Recently I’ve seen a couple of memes wandering around my corner of the interwebs publishing a list called “John Wesley’s Manifesto.” If you’re not familiar with the wondrous Reverend John Wesley, you’ve missed one of the more interesting figures in Anglo American religion. Born in 1703 (and died in 1791), Wesley was an Anglican priest who while remaining an Anglican accidentally started the Methodist church. As to the manifesto, it is a remarkable document. Sadly, he never... Read more

      The other day someone cited something Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote in his novella, “Chronicle of a Death Foretold.” “Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life.” I found it sticking in my head. Now I am cautious about categorical assertions. But. Well. We have three lives. The public one is obvious. Nearly everyone can talk about the difference between it and one’s private life. Those who assert otherwise, frankly, I find... Read more

      My dreams are populated by those figures out of the ancient near east, completely mythical ones like Abraham and Sarah and Moses and Miriam, and those with some historical bones upon which myth has been layered like Jesus and the Marys. I know their stories. Their stories inform my own life and give it the color and shade of our common humanity. We’re not just apes with good thumbs, although we are apes with thumbs, we also... Read more

  How time flies. It was on this day, the 16th of August in 1930 that Ub Iwerks released the first color and sound cartoon. Ninety years. On the one hand a blink of the eye. And on the other, well, its looking hard at a hundred and that’s quite a while ago… Fiddlesticks featured Flip the Frog and would be the first in a series made by Celebrity Pictures and distributed in theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Iwerks was the principal... Read more

    AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ZEN KOAN James Ishmael Ford The Case Zhaozhou visited a hermit. He asked, “Is anybody in? Anybody in?” The hermit lifted up his fist. Zhaozhou said, “the water is too shallow for a ship to anchor.” Later he went to a hermit, and asked, “Is anybody in? Anybody in?” The hermit also lifted up his fist. Zhaozhou said “Freely you give and freely you take away. Freely you kill and freely you give life.”... Read more

  Once, the poet Mary Oliver was invited by some friends to visit Walden pond. Instead, she wrote a poem. “It isn’t very far as highways lie. I might be back by night fall, having seen The rough pines, and the stones, and the clear water. Friends argue that I might be wiser for it.They do not hear that far-off Yankee whisper: How dull we grow from hurrying here and there! Many have gone, and think me half a fool... Read more

    DREAMS OF WALDEN POND The Way of Liberal Religion James Ishmael Ford While the majority of my time these days is focused on the Zen project, Unitarian Universalism is a big part of who I am. One of the ways I keep in touch is through social media. In particular I belong to a large Facebook group for clergy. The other day one of the members of that august body asked the not quite rhetorical question, “Why should... Read more

          According to the good folk at Wikipedia, it was on this day, the 3rd of August, in 435 that Nestorius, who’d been deposed as patriarch of Constantinople was exiled by the emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt. I’ve written of him before, although not recently. This reflection is based on a couple of those earlier ruminations. But, with addition reflections out of this moment. As a former Patriarch of Constantinople, whatever else one may think... Read more

      As it happens, today, the 2nd of August is observed in the Russian Church as a feast for Basil, sometimes called the fool, sometimes called blessed, and on occasion the Wonderworker. I rather like that. All of it. But especially that fool thing. Recently I wrote a brief paragraph in which I summarized my understanding of Jesus as a  historical person. In it I suggested he was half crazy. Some liked that characterization. Others did not. I... Read more

    LEAVING NO ONE BEHINND Zen & the Work of Justice Jan Seymour-Ford August 1, 2020 Empty Moon Zen Last fall I had to give a little public presentation about my beliefs and motivations. I talked about my connections in the community and how my spirituality compels it. I talked about becoming a young adult, when I began to observe and experience the world through my own eyes, instead of through the doctrinaire teachings of my upbringing. One of... Read more