I connected with the musicians for the UU service I'm doing for Feb 7.  Bruce Krohmer, who is just a monster sax and clarinet player, is going to work with me on the music.  This is going to be a collaboration instead of random see-what-music-shows-up and I'm really looking forward to it.  Among other things, the dialog will sharpen my focus during ( Read more... )

And so we came, a relatively small group since most of the teenagers whose life Kevin had touched had moved on or away . But all of what remains of our church-based circle was there, including someone who had not even known him, but who wanted to be there because the rest of us felt so passionately about him ( Read more... )

I signed up put on a service for our UU church and its my first solo effort in a long time.  Part of the impetus for this was that our church has signed on to the Green Sanctuary process.  Worship is an essential element of the Green Sanctuary and this service will help fulfill the church's commitment.  But, it will not be Compact Fluorescent ( Read more... )

I have written on the UU source revision on my home church's listserv.  An interesting thing is that the majority of support I've received is from the atheist/humanist contingent.  They felt equally, if not more injured by the proposed changes.  What I'm coming to, is that its not really enough to love your own touchstone source.  Being UU means ( Read more... )

I learned a lot from listening to some of the streaming media that discussed the now failed replacement Sources section of the UU by laws. I was really aware of my own concerns, but while I can fully see forests, I also run into individual trees, so this is what I learned from other folks against the change.

The most obvious thing I missed was that ( Read more... )

Every so many years, the UUA goes through the Principles and Sources to revise them to meet current demands.  First, the good news - The seventh principle is still there and has been (IMHO) slightly improved - Reverence for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. -with "respect" being replaced by "reverence."

What follows is ( Read more... )

Friday, we hung out in Corvallis. Coffee shops, Pegasus art gallery, etc.  A local artist, Bill Shumway,  and a friend of our friends owns the gallery.  If you are in town, stop in and see some of these (which does not actually include two of the most phenomenal of his works).  Then coffee and some deep discussion with one of our friends while the ( Read more... )

I have just finished reading an article in UU World by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker (current president of the Starr King UU seminary in Berkeley.  Based on their forthcoming  book Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire (Beacon Press) it describes how the Christian church turned its back ( Read more... )

I used to go on UU church leadership retreats every January.  I had skipped beer and karaoke and was talking to a really cool older guy back at the retreat center concerning life the universe and all that.  I recall that this conversation featured a proposed polyamory service (alas, that one never made it to prime time).  We also talked about ( Read more... )

 It has been, in an odd way, an all UU weekend.  Saturday afternoon, we moved a hundred chairs into a circle, set up an altar and rehearsed for the Samhain service.  For the first time, I heard the piece that my wife was going to do about the passing of our dear friend a year and a half ago.  Somehow she got through it -  as long as she didn't have ( Read more... )