Unitarian Universalists often ask me, “How can we celebrate Christmas when we’re not Christians?” Or for those who went to catechism, “How can we commemorate the birth of God’s Son when we doubt the Holy Trinity?” Last year I preached a sermon called Have a Merry UU Christmas in which we explored the contemporary meaning
Read More →The holidays often can bring a range of mixed feelings for an equally broad range of reasons. This quote, attributed to a female author named Francis Ward Weller, floated through Facebook recently and struck a chord with me: “The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the
Read More →Every year we Unitarian Universalists designate a book as our Common Read. In a Common Read, individuals and book reading groups read that book over the course of the year. This allows for conversation and the hearing of different points of view, which is the best way to learn new ideas. Here is some information
Read More →You’ll notice sometimes I begin my column with the word “prophetic” and sometimes, as today, with the word “pastoral.” This is because care of self and others and our capacity to engage in social justice in our larger world are intertwined – and sometimes we need to lead with the pastoral and sometimes with the
Read More →At the August leadership retreat, the Parish Committee had some very good discussions about Mission and Vision. These discussions built on and deepened the discussions we had last year. What is vision? What is a mission? Vision is what the congregation wants to be in the future. The visioning exercise helps the congregation’s leaders articulate
Read More →We have very high aspirations as Unitarian Universalists, and these are reflected in our values and principles. It’s what makes our faith tradition so powerful and draws so many of us to it out of disappointing experiences with other traditions or keeps us connected to it if we were lucky enough to grow up within
Read More →I was recently asked at coffee hour why a discussion of Article Two of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) bylaws was relevant to members of First Parish. What is the relevance to us meeting in Canton? Why should we care? First, I should confess something about myself. I have either gone to Sunday school, belonged
Read More →Saturday night, April 22, First Parish hosted its 16th annual coffee house, albeit the first coffee house after a three-year hiatus. It was successful, both from the point of view of the artists and from the point of view of the audience. It was excellent! I won’t attempt to review the artistic content. I will
Read More →As we near the end of the church year, many Unitarian Universalists across the country (and in the Philippines!) are making preparations for General Assembly. One of the most important lessons I learned about congregational polity in seminary is that it was designed to involve congregations working together in a covenantal relationship (much as we
Read More →The Parish Committee, Elizabeth Foster, and I have been discussing the covenant that informs the congregation we call First Parish Unitarian Universalist. In our March discussions, we projected that the church year 2023-2024 will be a time of renewal of the covenant and that renewal should also include revisiting our congregation’s mission and vision. In
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