was the first ordained in New England. Raised a Quaker, Hanaford was a successful writer, and was active as an abolitionist and suffragist. She was ordained by the Hingham Universalist church in 1868. Her first pulpit was in Waltham, Massachusetts, then she accepted a call to New Haven, Connecticut where she also served as chaplain for the Connecticut... Read more

As a native Californian for me the fifth of May is Cinco de Mayo. It is generally thought of in the circles in which I move as “Mexican Independence,” and so comparable to the 4th of July. In fact this secular holiday is something more like St Patrick’s Day, originally a relatively minor celebration in Ireland, but becoming a celebration of Irish culture among the expatriate community largely here in the States and eventually making it’s way back to the... Read more

Jan and I have just walked in the door returning home from our adventure in Providence. This morning the congregation of the First Unitarian Church of Providence elected me their seventeenth (senior) minister since they gathered in 1720 (some very long ministries in that count…). I will begin sometime in August. Well, I’m swimmingly deliriously tired. And about to collapse onto the bed… Read more

SAYING YES TO LIFE, EVEN THE HARD PARTS A Sermon byJames Ishmael Ford Delivered on the4th of May, 2008 at theFirst Unitarian Church of Providence Text This past week I facilitated a service at the cremation of a child who lived four hours. I first wrote “of a child who lived only four hours.” But I realized that what I was feeling and wanted to express is that there was no need for the modifier “only.” The parents both identify... Read more

Please consider this part one. After worship this morning, Jan & I will retire to a local coffee shop. The congregation will fortify themselves with some coffee or tea and perhaps light snacks, then return to the meeting house. At which point there will be a congregational meeting with a single item of business. (While I’m nervous as a cat I’m also conscious as to how this congregational meeting and the town meeting, which in old New England, was the... Read more

My goodness! It’s the homestretch! Yesterday I probably re-worked Sunday’s sermon a dozen times. (It has been suggested I would still be working my first sermon if an intervening Sunday hadn’t rolled around…) I also outlined my talk for the evening. I also packed. Then I returned the rental car I’d been driving all week. (We found a couple of years ago that if we were willing to rent a car every once in a while we could be a... Read more

Yesterday I barely dodged death. Well, sorta… I put the almost final touches on Sunday’s sermon. Then I was able to have lunch with Jan. After which I took off for Providence. After swinging by Peets to pick up a pound of coffee I drove up route 9 to the 128 intersection, pulled onto the on ramp – and then spent the next twenty minutes getting onto 128 (Interstate 95 to people who only read maps…). Once onto the interstate... Read more