In January, I try to make two blog posts: one compiling the list of books I read over the previous year and the other listing my most popular blog posts. I usually start with the list of most popular blog posts. Here it is: Most Read Blog Posts of 2021 A Prayer for DemocracyThe Senate Should Expel Senators Cruz and HawleyJoe Manchin Might be a Senator from West Virginia but He’s Paid for by...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, October 31, 2021 It is so good to have the choir back. The impact that COVID has had on live music or, really, let me be honest, live performance or gathering of any kind, has been devastating. Coming together to sing, or to be sung to, is one of the oldest human activities. It is possible that collective song predates language...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, September 26, 2021 It is good to be back in the pulpit. I have missed you. I have not been gone from First Houston these past weeks. But I have been absent from Sunday morning worship. And worship, this thing the congregation does together–whether online or in-person–sits at the core of the life we share. The title of...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, August 22, 2021 This is the second year in a row that our annual ingathering service has taken place under difficult, uncertain, circumstances. Last year, our service took place entirely online. This year, some of us have gathered in-person and others of us are participating via our livestream. This year, like last year, as the...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, August 15, 2021 It is good to be with you this morning. It is good to create this community together through word and song. I know this rose will open.I know my fear will burn away.I know my soul will unfurl its wings. I appreciate the confidence, the faith, that our hymn projects. It is a nice reflection of classical Unitarian...
The script from the service that Mark Vogel and I led at the Rothko Chapel on June 2, 2021.