as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, September 11, 2022 It is good to be back in the pulpit. It is good to share this morning with you. It is a special morning for me. It is my first Sunday back from sabbatical. And it is my first time preaching to you or anyone else since we held our flower communion back in June. I am glad to be with you, to see longtime members of...
I am in Manchester for a little less than two weeks. The city was historically the heart of British Unitarianism–and I am told that even now about half of the Unitarians in the United Kingdom live within 50 miles of the city center–and the University of Manchester has one of the largest collections of Unitarian books and archival materials in the world. They actually have two separate...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, February 5, 2022 It is good to be back in the pulpit. I miss you when I am gone. Not that I particularly went anywhere. I spent most of the last month holed up in my home office working on finishing the manuscript for the book I have been writing on populism and religion. I am grateful to have had the support of this congregation...
I am excited to announce that both the Hibbert Trust and the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Joseph Gittler Fund for Religion and Ethics will be partially funding the research for my forthcoming book (w/ Brill) “Unitarian Universalist Theologies” (publication anticipated in spring 2023).
In this third sermon on reimagining grief, I reflect on the theology of Frankenstein.
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...
The policy choices that led to the winter storm disaster in Texas are a moral evil. In this sermon, I argue why.
The second source of Unitarian Universalism is the “words and deeds of prophetic women and men.” Throughout Black History month the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston is exploring this source with a series of services on the teachings of prophetic people from Africa or of African descent. In this sermon, I discuss the North African theologian Origen, who taught about universal...
as preached for the January 24, 2021 online service of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston Something rather momentous occurred since I was last with you. The United States has a new President and a new Vice President. A man with almost five decades of experience in government is now the country’s chief executive. A woman is now in the nation’s second highest office. The new cabinet...