Prayer
November 2016
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. —Mahatma Gandhi
Articles
Prayer
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. —Mahatma Gandhi Read more »
A Thousand Ways to Pray
Early in my ministry career I interned as a religious studies teacher at Milton Academy, a prep school in New England. Read more »
Nominating Committee Seeks Leaders
The CLF’s Nominating Committee seeks members to run for positions on the Board of Directors beginning June 2017. Read more »
Prayer
I pray every day—more than once most days. I’ll be completely frank and admit that I am not quite sure who or what I direct these prayers to, but that’s okay with me. Read more »
We Open Many Doors
At the CLF we open many doors to the quiet voice within—and we cannot keep those doors open without your support. Read more »
ACTS Prayer: A Unitarian-Universalist Guide
Most religious traditions embrace some form of prayer as a part of meaningful spiritual practice. Read more »
From Your Minister
As I reflect on this month’s theme of prayer, scraps of poems and songs I love dance before me. Read more »
REsources for Living
I didn’t learn a whole lot about prayer growing up in a UU church in the 60s and 70s. Read more »
Did You Know?
…that the CLF is hoping to send holiday cards to our more than 700 prisoner members? You can help. Read more »
Prayer in a Time of Awe
Holy grandparents of the Universe…energies of creation…endless mysteries of life: You are the music that sounded before our world was born… Read more »
Belonging
October 2016
Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition. —James Baldwin
Articles
You Belong Here
If you are reading this, you belong here!!! Did you know you can belong at the CLF as a member and also be a member at a bricks and mortar congregation? Read more »
Why Belong?
I wanted to start this sermon by saying I am no good at joining, by proclaiming, I don’t follow the crowd! I am an individual! Read more »
My Tribe
When I say I have found my tribe what I mean is that I have found a community of people I enjoy sharing Earth with. Read more »
A Letter to a Cousin
I had a bit of an epiphany the other day. Let me ask you a question. Read more »
REsources for Living
There are certain Big Questions that all of us deal with across the span of our lives. The answers may very well change over time, but our spiritual journeys are built around how we answer those questions. Read more »
Did You Know?
…that you can expand your sense of belonging to the CLF through connecting with other CLFers in conversation on Facebook? Read more »
Belonging
When I was released from prison the first time, I had been away from society and my family for ten years. Read more »
Belonging
“Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.” —James Baldwin Read more »
Beginnings
September 2016
Nourish beginnings… Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed. —Muriel Rukeyser
Articles
Beginnings
“Nourish beginnings… Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed.” —Muriel Rukeyser Read more »
On the First Day
Humans invent a lot of words to try to capture a bigness so large that we can’t fathom it. Read more »
Beginning Again
It was 1999, with all its cosmological portent—the coming of a new century, a new millennium. Read more »
To Be What You Might Have Been
Darwin published On the Origin of Species at age 50. Colonel Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken with his first Social Security check. Read more »
Starting Over…and Over…and Over (Excerpt)
Each of us, at one time or another, has had the experience of starting over. Read more »
Beginnings
I have a celly who says he’s going to procrastinate later. Then he laughs and we both smile. Read more »
From Your Minister
At one of the garage sales I love to frequent I picked up a game called “Origins” with a subtitle—“The Game that Unlocks the Secret of Our Past.” Read more »
REsources for Living
Call me old-fashioned, but in my mind September always means the start of the school year. Read more »
Growing Our Commitment
At the CLF we have steadily grown our commitment to being a public voice for justice and living out our UU values in the world. Read more »
The Legacy of Caring
Despair is my private pain… Born from what I have failed to say… failed to do… failed to overcome. Read more »
Joy
July-August 2016
A flower blossoms for its own joy. —Oscar Wilde
Articles
We Need Joy
After college, my best friend and I drove from her home in Texas through the Southwest. Read more »
A Bright Golden Thread
When a weaver starts a new piece, she first must tie the warp strings on her loom to form an underlying base of the fabric she will create. Read more »
Thanks to Congregations
The CLF would like to thank the following congregations who, between March 2015 and March 2016 have taken up collections to support our ministries. Read more »
Joy in Ordinary Time
My Mama was a second grade teacher at the Gladwyne Elementary School in the rich suburbs of Philadelphia. Read more »
Simple Joy
Shortly after I watched the full moon slide behind the trees on the ridge outside my cell window, Dusty, a young orange mackerel tabby tomcat, made his morning round… Read more »
River of Joy
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” ―Rumi Read more »
From Your Minister
I was blessed with an optimistic, joyful disposition, which I inherited from my mother. Read more »
REsources for Living
Unitarian Universalist minister Bill Clark tells a story about being at the beach after a long, hard day. Read more »
Did You Know?
that CLF has a web page just for kids, parents and religious educators, tied to our monthly theme? Read more »
At the Heart of All Creation
At the heart of all creation lies a good intent, a purposeful goodness, from which we come, by which we live our fullest, and to which we shall at last return… Read more »
Mystery
June 2016
The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery. —Anaïs Nin
Articles
Searching Among Stones
The other day I found myself in the home of the president of my congregation. The board of trustees was having its annual retreat, welcoming new board members, setting priorities, etc. Read more »
Face to Face with Mystery
So you’ve got a bunch of really pressing, life-changing, love-soaked problems, and you’ve tied yourself up into knots of anxiety. Desperate for relief, perspective and a change, you take yourself to the foothills to walk. Read more »
Mysterious Ways
When my husband Eric and I traded in our old cell phones for iPhones we noticed a subtle but profound change in our lives. Read more »
Embrace Mystery
In a sense, what it means to be UU is to continually embrace mystery—mystery of the divine, mystery of the sacred, and even the mystery of what is the right language to grapple with these concepts. Read more »
god is no noun
god is no noun. and certainly not an adjective. god is at least a verb, and even that shrinks her. Read more »
From Your Minister
My physicist father drove me crazy. I would ask him what rainbows were made of, and by the time he had pontificated for 15 or 20 minutes I would be desperately bored, sorry I asked, squirming to get away. Read more »
REsources for Living
As part of trying to define who we are and what we are called to do, Unitarian Universalists have come up with not only seven Principles that list the things that we “covenant to affirm and promote” but also a list of six Sources of our living tradition. Read more »
Did You Know?
Did you know that you can watch video of many events of the UUA General Assembly online? Read more »
The Mysterious
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Read more »
Mystery
“The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.” —Anaïs Nin Read more »
Justice
May 2016
It is justice, not charity that is wanting in the world. —Mary Wollstonecraft
Articles
Calling Forth Justice
How many of you have a decent relationship with the Bible —as in, you’ve had at least a couple of conversations and neither of you left angry? Read more »
Anger and Justice
The only word repeated more than once in our seven UU principles is the word “justice.” We are called to justice. Read more »
A Public Voice for Justice
At the CLF we strive to be a public voice for justice and to curate a conversation that leads to deeper understanding of how we can build a more just world. Read more »
Justice Behind Bars
Three of our CLF prisoner members wrote pieces for Quest Monthly on the theme of Justice. What follows are excerpts from these pieces. Read more »
From Your Minister
When it comes to justice-makers on the front lines, one group of people often shows up—mothers. And when mothers truly know that, as the saying goes, “there’s no such thing as other people’s children,” I believe we have the power to accomplish anything. Read more »
REsources for Living
In her column, Rev. Meg talks about how mothers have a special urge toward justice, born out of a fierce love for their children that demands a world where those children—all children—can be safe and respected. Read more »
Breathe
Breathe, said the wind. How can I breathe at a time like this, when the air is full of the smoke of burning tires, burning lives? Read more »
Freedom
April 2016
I wish that every human life might be pure, transparent freedom. —Simone de Beauvoir
Articles
Free for All
I was 22, nursing a broken heart, and I knew for sure that I had to get out of town. Read more »
The Power and Poverty of Freedom
Freedom is not just a crucial principle in our religious tradition. It is also a foundational value for the United States. Read more »
Cultivating the Courage to Act
Did you know it’s part of the CLF mission to cultivate the courage to act? Help us continue to live into our mission, living into freedom by being bold and loving a broken world. Please make a $100 contribution or give what you can now, by visiting CFLUU or by calling 1-800-231-3027. Read more »
To All Get Free Together
To become an anti-racist faith community, the key question for a white/white majority community is not “How do we get people of color to join our faith community?” Read more »
Slipped the Bonds
There are no summer camps open during the last week of August, so my family has taken to spending that week at the beach. Read more »
From Your Minister
Now that I’m an adult, I can see that my father was jealous of my older brother. An only child himself, he was used to having the full attention of his parents, and then his wife. Read more »
REsources for Living
The Passover story is a story of freedom. And it’s inspired a lot of people who were seeking freedom, including slaves in the American South. Read more »
Notice of Annual Meeting
Per Article VII, Sections 1 and 2, of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) Bylaws, the 44th Annual Meeting will be held via conference call and screen sharing on June 14, 2016 at 6:00PM EDT. Read more »
We Have Not Come Here to Take Prisoners
We have not come here to take prisoners, But to surrender ever more deeply, To freedom and joy. Read more »
Freedom
“I wish that every human life might be pure, transparent freedom.” —Simone de Beauvoir Read more »
Brokenness
March 2016
The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. —Ernest Hemingway
Articles
Brave Love
Adorning almost every Protestant church is a cross—inside, outside, over the altar, in the vestibule, in the minister’s office, and sometimes many stories high on top of the building. Read more »
Try to Praise the Mutilated World
What must it have been like for folks living through World War I, 1914–1918? The horror of that war is still something I struggle to understand. Read more »
An Apology
In the January 2015 “Transformation” edition of Quest, I had a sermon titled “Transformation vs. Acceptance.” In that sermon I gave passing mention to Jane Rzepka for the concepts I was writing about. Read more »
Human Feelings of Brokenness
We often feel so alone and isolated in our very human feelings of brokenness. Read more »
Broken
Have you ever come to a place in your life where everything is broken? Not only that, but broken by you? Read more »
Midori and the E Strings
When Midori Goto was three years old her grandmother gave her a 1/16 violin for her birthday. Her mother and grandmother sensed that music was one of her gifts, and they were right. Read more »
From Your Minister
According to some folks, everything wrong in this world is because of one disobedient woman who listened to a snake. She just had to eat that apple, and then everything that was whole became broken. We were all doomed. Read more »
REsources for Living
One of the most important lesson we learn—and try to teach our kids—is that when something goes wrong or breaks, we need to take a deep breath and figure out how to fix it. Read more »
Did You Know?
You can keep up with the many online events that the CLF offers through our website calendar. Read more »
The Unbroken
There is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken, a shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable. Read more »
Brokenness
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” —Ernest Hemingway Read more »
Hospitality
February 2016
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. —Hebrews 13:2
Articles
The Fragile Art of Hospitality
Mechthild of Magdeburg, a thirteenth-century mystic, once asked, “How shall we live?” Her answer provides a mantra of hospitality: “Be welcoming to all.” Read more »
Called to Hospitality
What does it mean to a Unitarian Universalist to be called to hospitality? And what or who is calling us? Read more »
Welcoming What We Do Not Want
It was a sunny spring day, and I was getting into my car in a sprawling parking lot when the phone rang. Read more »
Radical Hospitality
It is hard to invite in all that comes, especially when it’s sickness, disability, or death. Read more »
From Your Minister
One of my favorite books as a kid was The Boxcar Children, in which four siblings, whose parents were simply and completely absent, took care of themselves and each other. Read more »
REsources for Living
I admit it. I am a total flirt when it comes to babies and toddlers. I love coaxing a smile from the baby in front of me in a grocery line. Read more »
The CLF Invites GA Delegates
Would you like to represent the CLF at General Assembly (GA)? The CLF is entitled to 22 delegates at the UUA’s General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, June 22-26, 2016. Read more »
Did You Know?
Did you know that you can find resources for UU families on the CLF Family Quest page. Read more »
Hospitality
Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Read more »
Hospitality
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” —Hebrews 13:2 Read more »
Secrets
January 2016
The human heart has hidden treasures,
In secret kept, in silence sealed;
The thoughts, the hopes,
the dreams,
the pleasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed.
—Charlotte Brontë
Articles
Secret-Keeping
I found out that something was wrong the same way I find out so many things nowadays: on Facebook. When I first joined that online social network, I was delighted to reconnect with friends from my growing-up years: high school buddies, former prom dates, even my best friend from Catholic elementary school, whom I hadn’t ...Read more »
Not as Alone as You Think You Are
So, here’s a question to get us started: Who do you tell your secrets to? Now, don’t go and say you don’t have any secrets. Because that’s just not true; everyone has secrets. Everyone does. Read more »
The Biggest Secret at CLF
The biggest secret at CLF is that we need your support to sustain Quest Monthly! With nearly 700 members in prison, and hundreds more on fixed incomes, many of our congregants are unable to contribute financially. Read more »
Secrets and Silence
In her book On Lies, Secrets, and Silence one of the essential writings of 1970s feminism, Adrienne Rich wrote: “Whatever is unnamed…will become, not merely unspoken, but unspeakable.” Read more »
REsources for Living
What does it feel like when you have a secret? We asked folks on the CLF Facebook page: How does it feel in your body to carry a secret? Read more »
Did You Know?
Did you know that you can share in real-time worship with other CLFers, or watch services on-demand after they run live? Read more »
Secrets
The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed. —Charlotte Brontë Read more »
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