Courage
February 2020
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. ―J.K. Rowling
Articles
Take Heart
In her TEDTalk “What Fear Can Teach Us,” novelist Karen Thompson Walker tells us that fear can be understood as an amazing act of the imagination; as an unintentional storytelling that we are born knowing how to do. Read more »
Being Superheroes
We see them on big screens and small ones In comic books and in toy stores Wearing their fancy outfits With capes or masks or armor Read more »
A Courageous Voice
The CLF seeks to be a courageous voice for justice, for growth, for community amongst people who would probably never meet with-out our web that connects lives around the world. Read more »
The Most Courageous Act
As a first grader, Ruby Bridges was part of the first group of students to racially integrate schools in Louisiana. Read more »
Courage for the Resistance…and the Relationships
I was a fearful child. And frankly, most of those fears stayed with me into young adulthood. Read more »
From Your Minister
I have been thinking about the courage I encounter every day in our far-flung religious community. Read more »
GA Delegates Needed
Would you like to represent the Church of the Larger Fellowship at General Assembly (GA) this summer? Read more »
REsources for Living
The other day my dog started doing something odd. Just as I was about to get into bed he shoved himself into the narrow space between the two banks of drawers that hold up my captain’s bed. Read more »
Become a Penpal
The CLF is serving over 1,080 members who are currently incarcerated. Live out our Unitarian Universalist values by becoming a pen pal and sharing letters and words of encouragement with a CLF member behind bars. 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) here. Read more »
Courage
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. ―J.K. Rowling Read more »
Thresholds
January 2020
The threshold is the place of expectation. ―Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Articles
Crossing The Threshold
Perhaps you are familiar with the concept of The Hero’s Journey, made famous by Joseph Campbell. Read more »
On the Threshold
Thresholds are sacred. Religions of all kinds, cultures of all times and places, have ways to mark the moments when we are on a threshold between one state of being and another. Read more »
Threshold
Threshold is an interesting word. As a maintenance clerk I immediately thought of the thing at the bottom of a doorway. Read more »
In Between
In between, liminal, that space where we wait. Between moments; events, results, action, no action. Read more »
Only in the Dual Realm
There is a passage from the Sonnets to Orpheus, by Rainer Maria Rilke, that has given me inspiration when confronted by the need to change. Read more »
From Your Minister
There are predictable thresholds in our lives, when we move from one life-stage to another—when beloved children begin school, when we downsize from a house to an apartment, when we begin a new career or class. Read more »
REsources for Living
For babies, threshold moments come thick and fast. A first smile moves us into the world of reciprocal relationship. Read more »
Threshold Moments
There are threshold moments in each of our lives. Moments when the past that lies behind us seems present and real. Read more »
Audio Resources
You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org Read more »
The Year as a House
Think of the year as a house: door flung wide in welcome, threshold swept and waiting, a graced spaciousness opening and offering itself to you. Read more »
Unexpected
December 2019
Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. ―Samuel Johnson
Articles
Answering the Angels
I want to acknowledge right up front that the story of the Annunciation, the visitation of Mary from the angel Gabriel as described in the Gospels presents us Unitarian Universalists, with all sorts of challenges. Read more »
Expect the Unexpected
Two months ago, Sky was having one of his recurring nocturnal fights against a bad thing, a monster of some sort. Read more »
Unexpected
I have five daughters. I wasn’t always in touch with them all—and one day out of the blue my youngest wrote to me. Read more »
Expecting the Unexpected
Joy and woe are woven fine, Clothing for the soul divine: Under every grief and pine Runs a joy with silken twine. Read more »
When I Wake Up
When I wake up I find myself in an environment that’s so different from the one I once knew. Read more »
Encountering Unexpected Success…
As the CLF, like all of us, encounters unexpected successes and setbacks, it helps so much to be able to count on recurring monthly donations. Read more »
From Your Minister
A few years ago, a group from CLF decided to take a trip to the Gulf Coast to help with some reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina. Read more »
REsources for Living
During a preaching class in seminary we were each assigned to read aloud to the class a brief passage from the Christmas story in the second chapter of Luke. 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 »
The Call
The call comes on a stunningly ordinary telephone: the doctor telling you the test is positive, the agency saying that you have a child, the lover who left so long ago wanting to make amends. Read more »
Unexpected
Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. ―Samuel Johnson Read more »
Thanks and Praise
November 2019
Praise, my dear one. Let us disappear into praising. Nothing belongs to us. ―Rainer Maria Rilke
Articles
Grateful
There is a large duckling-yellow hardcover book in my mother’s house called a “baby book.” It is my baby book, in fact. Read more »
Giving Thanks
There’s an old joke—perhaps you’ve heard it. A man and his granddaughter are walking along a beach… Read more »
In Praise of Weeds
Pity the poor dandelion. It is, in many ways, nature’s perfect plant. Read more »
Thanks and Praise
Thanks and Praise is is exactly what we have for all of our wonderful CLF members and supporters who contribute so that CLF can be there for religious liberals around the world. Read more »
From Your Minister
Alice Walker has been in the media in some pretty awful ways, but I still think her book, The Color Purple, is one of the most extraordinary theological texts I’ve ever read. Read more »
REsources for Living
Alice Walker has been in the media in some pretty awful ways, but I still think her book, The Color Purple, is one of the most extraordinary theological texts I’ve ever read. Read more »
Nominating Committee Seeks Leaders
The CLF’s Nominating Committee seeks members to run for positions beginning June 2020. 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 »
Praise the Sun, the Moon, the Stars
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 »
Thanks and Praise
Praise, my dear one. Let us disappear into praising. Nothing belongs to us. ―Rainer Maria Rilke Read more »
Sacrifice
October 2019
You can sacrifice and not love but you cannot love and not sacrifice. ―Kris Vallotton
Articles
The Wisdom Of Trees
This month we are taking on the gnarly topic of sacrifice. It is a concept that makes many of us uncomfortable, distrustful and a little bit surly, and rightly so. Read more »
American Sacrifice
Sacrifice is a powerful, ancient, evocative word that conjures images of animals slaughtered in rituals to bind a community together in a celebratory feast for a long-awaited harvest after a drought. Read more »
Always Faithful
I have learned about faithfulness and sacrifice as a result of a very strange journey I have been on since I inadvertently found some of the men who were in Vietnam with my older brother, 2nd Lt. Robert M. Christian Jr., “Bobby” to me, who was killed on April 11, 1969. Read more »
From Your Minister
The roots of violence: Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principles. Read more »
REsources for Living
I confess I’ve never been a big fan of the concept of sacrifice. It’s always struck me as kind of punitive, like it’s morally superior to suffer than to enjoy life’s abundance. Read more »
The Sacrifices You Make
For many of our CLF members, their support is truly a sacrifice—not only members on fixed incomes who give what they can, but also our incarcerated members, for whom even the price of a stamp to write to a pen pal is a significant sacrifice. 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 »
Food Chain
Give up pretending. Everything, you know, everything, sooner or later gets eaten… Read more »
Sacrifice
You can sacrifice and not love but you cannot love and not sacrifice. ―Kris Vallotton Read more »
Work & Play
September 2019
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. ―Jerome K. Jerome
Articles
Working, Not Working, and Not Working Any More
One fine day in San Francisco, nearly 35 years ago now, I found myself down on Mission Street, standing in line at the unemployment office. Read more »
Tending the Spirit
Deep play is a form of tending to the spirit. We hope that through Quest, along with online worship, Facebook groups, questformeaning.org and our various other offerings, that the CLF provides a field where we can come together, play and explore. Read more »
Deep Play
Brian La Doone is a musher—a sled dog racer—in far northern Canada, which is polar bear country. Read more »
The Path of Play
Psychologist David Elkind, in his book The Power of Play, identifies several characteristics of play, including… Read more »
Full-Hearted Parenting
Last year my therapist started asking me at every visit, “You having any fun?” Read more »
Play, People. Just Play
The innocent mistake that keeps us caught in our own particular style of ignorance, unkindness, and shut-downness is that we are never encouraged to see clearly what is, with gentleness. Read more »
REsources for Living
“Do what you love,” the saying goes, “and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Read more »
Quest 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 »
Work & Play
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. ―Jerome K. Jerome Read more »
Wonder
July-August 2019
Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge. ―Abraham Joshua Heschel
Articles
Remembering the Mystery and Wonder
My first memory of what the first of our UU Sources calls “transcending mystery and wonder” is an experience I had when I was quite little, maybe five or six years old. Read more »
Witness to Wonder (Excerpt)
I believe this firmly—that we are sacred beings in a sacred world. Read more »
My BFF, Jack
Jack and I met accidentally: He flew into the open hand at the end of my out-stretched left arm. Read more »
Sequence
O Love, here I am, at this moment, on this planet, in this place, utterly in awe that I am alive and that everything is. Read more »
Thank You, Janet!
Janet Lane, who has done the layout and design work for Quest for the last 32 years, is retiring from the position following this issue. Read more »
REsources for Living
I love science. I think of science as a pathway to wonder, with that path of discovery and learning leading us to a deeper understanding of who we are and how we relate to the rest of our universe. 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 »
Identity
June 2019
When I discover who I am, I’ll be free. ―Ralph Ellison
Articles
Passing
Have you watched any of those shows on PBS that trace the genealogies and DNA of famous people? Read more »
Coming Out
I would have told you with complete certainty and utter sincerity that I was straight, right up until the first time I was seriously attracted to a woman. Read more »
From Your Minister
Some identities, like being a student or a resident in a particular place, come and go. Read more »
REsources for Living
“Who are you?” the caterpillar asks Alice in Alice in Wonderland. It turns out that is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Read more »
Ever-Deepening Identity
Unitarian Universalists understand religious and spiritual identity to be something that unfolds over time as we learn and grow. Read more »
Quest 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 »
Identity Would Seem To Be
Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self… Read more »
Hunger
May 2019
There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. ―Mahatma Gandhi
Articles
Hunger and Abundance
Jesus and his people were on overload. They had been working day and night, healing the sick and helping whoever needed help. Read more »
The Hunger Banquet
The invitations were elegant. They announced a hunger banquet. And as soon as people began receiving these invitations, I began getting calls. Read more »
From Your Minister
“You were ravenous right from birth!” This is the story I was told through my whole childhood. Read more »
Do you hunger for meaning?
For connection? Are you looking for ways to feed your mind and heart and soul? Read more »
REsources for Living
If, like me, you are fortunate enough to have a refrigerator and the means to fill it, it is possible that you have a tendency to stand in front of the open fridge, staring at the contents and wondering what there is to eat. Read more »
Quest 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 »
Hunger
There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. ―Mahatma Gandhi Read more »
Restoration
April 2019
All the beauty that’s been lost before wants to find us again. ―U2
Articles
Notice of Annual Meeting
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 46th Annual Meeting will be held via video/telephone conference call and screen sharing on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 at 8:00PM EDT. Read more »
Finding Restoration Through Stories
If European Americans begin to learn the real stories, and become aware of the level of devastation and grief suffered by Indigenous peoples, our first reaction can sometimes be defensiveness. Read more »
Restorative Justice
Restorative justice is an act of giving back, not going back, for nothing will ever be the same as before the damage was done. Read more »
Already Saved (Excerpt)
Years ago, I worked in Arizona’s so-called justice system. A woman named Kathy McCormick, who worked at the Attorney General’s Office doing victim-offender mediation, told me this story. Read more »
Arrows of Love
Do you remember a time when you attended a Unitarian Universalist congregation or gathering, and it felt like you were finally at home? Read more »
Soul-Restoring Work
Perhaps you find that Quest or other resources from the CLF help to restore your spirits in difficult times. 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 »
The Road to Restoration
When I think of restoration, I cannot help but think of my time in prison so far. Before I was arrested I was a hopeless, miserable wreck that could not pull away from drug addiction. Read more »
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