Yes, for many of us, these are indeed more than challenging times. Some of you, I know, were already over an edge of one type or another in what you were handling in your personal lives when the larger national scene took on an ominous tone for policies that run counter to our Unitarian Universalist
Read More →I do not normally speak out on our website, but I recently read a portion of an article called Key Facts from a site called the Holocaust’s Encyclopedia, documenting what some people believe to be a poem by Martin Niemöller (1892–1984), who was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany in the 1920’s and early 1930’s.
Read More →Our association of congregations articulated a set of principles that defined our vision of right relationship in a transformed world. We did not say ‘we believe,’ rather we wrote we would affirm and promote these principles. The principles and purposes were our ethical stance, our articulation of intention. The principles and purposes were visionary and
Read More →November was an exceptional month for First Parish within the broader Canton community in giving public witness to our UU values and principles. As both Don Seaman and Diana Levy note in their reports elsewhere, we have consistently engaged with the broader town of Canton through our public speaker series as well as our ongoing
Read More →The earth is forever turning. And we know this time of the receding sun is taking with it the year 2024. It happens at this latitude every year. Winter Solstice. The Cherokee call this time “Us-gi-yi”. The Time of the Snow Moon. From the dark times of the snow moon, it was understood the sun
Read More →There’s a meme of unknown origins going around Facebook at this time, though attributed to first being seen by Andrieh Vitimus in a post by Winter Amanda. The graphic spoke to how we often prize some emotional states as ‘more spiritual’ and hence ‘correct’ than other emotional states. I’ll share the image here: On both
Read More →All ancient religions were once new. Ancient innovators of those once-new religions borrowed ideas from even older religions, blending old ideas with new ideas to create a new religion. Scholarly sleuthing exposes this ancient borrowing. For instance, the ancient religion of the Jews, when that religion was new, borrowed ideas from even older religions in
Read More →Today I consciously title my column “pastoral prophetic” rather than “prophetic pastoral.” We have moved through September with worship focused on how we keep our personal wells filled at 90% (our radical acts of pastoral self and communal care) before turning toward how we are called to serve our larger hugely troubled shared world (our
Read More →Over a dozen gathered in the chapel after the service on the second Sunday of September. We began our exploration by looking at the creation stories in the first chapters of Genesis. As we examine the Bible, we will discover a very complex document written over a thousand years by many people. However, as received
Read More →Greetings, Welcome to all. We are quickly reaching the time of the year when we celebrate our summer events and look forward to returning to First Parish Unitarian Universalist. Your leadership team and minister have been working throughout the last month to ensure a great and hopeful year. There have been a few changes on
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