Freedom
March 2013
“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
—Nelson Mandela
Articles
Freedom Is a Funny Word
I doubt that any concept has greater currency among Americans than freedom and its synonym, liberty. Read more »
Laughing into New Life (Excerpt)
Being in the tomb doesn’t mean there is an absence of life, but, rather, the dominance of death. Read more »
The Flying Trapeze and the Fine Art of Freedom (Excerpt)
I’ve attended the circus exactly three times in my life twice as a child and once as an adult. The first two were the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey circus (under the big-top, the Greatest Show on Earth) and the third was Cirque de Soleil, held in an auditorium theater. Read more »
Carrying the Language of Freedom
This year what has taken hold of me about Passover is not so much the story itself, but the very fact that the story is reliably told and retold, generation after generation, at the family Seder. Read more »
From Your Minister
In the early 1990s I interned in the Church of the United Community, a tiny storefront congregation in the Marcus Garvey Center in Roxbury, Massachusetts, triple yoked between the United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and Unitarian Universalists. Read more »
REsources for Living
The Passover story is, of course, a story about freedom. It’s the story of how the Israelites went from being slaves in Egypt to being free people with a land and a religion of their own. But I wonder when exactly in the story it is that the Hebrew people finally become free. Read more »
From “For Memory”
Freedom. It isn���t once, to walk outunder the Milky Way, feeling the riversof light, the fields of dark… Read more »
Freedom
“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” —Nelson Mandela Read more »
God
February 2013
“God has no religion.” —Mahatma Gandhi
Articles
A God We Can Believe In
At home on a bookshelf we have a massive folio-style slipcover book titled Cabinet of Natural Curiosities by Albertus Seba, a pharmacist in eighteenth-century Amsterdam. Read more »
People Ask About God (Excerpt)
People go astray in their search for God because they do not take the right starting-point. We should never begin by asking, “Is there a God?”– as though God could be something outside of ordinary experience; or, to put it in the old-fashioned way, something outside of Nature. Read more »
If I Were Asked
If I were asked to confess my faith or my beliefs out loud, and I were scrambling for some place to begin, I would start in the desert, in the lonesome valley, and say that first of all and ultimately we are alone. Read more »
Sun/God
Your missionary ancestors told Indian people that they were worshipping a false god when we prayed to the sun. The sun is the most powerful physical presence in our lives. Read more »
A Prayer
World that is my home,Spirit that matters,Speak to me in the voices of Ralph Waldo Emerson,yes, and Florence Nightingale… Read more »
Reflections on God
We asked each of our ministerial interns to share a reflection on what God means to them. Here’s what they had to say. Read more »
From Your Minister
“Are you there, God? It’s me,” Meg.”Yes, and if you don’ mind, I’ll keep calling you Margaret. It confuses me when you young people are always taking nicknames. It’s hard enough learning one name for each of you!” Read more »
REsources for Living
If you were going to look for God, where would you look? Would you go up on top of a mountain? Would you look in the crashing ocean waves? Read more »
Touching our Strength
We touch this strength, our power, who we are in the world, when we are most fully in touch with one another and with the world. Read more »
Salvation
January 2013
“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Articles
Dragged Kicking and Screaming into Heaven
Have you ever heard a Unitarian Universalist speak of having had a conversion experience? Have you had such an experience? Read more »
Salvation: Saved from What?
But my life has not convinced me that Hell consists of simply bad intentions in the mind, selfishness and a hard heart. I am sure that some of these problems contribute to the building up of Hells on this earth, but in my experience people don’t just need to be saved from their minds, but ...Read more »
An African American Perspective on Salvation
It is of enormous significance that for centuries, countless African American Christians have affirmed ‘Salvation’ as vitally connected with spaciousness, deliverance, rescue, liberation or freedom…. n the African American experience, the nature of salvation is to provide space— psychic, physical and spiritual—in which to function as a free being… Read more »
Saved by Love (Excerpt)
The first time I attended a Unitarian Universalist church for worship, I was greeted by an incredible sight: 75 percent of the people in the congregation were wearing pink triangles on their name tags. I didn’t know what to make of it. I thought I’d died and gone to some sort of queer heaven. Read more »
From Your Minister
When we were kids, we were all supposed to have favorites of everything. Remember that? People would say, for instance, What is your favorite color? And I would always feel completely stumped. Read more »
Salvation
By what are you saved? And how?Saved like a bit of string,tucked away in a drawer? Read more »
REsources for Living
Are you saved? It’s a question most of us have heard, whether the person asking has appeared at our door carrying pamphlets or is a friend who wants to talk about religion on the playground. Read more »
Salvation
“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson Read more »
Waiting
December 2012
“The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Articles
Waiting as an Act of Faith
When I mentioned to a friend that I was writing a sermon on waiting as an act of faith, she nearly fell out of her chair laughing. This friend and I, you see, go way back. Read more »
Waiting
For most people waiting takes place in a doctor’s office, a teller’s line at the local bank, or in a drive-thru anticipating food. For others, maybe it’s waiting for your boyfriend to “pop the question”… Read more »
Expectant Fathers
December makes me think of pregnancy. There were Mary and Elizabeth, whom we hear about in the nativity stories this time of year, but there was also my wife Dori, who was five months along… Read more »
Solstice Reflection
Solstice celebrations capture the moment when the darkness gives way to the light. For thousands of years, people have tried to hold onto that moment of joy and certainty. Read more »
I Am Waiting
I am waiting for my case to come up and I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder and I am waiting for someone to really discover America… Read more »
Carol Our Christmas
Carol our Christmas, an upside down Christmas:snow is not falling and trees are not bare.Carol the summer and welcome the Christ Child,warm in our sunshine and sweetness of air. Read more »
From Your Minister
I’ve spent a lot of time in waiting rooms in my life. Waiting for doctors, waiting for dentists, waiting for my tires to be rotated. Waiting for my airplane to board, waiting for my table at the restaurant… Read more »
REsources for Living
You’re standing there in the cold, waiting for the bus to come, and every minute feels like an hour. You’re waiting for the phone call that will give you the results of a medical test… Read more »
In the Fog
The wet air curls against me as I sit in the boat without seeing through the fog. I’m without my bearings, lost between the elements of air and water. Read more »
Waiting
“The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson Read more »
Prayer
November 2012
“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul.” —Mahatma Gandhi
Articles
To Whom it May Concern:
The very first prayer I ever learned as a child was a bedtime prayer, taught to me by my grandmother. It went like this: “God bless me and keep me a good boy, and spare me for a good end. Amen.” Read more »
God or the Horse?
An immigrant from Russia was explaining to his children and grandchildren about life in the Old Country, and told a story about his father. Read more »
The Versatility and Power of Prayer (Excerpt)
I am still asking myself the question: Do I pray? I believe that the answer is, “I am learning how.” Read more »
Prayer
Prayer is a truly powerful thing, and represents our spiritual connection with the Creator. Prayer is our time to give thanks for the blessings we have been given and to ask for help for those in need. Read more »
CLF Nominating Committee Seeks Leaders
The Church of the Larger Fellowship Nominating Committee seeks CLF members to run for positions on the Board of Directors beginning June 2013. Read more »
From Your Minister
In my Unitarian household as I was growing up in West Virginia, the word “prayer” was not uttered, and certainly no one ever suggested, much less demanded, that I pray. Read more »
REsources for Living
When my wife and I adopted our daughter Mattéa as an infant, we knew that we wanted to build something into our lives together in the way of prayer or ritual. Read more »
Prayer
“Help” is a prayer that is always answered. It doesn’t matter how you pray—with your head bowed in silence, or crying out in grief, or dancing. Read more »
![Portrait of a large group of a Mixed Age people smiling and embracing together.
[url=http://www.istockphoto.com/search/lightbox/9786738][img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40117171/group.jpg[/img][/url]](https://www.questformeaning.org/wp3/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/belonging_2012october.jpg "Large Group of Happy People standing together")
Belonging
October 2012
“Perhaps home is not a place, but simply an irrevocable condition.” —James Baldwin
Articles
Streets to Dwell In
I trust that most of you remember Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, perhaps as well as I do. Mr. Rogers knew his neighbors—people who dropped by his home all the time to share some useful tidbit of information. Read more »
Pledging Our Troth
As a religious heritage bonded not by creed, confession or common prayer, but by covenant, Unitarian Universalists vow to stay at the table long enough to understand one another and mold a viable community. Read more »
Behaving, Believing, Belonging
It is astonishing how certain human bonds are able to transcend time and place. Early one year, my brother Chuck made contact—on the Internet, no less—with a long lost relative in Iceland. Read more »
From Your Minister
When do you feel as if you—your opinions, your experiences, your beliefs—matter? And when do you feel as if you are marginal, that you and your life are invisible? Read more »
Ambiguity
What are you? Are you a man? A woman? Person of color? Are you straight or gay, able or disabled, citizen, immigrant, settler? Are you legal or illegal? Do you belong here? Read more »
Belonging
To be human is to belong. Belonging is a circle that embraces everything; if we reject it, we damage our nature. The word “belonging” holds together the two fundamental aspects of life: being and longing. Read more »
Whose Are You?
Whose are you? Who carries you in their heart, thinks of you, whether you think of them or not? Read more »
Belonging
“Perhaps home is not a place, but simply an irrevocable condition.” —James Baldwin Read more »
Atonement
September 2012
“The beginning of atonement is the sense of its necessity. ” —Lord Byron
Articles
Turn, Turn, Turn
If we hadn’t learned it already from reading the Ecclesiastes section of the Hebrew Bible (what Christians call the Old Testament), many of us absorbed this piece of scripture through a musical rendition by Pete Seeger or The Byrds. Read more »
The Place We Require of Humans
“Who will journey to the place we require of humans?” asks the poet, Sonia Sanchez. This question from her poem “Aaaayeee Babo (Praise God)” has become scripture to me in recent months. Read more »
“Keep open the door of thy heart”
There is a profound ground of unity that is more pertinent and authentic than all the unilateral dimensions of our lives. Read more »
Jerusalem
I’m not interested in who suffered the most. I’m interested in people getting over it. Read more »
From Your Minister
What, I ask myself, does it take to live in at-one-ment? I can imagine the road I need to travel from where I am now to a place of living in at-one-ment with myself, with my friends and family, with my neighbors, with the world… Read more »
REsources for Living
Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, many be the source of one of the most…um…surprising religious traditions I know of. Surprising, as in a nice way of saying downright strange. Read more »
Pillar of Salt (Excerpt)
Speak out the paralyzing secret and begin to come back to yourself. Read more »
Joy
July / August 2012
“From joy springs all creation,
By joy it is sustained,
Towards joy it proceeds,
And unto joy it returns. ”
—The Upanishads
Articles
Joy
I took a book to read for work and a book for pleasure. I didn’t touch either of them. I didn’t do anything. Well, I smiled a lot. Read more »
Rational Exuberance
When I started my training for spiritual direction, I figured that it would involve a lot of reading the classics of spirituality all those Desert Fathers and Mothers and Saints and a lot of sitting still, contemplating God’s emptiness or something. Read more »
Happy Bird
I saw a meadowlark today, sitting atop the razor wire on the north fence. It’s been many months since meadowlarks were here last. Many months. Read more »
Happiness
There’s just no accounting for happiness,or the way it runs up like a prodigalwho comes back to the dust at your feethaving squandered a fortune far away. Read more »
The Great Surmise
The Great Surmise says simply this: At the heart of all creation lies a good intent, a purposeful goodness, from which we come, by which we live our fullest, to which we shall at last return. And this is the supreme reality of our lives. Read more »
From Your Minister
I’m not saying that joy hasn’t been part of many other things I’ve reflected about—celebration, sexuality, justice, love, grief—it’s just that I have never taken the time to reflect specifically and explicitly on joy. Read more »
REsources for Living
I figured that in exploring the topic of joy it would be good to ask an expert for some input. So I decided to interview my dog, Piper, who is pretty much the most ridiculously joyful being I have ever encountered. Read more »
From Blossoms
From blossoms comesthis brown paper bag of peacheswe bought from the boy at the bend in the road where we turned towardsigns painted Peaches. Read more »
Joy
“From joy springs all creation, By joy it is sustained, Towards joy it proceeds, And unto joy it returns. “—The Upanishads Read more »
Transcendence
June 2012
“All peoples are members of the same body, created from one essence. ” —Saadi
Articles
The Transcendent Within
In a very real way, these encounters helped me to learn to transcend first my self, then my family unit, and then even my country—to understand that there was a lot more of value out there beyond my own immediate world. I then internalized that broader perspective and took to heart a wider reality shown ...Read more »
The God Beyond
And so it is that Abraham’s act of practical compassion leads to an encounter with the divine. It was in Abraham’s lived experience—in the choice to transcend a focus on his own needs—that the divine was ushered in. Read more »
Transcending Boundaries
When I was a child, I would stand and gaze at the starry firmament and contemplate infinity. As I stood there, the boundary that is time dissolved; I expanded my Spirit to fill the boundary that is space. My being stilled and all fear, anxiety, and anguish disappeared. Forgotten were the chores, the homework, the ...Read more »
Oppression
Is a question of strength, of unshed tears, of being trampled under, and always, always, remembering you are human. Read more »
Notice of Annual Meeting
The purpose of the meeting is to elect a moderator from among members present to preside at the meeting, and to elect, if contested, from the slate of candidates presented on the ballot, three members to three-year terms and two members to one-year terms on the board of directors, and the clerk and the treasurer. Read more »
From Your Minister
I am talking to a man whose wife has just told him she loves someone else. I need to go to the ocean, says this Midwesterner, to see something bigger than my pain. Read more »
REsources for Living
Our Unitarian Universalist Principles and Purposes statement describes one of the sources of our living tradition as: “Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.” Read more »
Walking (Excerpt)
Tonight I walk. I am watching the sky. I think of the people who came before me and how they knew the placement of stars in the sky, watched the moving sun long and hard enough to witness how a certain angle of light touched a stone only once a year. Read more »
Transcendence
“All peoples are members of the same body, created from one essence. ” —Saadi Read more »
Justice
May 2012
“Justice is what love looks like in public.” —Cornel West
Articles
Inferno of the Living
I think we are living in an inferno. People acknowledge we are living in an economic crisis, but family, we are in a moral crisis, too. Read more »
Restoring Justice
These men are facing the shame of being labeled as outcasts and failures by their families and communities. Many of them, however, have also begun a journey on the path toward remorse. Each of them has been confronted with a moment of truth—a moment in which he has had to own up to the pain ...Read more »
Justice Should Be a Thing of the Past
Once individuals were cheated with misleading mortgages Yesterday storms randomly destroyed homes and families suffered alone Read more »
Women
Alice Walker has graciously agreed to let us publish her poem, “Women” from Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems in our printed and mailed version of Quest. Read more »
Hands
Hands are fascinating things. I like my hands. I think I have nice hands. My hands seem to have a lot of character. Read more »
From Your Minister
From my perspective these UU military chaplains are some of the most amazing advocates for justice in our movement. Every day, every hour, they are standing up for humanity instead of dehumanization, names instead of numbers, fair treatment and equality for all of those they serve. Read more »
REsources for Living
What is justice? That seems like a reasonable question for a month when justice is our theme. We know that Unitarian Universalists think that justice is important. After all, our second principle is justice, equity and compassion in human relations. Read more »
The Resting Place (Excerpt)
May all nations rise up together and with FireSpirit burn to ashes the Great Anger that separates us. Read more »
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