Does it feel like spring is never coming? This is the image that comes to my mind when I reflect on the feelings in my body around this particular winter (and perhaps it metaphorically relates to your feelings and experiences on levels even beyond this winter)! Yet we know spring is indeed just around the
Read More →One of the most persistent urban legends is that there is a Chinese proverb or curse that goes something like this “May you live in interesting times.” Trouble is – the Chinese are unfamiliar with such a saying. Perhaps the English heard the real Chinese proverb – “It is better to be a dog in
Read More →This morning, as this winter newsletter is being released, I watched and listened to the last few moments of Renee Nicole Macklin Good’s life, as seen through the bodycam of the man who killed her. I had watched all the authentic analysis of news media sources demonstrating that the car was turned away and not
Read More →I received a note from a reader of our web page who asked a question. He wrote “You say in your column that there are many contradictions in the Bible.” I know of no contradictions in the Bible. You are causing a ‘schism’ by saying that there are contradictions in the Bible.” He challenged me
Read More →For our Blessing of the Animals service on the first Sunday in October, I preached on our evolutionary kinship with animals, particularly our fellow mammals, and the hope that this gives to me in these times. Cooperative moral behavior and empathy are natural to all mammals, as Frans de Waal discovered in his research–that is
Read More →Mystery? Controversy? What is called the New Testament is a collection of writings that raise more questions than they answer. Christianity is the largest religion in the world and has had a major shaping influence on the culture and psyche of the United States. Yet its scriptures are a collection of writings written more than
Read More →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 values.
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 →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 →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
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