Reflections on the 100th anniversary of the flower communion, and the ritual's connection to anti-fascism.
The Sacred and the secular
A sermon about the nature of the sacred and the secular offered during the Jewish High Holidays.
Walking the CNT’s Streets (or a Tour of Spanish Civil War Barcelona)
Last week we went into Barcelona and went on a Spanish Civil War walking tour organized by Nick Lloyd and Catherine Howley. It’s been reviewed in the Guardian and other places. In many ways, it has been the best thing we’ve done in Spain: by turns educational, provocative, and emotional. The tour took place almost entirely along Las Ramblas and in the Gothic quarter. It started in Plaça de...
An Accidental Day in Tarragona
Today was a day that it was a good to have a back-up plan. We went to Barcelona with the intention of taking the train to Zaragoza. Once we got there I found out that we needed to have our passports with us in order to buy non-regional train tickets. Of course, we didn’t have our passports on us so we had to change plans. We ended up taking a regional train to Tarragona, which is where we were...
Contemplation & Sound: Unitarian Universalist Tradition Celebrating Pride at the Rothko Chapel
The script from the service that Mark Vogel and I led at the Rothko Chapel on June 2, 2021.
A Prayer for Democracy
Friends, you are no doubt horrified by the events unfolding in Washington, DC. What has happened today can only be described as an attempted coup. Constitutional democracy is under threat. Treasonous white supremacists, fascists, and neo-Confederates are trying to destroy the electoral order of the United States. It is a dangerous moment. In these dangerous times, I invite you into the spirit...
Sermon: Foundations
Over the years, I have tried to follow the injunction, attributed to Karl Barth but probably apocryphal, to preach with “the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Not being a Christian, I have never taken the injunction literally. Rather I have understood it to mean, root yourself in your tradition, ground yourself in the goodness of the Earth, and from that foundation offer up what...