Quest January 2023
January 2023
Nobody’s free until everybody’s free. —Fannie Lou Hamer
Articles
A Hard-Won Hopefulness: The Journey to Liberation
In 2019 the Rev. Bill Sinkford and the wonderful staff at First Unitarian Portland invited me to join them for “Seminary for a Day,” when we reflected together on how our inherited liberal tradition is accountable to the theological work of liberation. Read more »
Liberation
What does liberation mean to you? What does it feel like, and how do you access it? Read more »
The Learned Among Us
The following is adapted from a sermon that Aisha gave in CLF online worship on Nov. 6, 2022. A few years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about learning to love myself fully, especially my body. Read more »
New CLF Member Database Includes a Donor Self-Service Portal: We Need Your Help to Migrate to a New System!
The Church of the Larger Fellowship is migrating our member and donation database. Our new system, called Church Center, allows you to see your history and make changes. Read more »
Quest December 2022
December 2022
Rest is a beautiful interruption in a world that has no pause button. —Tricia Hersey, The Nap Ministry
Articles
Practicing Rest
Did you know that there are 7 kinds of rest? Physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, social, sensory, and creative. Read more »
Even God Rested – A CLF Worship Service
Most Sunday evenings, members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship with internet access gather for an online worship service. Read more »
Quest November 2022
November 2022
We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community. —Dorothy Day
Articles
Breaking Our Hearts Open // Romper y Abrir Nuaestros Corazones
Our hearts break open for the pain of the world. Read more »
Community / Comunidad
Who makes up your community? What role does community play in your life? Read more »
The Strength of Community // La Fuerza de la Comunidad
In a recent conversation with other religious professionals at Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) Fall Con—the annual conference for religious educators—Aisha Hauser, one of our CLF lead ministers, invited us to name what gives us joy and what sustains us in these difficult times that feel like a slow-moving apocalypse. Read more »
Remembering // Recordando
One of the annual events we recognize every November is the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). Read more »
Quest October 2022
October 2022
“When you go in search of honey, you must expect to be stung by bees.” —Joseph Joubert
Articles
At the Water’s Edge
Down the cliffs to the black sand of the Pa’iloa beach, and right on the shore, was an opening. Read more »
tikkun olam
Most Sunday evenings, members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship with internet access gather for an online worship service. Read more »
Quest September 2022
September 2022
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” —W.B. Yeats
Articles
A Theological Mandate of Liberation
The following sermon was originally given at the service to formally install our Lead Ministry Team in their role as ministers of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, which took place on June 25, 2022, during UUA General Assembly in Portland, OR. Read more »
Called and Installed, Your Lead Ministry Team
One of the spiritual joys a religious professional receives is their installation to the congregation to which they’ve been called. Read more »
The Rainbow
I was walking in the yard.. He looked like a mob enforcer — probably because he was.. Read more »
Quest July/August 2022
July/August 2022
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” —Mother Teresa
Articles
No Saviors
One of the many reasons I choose Unitarian Universalism as my faith is that I don’t believe in saviors. Read more »
Compassion & Healing
For me, growing up in the nightmare of my childhood and the abuses I suffered, compassion was an unknown word and concept. Read more »
Voices of Compassion
In October of 2020, I suffered a week of torment within which I was repeatedly beaten, extorted of property and medication, and sexually abused by a cellmate. Read more »
A Compassionate Life
Religious scholar Karen Armstrong has studied the teachings of religions large and small all around the world. And she has, as we all have, witnessed the strife in our world: the pain, the isolation, the injustice, the inequality. Read more »
Updates from the CLF’s 2022 Annual Meeting
The CLF held its Annual Congregational Meeting on Sunday June 5, 2022. Anyone who could not attend the meeting was invited to vote by mail ahead of the meeting. Read more »
Would you like your creative expression to appear in Quest?
All CLF members (incarcerated and free world members) are welcome to submit reflections on upcoming Quest themes, original poetry and artwork. Read more »
Quest June 2022
June 2022
Be faithful to that which exists within yourself. —Andre Gide
Articles
Thoughts About Integrity and Our National Character
Integrity is not a trait that can exist on its own. Read more »
The Unknown
They wouldn’t show me the path in which to walk… Only the roads sidelined, with bodies in chalk… Read more »
From Membership to Stewardship
When Aisha, Michael, and I were called as your Lead Ministry Team in 2020 we were excited to learn all the behind-the-scenes workings of CLF. Read more »
Quest April 2022
April 2022
One lives in the hope of becoming a memory. —Antonio Porchia
Articles
What is Memory?
I am terrible at remembering names. I have tried all of the tricks to be able to do that, but nope, not for me. Thank goodness for name tags! Read more »
Notice of the CLF Annual Meeting
Per Article VII, Sections 1 and 2, of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) Bylaws, the 49th Annual Meeting will be held via video/telephone conference call and screen sharing on Sunday, June 5, 2021 at 7:00PM EDT. Read more »
The Shape of Memory
A phrase landed in me during the week that my mother was dying, as I grasped at any words I could find to make sense of the enormous shift in front of me. Read more »
Quest March 2022
March 2022
All are caught in an inescapable
network of mutuality, tied in a single
garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects
all indirectly.
—Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Articles
The Aunties Have Always Known
When I was a teenager, I loved Ralph Waldo Emerson, particularly his essay on self-reliance. Read more »
Forgive Us Our Trespasses
In April of 2019, I led a youth and adult delegation from the local congregation I serve on a service-learning trip to Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Read more »
A Message To The Community: A Letter From Prison
I offer my condolences to the families who have lost loved ones… And became victims to the violence… Read more »
Issues
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