Quest February 2021
February 2021
Each day we are invited to risk holy surrender to the call of life and love and liberation —Rev. Deanna Vandiver
Articles
Our Call Against Denialism
“Every disaster movie starts with the government ignoring a scientist” — social media meme, unknown origin Read more »
Our Work to Do
The proposed 8th principle of Unitarian Universalism states: “We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountability dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.” Read more »
Spirit Draw Near
About eight years ago I started a meditation practice of drawing or doodling that I call “inklings” —as it gives glimpses both inward into one’s self and outward into connection with others, the earth, or the great unknown. Read more »
Risk love, beloveds
Once upon a time I rejected the concept of surrender without hesitation or investigation Would not even risk thinking it (surrender, indeed!) and yet… Read more »
Looking for a Way to Get Involved in Our Ministry?
The Church of the Larger Fellowship is comprised of over 2500 individuals serving Unitarian Universalism—half of whom are currently incarcerated. Read more »
Quest February 2021
Each day we are invited to risk holy surrender to the call of life and love and liberation —Rev. Deanna Vandiver Read more »
Quest January 2021
January 2021
Articles
Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter
Since the bricks-and mortar congregation I serve first affirmed that Black Lives Matter and hung a banner with those words, we have had a steady stream of push-back to that phrase. Read more »
Unitarian Universalism Out Loud
I believe that our job as Unitarian Universalists is to love loudly. Louder than the hate in the world. Read more »
Learn More About Membership
We are so glad that so many people are receiving and loving Quest Monthly. Read more »
In the Labyrinth
I do not espouse the theology that “everything happens for a reason.” I simply just don’t believe that. Read more »
On Balance
On the subject of balance: many would imagine it as peace and harmony pervading throughout the sphere of life. Read more »
What’s in VUU?
Since 2013 the VUU has been the weekly online talk show hosted by the CLF. It is recorded and broadcast live on Thursdays at noon EST. Read more »
The Power of Words on Paper
I’ve spent the first few months of my service with the Worthy Now prison ministry amidst large stacks of paper. Read more »
For Your Reflection
Each month, we will offer a question or two for reflection based on the idea explored in this column. Read more »
Silence
December 2020
The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful. —Joy Harjo
Articles
Use Your Inside Voice
In a congregation I once served was a man who’d been there many years—not a noisy person, but one who was pretty loud in his dislike of silence in the Sunday service. Read more »
Silence as a Spiritual Tool
Silence is the tool that brings us back from fragmentation into wholeness. Read more »
Sanctuaries of Silence
Three sanctuaries of silence come to mind as I think about creating more space for silence in my life. Read more »
Profound Silence
The day Gerry and I moved to Neenah from Milwaukee was a long, exhausting one. Read more »
Silence
When I was a child I used to fear the silence. One of the tortures I endured was being thrown into a small closet with no light, and being left there for days at a time. Read more »
Dark of Winter
Where I live, December marks the beginning of winter. And in the Hudson Valley of New York, those winters are often cold, silent, and dark. Read more »
Moments of Silence
During my first year living in Seattle, I heard a news report of a woman being arrested for throwing a frozen chicken out her apartment in the middle of a crowd of runners in a 5K race. Read more »
Universal Truths
As we head into the depths of winter I am always reminded of that in other parts of the world, people are experiencing the height of summer. Read more »
REsources for Living
Let all mortal flesh keep silence…begins an ancient hymn that is still a popular Christmas carol. Read more »
A Fond Goodbye
Close to 20 years ago Rev. Jane Rzepka invited me to join the CLF team as the editor of Quest. Read more »
Audio Resources
You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org Read more »
Ode to Silence
You, silence, are the ground on which we build the fragile sandcastles of our every spoken word. Read more »
Possibilities
November 2020
Just don’t give up what you’re trying to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong. —Ella Fitzgerald
Articles
Human Possibilities
Working at Greensboro Health Care Center, a nursing home, was a rewarding experience for me in many ways. Read more »
The Realm of Possibility
In Lewis Carrol’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, Alice is talking with the White Queen, who lives in a backwards world where effects happen before their cause. Read more »
Living As If
Back when I was still new to Texas I met up with black eyed peas for the first time. I was not impressed. Read more »
Possibility in an Age of Ecological Despair
In February of 2015 I went to the Unitarian Universalist Minister’s Association Institute for Excellence in Ministry, and I had the opportunity to spend a week in a workshop with activist, eco‐philosopher, writer, and spiritual elder Joanna Macy. Read more »
Facing the Impossible
What could a convict have to say about possibilities? At a time before prison, I would have thought Not very much. Read more »
Possibilities
The November issue of Quest will be completed and mailed long before we know the outcome of the most important election of our lifetimes. Read more »
Autumn Leaves for Shannon
My friend Shannon was one of a kind. She had a huge heart, full of love and loyalty to those of us in her chosen family. Read more »
Nominating Committee Seeks Leaders
The CLF’s Nominating Committee seeks members to run for positions beginning June 2021. Read more »
REsources for Living
I like to think of our theme of Possibilities in terms of walking on a winding path through the woods. Read more »
The Possibilities
The possibilities of what the CLF might offer the world are endless—and have never been more essential. Read more »
Audio Resources
You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org Read more »
Possibilities
Just don’t give up what you’re trying to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong. —Ella Fitzgerald Read more »
Grief
October 2020
Grief is just love with no place to go. — Jamie Anderson
Articles
Letting Go
When you’re a capable, confident, 28-year-old child of privilege and experience, then you are accustomed to taking the challenges that come up in life and simply…managing them. Read more »
Carve Meaning
One of the many ways to carve meaning out of grief is to honor the memory of those we have lost. Read more »
Grief and Gravity
The movie Gravity, which came out in 2013, is about grief. And it’s worth watching with this in mind, because what Alfonso Cuarón, the director and co-writer, and Jonás Cuarón, the other co-writer, have to tell us about grief can help us through it. Read more »
No Words Needed
When you lose someone you love, there are some things that are just really hard to hear: They’re in a better place. Time heals all wounds. I know how you feel. Read more »
Good Grief
Grief is more than just an intense form of pain. It is the emotion triggered by severe loss—a loss of a part of the self. Read more »
Pay Attention
“Sit, Naomi, and pay attention!” This was my ongoing, never-ending command to my Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. Read more »
REsources for Living
We tend to talk about grief as the feeling that arises when someone we love dies. Read more »
Audio Resources
You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org Read more »
Jeremiah 9:17-21
17 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them. Read more »
Imagination
September 2020
A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God. — Sidney Sheldon
Articles
Imagining a Way
One of the best ways I know to get things moving when I’m facing significant change is to engage my imagination. Read more »
Creative Imagination
When I was in college, a professor began the term by assigning a novel set in a dystopian future, where everything was grim and hope was absent. Read more »
Pure Imagination
We live in a world that seems bereft of potential, a world that seems to have lost its imagination. Read more »
Living by Imagination
When I was a boy, I had a vivid imagination. Some might have even called it overactive. Read more »
REsources for Living
I have to say that I feel like I am writing this to you from another country. Read more »
Fueled by Imagination
The Church of the Larger Fellowship has always been fueled by imagination. Read more »
New Lead Ministry Team
The CLF Board enthusiastically announces the CLF New Leadership Team Read more »
Imagination
A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God. — Sidney Sheldon Read more »
Spiritual Practice
July & August 2020
The important point of spiritual practice is not to try to escape your life, but to face it—exactly and completely. —Dainin Katagiri
Articles
Washing Dishes is Not a Spiritual Practice
In college, I majored in Women’s Studies. My sense that I lived in a world that objectified and devalued women was strong. Read more »
Spiritual Practice
I grew up in a music school—that is to say, our home was filled most afternoons and evenings with music teachers and students playing scales and études. Read more »
Repeat Your Spiritual Practice
A spiritual practice is something which you repeat regularly that grounds you in depth and connection. Read more »
Thank You, Meg Riley!
It was sometime in the 1980s. We were at a UU Religious Educators retreat northeast of Minneapolis and I remember my roommate saying from the other twin bed in our room, “Ginger, I think I should let you know I am a lesbian.” Read more »
Meg’s Many Accomplishments
During the ten years of Meg Riley’s leadership as senior minister for the Church of the Larger Fellowship, we have changed and grown in a wide variety of ways. Read more »
From Your Minister
Letting go can be a spiritual practice. I should know, I’ve been doing it for a while as I prepare to leave CLF. Read more »
REsources for Living
One of the important things that the CLF does is serve as a teaching congregation, providing an internship or other learning site for people in ministerial formation. Read more »
Audio Resources
You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org Read more »
Chorus of Cells
Every morning, even being very old, (or perhaps because of it), I like to make my bed. In fact, the starting of each day unhelplessly is the biggest thing I ever do. Read more »
Spiritual Practice
The important point of spiritual practice is not to try to escape your life, but to face it—exactly and completely. —Dainin Katagiri Read more »
Mistakes
June 2020
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. ―Albert Einstein
Articles
When We Fail
The fundamental belief in the value of the individual has long held a central place in liberal religion, and finds a modern expression in our faith’s first principle, an affirmation of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Read more »
Embracing Failure
I used to be someone who beat myself up for every fault, even ones that no one else knew about. Read more »
Splendid Failures
This past summer my husband and I celebrated our 30th anniversary by going hiking in the mountains. Read more »
Ministerial Search
The CLF’s beloved senior minister, Rev. Meg Riley, has announced her retirement, effective August 2020. Read more »
You Are Worthy of Love
There are plenty of places in the world where folks are more than ready to point out your mistakes, and to tell you that what you are doing is not good enough. Read more »
REsources for Living
Our theme for this month is Mistakes and Failures—which I think of as two very different things. Read more »
Audio Recordings
You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org Read more »
Managing Mistakes
What do you do when you make a mistake? You see what part of it was yours. You take responsibility and let go of the self-defense. Read more »
Mistakes
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. ―Albert Einstein Read more »
Integrity
May 2020
I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions. ―Lillian Hellman
Articles
Living with Integrity
To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight.” Read more »
Living with Integrity in a “Post-Truth” World
There’s a reason why we as a religious people covenant to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Read more »
Watertight Integrity
I learned about risk-taking as a component of integrity in the Navy. Read more »
Integrity’s Blemished Virtue
Helen was revered as a good person, and I was happy to be her friend. Read more »
The Crooked Timber of Ourselves
“Finding yourself.” Nearly everyone wants to do it, and many are willing to pay for the trip. Read more »
The Integrity of Community
Integrity is one of the most important character traits we can develop. Read more »
From Your Minister
Years ago I was working with an acupuncturist. She put needles all over my body to stimulate various meridians, so that my life energy, or qi, could flow freely and without impediment. Read more »
REsources for Living
What does it look like to live a life of integrity? It seems to me that this question is at the heart of Unitarian Universalism. Read more »
Support the CLF and Quest Monthly
In a system that does everything to dehumanize them, the CLF provides a rare reminder to our incarcerated members of their integrity as worthy human beings. Read more »
Audio Resources
You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org. Read more »
Full
“She’s so full of herself!” we say, as if that were an insult. As if there were something else that one should be full of.. Read more »
Integrity
I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions. ―Lillian Hellman Read more »
Renewal
April 2020
The receding wave does not despair; it knows it will rise again. ―Marty Rubin
Articles
A Renewal of Faith
I’ve known the song Spirit of Life by heart for longer than I can remember. Read more »
Thriving in Difficult Times
Recently a fellow climate change activist exclaimed in despair, “The world has never faced a crisis like this before!” Read more »
Serving Time/Served by Time
When I arrived at North Carolina’s Central Prison I wore my fear and trepidation like an aura as I, a pallid 128-pound weakling, stepped into my worst nightmare. Read more »
Renewal
We are blessed here in Texas to have nearly hundred-year-old live oaks inside our prison. Read more »
From Your Minister
I’ve been thinking about renewable sources of energy versus sources of energy that deplete. Read more »
Notice of Annual Meeting
To all members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, Unitarian Universalist Read more »
REsources for Living
As I see it, there are three words—related but not the same—that apply to the holidays I celebrate this season. Read more »
Issues
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