We’ll start with a group process joke. How many Unitarian Universalists does it take to change a light bulb? I’ll take answers from the floor…, give you mine, have time for exhaustive discussion, then we’ll vote on the one we like the best and it will go in the bylaws. Let’s start with yours- Mine is ‘Are we sure the light bulb…

‘Regarding Justice Scalia’s Refusal to Recuse Himself From Hearing Case Concerning the Vice President’ House of Representatives – February 25, 2004 ‘Mr. Speaker, the President’s presidential prayer team is urging us to ‘pray for the President as he seeks wisdom on how to legally codify the definition of marriage. Pray that it will be according to Biblical principles.’ With that in mind,…

This sermon is dedicated to my good friend since 1972, D. Glen Miller, Ph.D., who is the Vietnam vet mentioned. I think we have learned much from each other over the many years we have remained close friends. We were thrown together on my first job after I graduated from college. He was the teacher and I was the Instructional Assistant teaching…

The creation story is common to Jews, Christians, and Moslems, yet only the Christians saw original sin, the Fall, in the story. Jesus never mentions it. And some Christians today now see it differently as well. Part of our heritage is the group called Universalists, who believed a loving God would not send anyone to Hell, and that there was no such…

Mark Twain Guest Preacher(A Sermon using the words of Mark Twain from Various Sources)Rev. Arthur G. Severance Let me start by talking about God: — Notebook — Mark Twain, speech, “Education and Citizenship” Religion: Following the Equator ‘ Eruption’ with the one He was after. – Autobiography of Mark Twain Christian Science The altar cloth of one aeon is the doormat of…

My friend and colleague from the Southwest District who has served the C UU Church on the River in Memphis, TN, for more than 20 years, tells ‘The Parable of the Patient List,’ in his Berry Street Essay from a few years ago, ‘When you go into the pastoral care office at Methodist Central Hospital in Memphis you will discover along the…

A search committee received this letter: ‘Dear Folks, The person most responsible for the Social Gospel movement was a progressive Baptist minister, Walter Rauschenbusch. He thought a focus on personal salvation by taking Christ as our savior was as Rebecca Parker puts it, ”selfish to be so narrowly concerned with one’s own fate when life is social…’ He interpreted the kingdom of…

Full Devotion to God Nicene Creed, still recited in some churches today, or the very similar Apostle’s Creed. Bible -1 %Creeds and Traditions-2The Holy Spirit-3World Religions-10Personal Experience-42Human Reason-45UU Principles- 48 In a National Survey outside UUism- where religious authority comes from -Sacred Scripture 82% Holy Spirit-60% In my song, ‘You, Me and the Universe,’ there is a verse that came to me…

June marks the end of school, beginning of summer, and of course, time for Commencement speakers. Garry Trudeau, one of my favorite wisdom cartoonists with his Doonesbury comic strip, and whom I suspect of being a Unitarian Universalist, spoke at one and said: ‘Commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that outgoing college students should never be released into the world…

A pastor was talking with a hard working woman who was a devoted member, present at all services. He expressed his thanks for seeing her so attentive every Sunday. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘It is such a rest after a long, hard week’s work to come to church, to sit down on the soft cushions, and not have to think about anything.’ 52%…