Note from Pastor Isa
Our president, Barack Obama said, “I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act. This was discrimination enshrined in law. It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people. ” Unitarian Universalists across the land have been working vailiantly for marriage equality. We … Continue reading Marriage Equality
In a recent interview with the film star Greta Gerwig, who grew up in the Sacramento UU Church, she said, “I think I keep returning to a UU Church again and again because it resonates with something deep inside of me that feels that all I really know is that I don’t know … (it … Continue reading All I really know is that I don’t know
I’ve been thinking about privilege. Anna, my cousin, who works in Chicago’s inner city school system, said that over two thousand teachers and aides were fired this year. As a specialist, her job, funded by a grant, was on the chopping block. She just learned that her principal found the money to keep her; a … Continue reading Thinking about privilege
The Public Witness at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly (our annual international gathering) in Louisville, Kentucky, focused on Environmental Justice. Preceding our march to the Ohio River we gathered in a worship service lead by the Kentucky/West Virginia Ministers Coalition; featuring Wendell Berry, Tim DeChristopher, Rev Cynthia Cain, and Rev Mel Hoover. We did this … Continue reading WHERE IS OUR ENERGY? WITNESS FOR EARTH, OUR COMMUNITIES, AND OUR FUTURE
Look into the lens of deep space, a cosmos intent on increase. Let forty million galaxies come into focus. Rivers of fire, the orbit of release, how this life moves round, one to the next and the many turns one. What’s visible and can’t be seen, never separate. No line divides the mystery from the … Continue reading Look into the lens of deep space…
Anyone looking for the holy land might best begin with the earth that sustains us … Rev Forrest Church, UU Minister The holy holds you in stillness, calms all the mental chatter, the anxieties and fears that press. It focuses the power, mystery and beauty of the universe. It connects you brilliantly to the interdependent … Continue reading Begin with the earth that sustains us…
Let’s try an experiment. Make a list of what brings you joy/ fun. Without too much thinking jot down what opens you to joy and leads to fun. 1) The birds at the feeder, morning, noon and dusk. 2) Chuck whistling. 3) Poppy running full speed over the hills. 4) Norah (my 5-month-old grand niece) … Continue reading Let’s try an experiment.
When I was 3 we moved from Lindsborg, Kansas, to the NW edge of Chicago. Working farms were within a mile of our house. Mrs. Berry lived across the dirt road and lived on what remained of her small farm. She had chickens, ducks and geese. As the roads were paved, more houses sprung up … Continue reading Mrs. Berry
Learn and obey the rules very well, so you will know how to break them properly. … Dalai Lama What will call the promise of living meaningful lives into this new year? What will bring us into wider dimensions of spiritual authenticity? The willingness to expand beyond the strictures and structures of the way we … Continue reading The promise of living meaningful lives
Cut loose, without devotion, a man becomes a comic. His antics are passed around the family table and mimicked so well, years later the family still laughs. Without devotion, any life becomes a stranger’s story … Marie Howe, in her poem Without Devotion, explores the emptiness that results from having nothing to believe in; lacking … Continue reading Pluralism
