Podcast: Download (Duration: 5:34 — 5.1MB)
Subscribe: More
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 →
Podcast: Download (Duration: 4:28 — 4.1MB)
Subscribe: More
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 →
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:20 — 1.2MB)
Subscribe: More
To all members of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, Unitarian Universalist
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 →
Podcast: Download (Duration: 0:17 — 280.8KB)
Subscribe: More
That you can listen to Quest Monthly as a podcast? Read more →
Podcast: Download (Duration: 0:56 — 878.4KB)
Subscribe: More
We have not come here to take prisoners
But to surrender ever more deeply
To freedom and joy. Read more →
April 2016
I wish that every human life might be pure, transparent freedom. —Simone de Beauvoir
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born a free Black woman in Baltimore, Maryland in 1825. She was raised in the household of her uncle, an educator and African Methodist Episcopal (AME) minister. He was also an abolitionist—a person who objected to the enslavement of blacks. Harper became an educator and abolitionist as well. She also became a writer, publishing her first book of poetry at twenty and later in life publishing the first short story by an African American woman. Her writing often urged Blacks, women, and people in oppressed groups to take a firm stand for equality and freedom.
In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. It became dangerous to be a free Black in Maryland because slave owners could claim Black people were runaway slaves and force them into slavery. So, Harper moved farther north to Ohio and then to Philadelphia. She taught, ran part of the Underground Railroad helping slaves escape to freedom, and lectured around the country.
In 1863, abolitionists celebrated success with the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves. But there was a long road ahead to full equality, and Harper spent the rest of her life working for women as well as African Americans to have access to full freedom and justice.
To read some of Harper’s poems click here.
A mosaic is a kind of artwork that is made by creating a picture out of pieces of pottery. It’s a way that something broken can turn into something beautiful.
One way to play with the idea of a mosaic is to draw an abstract picture, full of color and shapes, but not necessarily of a particular thing like a cat or a robot. Then cut the picture up. Break it on purpose. Then glue the pieces onto a piece of construction paper, leaving just a little gap between each piece.
You will create a new, and maybe surprising, piece of art by taking the original drawing apart and putting it back together in a different form.
We rely heavily on donations to help steward the CLF, this support allows us to provide a spiritual home for folks that need it. We invite you to support the CLF mission, helping us center love in all that we do.
Can you give $5 or more to sustain the ministries of the Church of the Larger Fellowship?
If preferred, you can text amount to give to 84-321
Quest for Meaning is a program of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF).
As a Unitarian Universalist congregation with no geographical boundary, the CLF creates global spiritual community, rooted in profound love, which cultivates wonder, imagination, and the courage to act.