Perhaps it’s appropriate for a blogger who likes to mark the birthdays of significant Unitarians, Universalists and Unitarian Universalists would be a day late in noting the two hundred and eighth anniversary of the birth of Millard Fillmore. Born on the 7th of January, 1800, Millard Fillmore was elected vice-president on the Whig ticket with Zachary Taylor and succeded Taylor upon his death, becoming the thirteenth president of the United States. He served out the last two years of Taylor’s... Read more

A JOYFUL NOISE Reflection onEncountering the Psalms asSpiritual Practice A Sermon byJames Ishmael Ford 6 January 2008First Unitarian SocietyWest Newton, Massachusetts Text O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places... Read more

Well, the Iowa caucuses are done and here in Massachusetts we’re getting the media spillover from all the hubbub in New Hampshire that will continue for the next four days. I’ve been a passive supporter of Senator Clinton, and continue to think of the generally very good field of Democratic candidates she’s the one who probably could serve us best in the upcoming next very dangerous years. At the same time I listened to Senator Obama’s valedictory following his impressive... Read more

I’m more than comfortable with traditional religious language: god and soul are at the top of my list of useful terms. I resist those who try to insist that the definitions of these terms can only be determined by their most conservative adherents. Conservative and fundamentalist asserting such a position I understand. But when critics such as most of the recent spate of atheist authors do so it comes across to me like setting up a classic straw man. And,... Read more

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody died on this day in 1894. While I think it more appropriate for UUs to mark the birthdays of our revered ancestors, it is the ancient tradition of the Christian church to mark the days of significant people’s passing (for obvious reasons if you follow normative Christian theology). Noticing Peabody’s death in this context sent my mind to thinking of UU Buddhist saints. That is it set me to thinking about those people informed by Unitarian Universalism... Read more

Issac Asimov was born on this day in 1920. As a child of particularly constrained circumstances, it was discovering Science Fiction that allowed me my first glimpse of a world beyond. While my taste buds in fiction have taken me in other directions I remain eternally grateful to a handful of writers including in the first instance the likes of Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and very much Issac Asimov, and later Roger Zelazny and Philip K. Dick. They opened... Read more

I find as I contemplate the beginning of this new year, my mind turns to one Zen koan in particular. It’s the sixth case recorded in that great Zen anthology the Blue Cliff Record and is called “Yunmen’s Good Day.” The heart of the case is pretty simple. Yunmen asked his assembly “I don’t ask you about before the fifteenth of the month. Say something about after the fifteenth.” He then gave his own response, “Every day is a good... Read more

Andrews Norton, once so significant a figure in North American liberal religion he was dubbed the “Unitarian pope” was born on this day in 1786. A biblical scholar as well as a minister, he taught first at Bowden college and then for the balance of his life at Harvard. He is often paired with William Ellery Channing as a champion of “classical American Unitarianism.” While considered a dangerous radical in his youth, he gradually saw his understanding of Unitarianism (he... Read more

Yesterday, after attending a friend’s mother’s memorial service we returned to the house where I took apart the first half of Sunday’s sermon and feeling a bit desperate completely rewrote it. After dinner Jan & I took off to the movies where we saw Charlie Wilson’s War about the Texas congressman Charlie Wilson’s epic struggle to fund the Afghan resistance to Soviet occupation in the 1980s. As the story unfolds it remains shadowed by the knowledge of what would follow.... Read more

HOW TO HAVE A GOOD NEXT LIFE Seven Resolutions for a New Year James Ishmael Ford 30 December 2007First Unitarian SocietyWest Newton, Massachusetts Text Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet, on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He looks Compassion on this world Yours are the feet With which He walks to do good. Your are the hands With which He blesses all the world Yours are the hands, yours are the... Read more