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
Continue reading →Here’s my sermon from December 19th. This morning is the fourth and final week of advent. We have travelled long and far in our discussion this advent season, and hopefully some of the ideas, stories and experiences you have had thus far have been meaningful, maybe even transformative, to
Continue reading →This has been a pretty good year for Gathering In Light (as a blog) and it’s always fun to do a little year-end wrap up. For one, I’m surprised to see that I had 150 or so posts this year. Considering how much seemed to have happened this
Continue reading →Going through Christmas this year I began to wonder if Christmas has lost it’s power as a symbol and sign in our culture today. Symbols can lose power over time and when this happens there needs to be a reformation of those symbols and signs, or a letting go
Continue reading →I always enjoy Max Carter’s perspective, a f/Friend from North Carolina, a Conservative Quaker, and educator. His reflection this week on Christmas and Christians who celebrate the holiday is well worth the read. Do you need to be Christian to celebrate Christmas? What is Christmas all about? Is
Continue reading →A few weeks back google posted that they were going to be giving away a limited number of their new Chrome OS laptops for testing and everyone was welcome to apply. So I did just that. And low and behold, a little box arrived on the doorstep today! I can
Continue reading →The “Spirit Rising” book giveaway is now over and we have three winners: 1. Christine 2. T. Vail Palmer Jr. 3. Lyndsey Congratulations and Merry Christmas. I’ll be contacting you shortly.
Continue reading →Interestingly, the act of hearing is initially stressed in Matthew 11:2ff: 2 When John heard in prison what the Messiah* was doing, he sent word by his* disciples 3and said to him, Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another? John sends
Continue reading →Hi all, many of you have already seen that I’ll be doing the talks at Quaker Heritage Day this year hosted by Berkeley Friends Church (find more info here). I know I’ve mentioned it a few times but if any of you are anywhere near Berkeley you should
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