I was asked by the clerk of a committee I am on to guide worship the other day. He wanted me not to prepare a sermon but rather help prepare our hearts and minds for doing work around discernment. The point for us as a group was to hold that
Continue reading →I’ve been thinking about prayer today, and the many ways we pray that are not simply meal-time prayers (God thank you for the food). I came across Psalm 104:33 in my reading this morning which makes this point clearly: I will sing to the LORD as long as
Continue reading →Heralding The New Creation: Mission as Participation in the Quaker TraditionQuaker Heritage Day: Berkeley Friends ChurchFebruary 12, 2011 Here are some quotes, Scripture, and Queries for personal preparation for our gathering together at Quaker Heritage Day. I may add more to this (thus the part 1) but I may not.
Continue reading →This was the message I gave this morning based on Galatians 3:26-29. First we discussed some of these queries: 1. What do you think the connections between peace and equality are in the passages above? 2. In what ways have I experienced inequality in my own life or around
Continue reading →This morning the big word, the word of the day for all you Pee-Wees Playhouse fans in the congregation, is participation. It is a word that signals collective activity, collaboration, co-operation, co-mmunity, co-laboring. A mutual working together in small ways that add up over time. It might conjure up
Continue reading →Posted a few weeks late, here’s my Christmas Sermon. The Birth Announcement And suddenly, out of nowhere, the Magi see a star in the sky. Magi – magicians, astrologers, wise-learned men and women, non-Jews from east of Palestine (maybe Arabia, Persia, Babylon?) – these are the people (it doesnt say
Continue reading →I have been thinking a lot more about place, context and community that has been usual for me. I have blogged about this already a couple times (escapism and goals). But there are some queries I have been thinking about for awhile and that I have stuck to my computer
Continue reading →I’ve been thinking about what my goals are for this coming year. I don’t know if these would constitute “resolutions,” I’ve never been big on those, but here is what I have so far. I want to: 1. Accomplish less. This past year was crammed jammed full
Continue reading →This morning we did a worship and prayer service around making “peace with loss.” Through prayers, songs, silence and the lighting of candles we remembered the many who have lost loved ones in the past year, and considered those who have suffered loss in other ways as well. In some
Continue reading →In the past I’ve done more of a write up on the albums I really enjoyed from the previous year, but as I went through my catalog I realized that I didn’t have a lot of new albums that I was in love with. What I noticed was
Continue reading →Every Christmas Eve we have a very nice, contemplative candlelight service. This gathering goes for about 45-60 minutes, includes scripture reading, poetry, prayers and music. Oh and plenty of candles. The second one also has three readers. You are free to download the resources here and use them however you
Continue reading →This morning I noticed a torn piece of paper with something I’d written on it from awhile back: * How do we form a community that creates artists rather than just critics? * Justice should always come first, justice is innovative. I am not sure what I was reading when I
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