Rev. Frank Hall Services Archive

Helen Keller said, “I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace.” In 1945, following World War II, while the world was reeling from the devastation, absorbing the horrific stories of what had taken place, the United Nations was born. It’s goal of world peace is more than […]

The terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center got up early on the morning of September 11 – they couldn’t miss their morning prayers. They prayed to their god who, they believed, promised them some special rewards for their sacrificial act. This aspect – the fundamentalist-literalist religious belief aspect – motivated several books attacking religion […]

First Reading:  Exodus 3 “God called to Moses out of the bush and Moses said, ‘Here I am.’ Then God said, ‘Put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ (Felix Adler, founder of the Ethical Culture movement said, “The place where we meet to seek […]

OPENING WORDS: Going to Walden, Mary Oliver It isn’t very far as highways lie. I might be back by nightfall, having seen The rough pines, and the stones, and the clear water Friends argue that I might be wiser for it. They do not hear that far-off Yankee whisper: How dull we grow from hurrying […]

Opening Words:  From the door of the Unitarian Church in Dublin, Ireland ‘We bid you welcome to this house.  It is a place we love and which we tend with care.  We do not ask what you believe, or expect you to think the way we do, but only that you try to live a […]

When I arrived in Westport twenty five years ago I was greeted by Rabbi Orkand who had been here for two years, and he said, with a smile, “I’m a Unitarian, too.”  I knew, of course, that he meant ‘unitarian’ with a small ‘u.’ But he was affirming our shared theological or religious heritage; not […]

The opening line in Robert Frost’s most well-known, and well-worn little poem says, “Whose woods these are I think I know,” indicating that he was visiting; he was not at home. The closing line says, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, […]

Opening Words: Warriors of the Heart, Danaan Perry Sometimes I feel that my life is a series of trapeze swings. I’m either hanging on to a trapeze bar swinging along, or for a few moments in my life I’m hurtling across space in between trapeze bars. Most of the time, I spend my life hanging […]

The mythological story of the search for the Holy Grail, the cup said to be used by Christ in the Last Supper, emerged in the 12th century. Robert Johnson says that this is “…a time when many people feel that our modern age began.” I guess it depends what we mean by modern; we’re now […]

Preface:  Anna Jarvis initiated what came to be Mother’s Day. When her mother died in 1905 Anna promised to honor her mother by establishing a special day to honor mothers, living and dead. One version of Anna’s story says that she and her mother quarreled and her mother died before they reconciled.  In any case, […]