REsources for Living
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I’ve been going lately to choir rehearsals in a classroom at a school for the arts, so I’ve had a chance to read the posters on the front wall. Read more →
Did You Know?
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…that you can read blog posts from UUs, including CLF ministers Meg Riley and Lynn Ungar ? Read more →
City Upon a Hill
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Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwracke, and to provide for our posterity, is to followe the counsell of Micah, to doe justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. Read more →
Covenant
March 2017
Blessed is the covenant of love, the covenant of mercy… deathless song in the house of night. —Leonard Cohen
Articles
Thus Do We Covenant…
A number of years ago, I was the guest preacher at one of our small congregations in northern New England. Read more »
The Covenants We Keep
My seminary classmate was 30 years older than me. I sat in his small apartment, hoping for the kind of wisdom and guidance I had already come to know he might provide. Read more »
For All Those Who Seek Help
Our liberal religious covenant… is to trust one another enough… to seek help when we’re down and to offer assistance when we’re able. Read more »
Bound in Covenant (Excerpt)
A covenant is not a contract. It is not made and signed and sealed once and for all, sent to the attorneys for safekeeping or guarded under glass in a museum. Read more »
In the Presence of God and One Another (Excerpt)
We are being invited into a place where we move from an idea to an experience. Read more »
From Your Guest Minister
I often wonder if there is much more going on with free will than meets the eye, especially when it comes to finding and joining a spiritual community. Read more »
REsources for Living
I’ve been going lately to choir rehearsals in a classroom at a school for the arts, so I’ve had a chance to read the posters on the front wall. Read more »
Did You Know?
…that you can read blog posts from UUs, including CLF ministers Meg Riley and Lynn Ungar ? Read more »
City Upon a Hill
Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwracke, and to provide for our posterity, is to followe the counsell of Micah, to doe justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. Read more »
Covenant
Blessed is the covenant of love, the covenant of mercy… deathless song in the house of night. —Leonard Cohen Read more »
Your Body is Your Body
The chorus of this song by Peter Alsop is “My body’s nobody’s body but mine. You’ve got your own body, let me run mine!” It’s a good little bit of song to keep in your head for times when someone else seems to think that your body should look or act a different way than what is right for you.
Nominating Committee Seeks Leaders
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The CLF’s Nominating Committee seeks members to run for positions on the Board of Directors beginning June 2017. Read more →
Prayer
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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
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At the CLF we open many doors to the quiet voice within—and we cannot keep those doors open without your support. Read more →
We Belong to Each Other
The song “From You I Receive, To You I Give” is a beautiful articulation of how we serve one another in community. You can learn this song together as a family and sing it at bedtime, as a meal blessing, or any time you want to celebrate belonging together as a family.
Lyrics: 
From you I receive, to you I give.
Together, we share and from this, we live.
(To lead this song as a round, have the second group enter when the first group completes the line “From you I receive… “)
Listen as Rev. Lynn Ungar sings this song, and then join in!
(Words and music by Joseph and Nathan Segal)
In the Circle of Love
The poet Edwin Markham, who was born in 1852, and became the poet laureate of Oregon from 1923-1931, was invited to read his poem “Lincoln, Man of the People” at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922.
But UUs most often remember him for a tiny little poem that expresses his Universalist beliefs in love that is big enough to include everyone—and offers a radical understanding of belonging. The poem, called “Outwitted,” says:
He drew a circle that shut me out—
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
Think about what the poem says: He wanted to shut me out and say that I didn’t belong. He said that my beliefs made me someone who had to be pushed away. But because I live from a place of love, I did something very clever and sneaky—I found a way to include and welcome him, even when he wasn’t willing to include or welcome me.
That’s Universalism—love big enough to offer belonging to every human soul. Not because everyone is like us or even necessarily likeable, but because Love is big enough to include everyone.
