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STLT#345, With Joy We Claim the Growing Light
First, I need to say a prayer for Key West, and really all of south Florida this morning. I have friends who are still on the island (mostly they are first responders, public works folk, or other government officials), and they are getting hit so very hard as I type. I’ve seen a few videos… Continue reading
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STLT#344, A Promise through the Ages Rings
It is always a relief to me to turn to a new section of the hymnal; I think it’s because of the frankly unnatural nature of this practice. i was getting worn out by the Insight and Wisdom section, feeling as though I had little of either by the time it all ended. But now… Continue reading
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STLT#343, A Firemist and a Planet
I am very tired of the humanist/theist debate. It seems to me that there are so many bigger, more important things for us to wrestle with, especially since – at least in Unitarian Universalist circles – even our most divergent theologies support the principles where we all meet. And I get that it’s harder to… Continue reading
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STLT#342, O Slowly, Slowly, They Return
I feel like an apostate for saying this, but I do not care for this hymn. Now let me be clear: I like the tune (an initially tricky Swiss folk tune called Solothurn). And I like Wendell Berry’s poetry. And I don’t even mind the two together – they seem to fit well, with some musical… Continue reading
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STLT#341, O World, Thou Choosest Not the Better Part
I am in a Lichtenstein painting: “Oh no! I forgot to read George Santayana!” And I’m a bit embarrassed, largely because he wrote about spirituality and aesthetics, and this is the area of my ministry and while God knows I have read a ton of literature in my area of ministry, how is it I’ve never read… Continue reading
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STLT#340, Though Gathered Here to Celebrate
Wow. I have a service I love to do called “Holey, Holy, Wholly” about the myth of wholeness and the grace of brokenness as a truer path to healing. It is one of those deeply pastoral services that fulfills the call to ‘comfort the afflicted’ – because we can’t always just ‘afflict the comfortable.’ I… Continue reading
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STLT#339, Knowledge, They Say
If you’re looking for music to accompany a service about anti-intellectualism and fake news, this is your hymn. Heck, even if you’re just looking for music to accompany a service about James Luther Adams’ five smooth stones, or William Ellery Channing’s Baltimore sermon, or our fourth principle, this is your hymn. Knowledge, they say drives… Continue reading
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STLT#338, I Seek the Spirit of a Child
Welcome to Pinocchio’s favorite hymn. I can’t deny making Diana wonder what this hymn practice as actually done to my sanity, because I am sitting next to her on the couch, drinking coffee and cackling manically as I ponder why we ever doubted that children might not be real, unless we are surrounded by Geppetto’s… Continue reading
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STLT#337, Have I Not Known
I am in Peterborough, New Hampshire, preparing to lead a retreat with dear friend and colleague Diana McLean. And as I was preparing to write today, I waxed a little poetic about the Blake poem this hymn tune (Jerusalem, by Charles H.H. Parry) was written for. And I burst into tears. Like, not just a… Continue reading
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STLT#336, All My Memories of Love
It’s a Hymn by Hymn miracle! Today is September 1st, and the hymn today mentions September! The hymnal is right on schedule, pretending it hasn’t had me sing Christmas songs in spring and summer songs in winter and Easter songs at General Assembly. I hardly know what to make of it. What I do know is that… Continue reading
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links
Learn more about my ministry at The Art of Meaning
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