Rev. Frank Hall Services Archive

Opening Reading: The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others.  He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces.  He was […]

  Last Sunday was our homecoming, the beginning of our newchurch year.  So I read Lucille Clifton’s little poem: I Am Running into a New Year i am running into a new year and the old years blow back like a wind that i catch in my hair like strong fingers like all my old […]

Gathering on the lawn: Welcome home!  Whether this is the first time you’ve come to the Unitarian Church in Westport, or the first service of re-dedication; or you’ve been here for decades…it’s a new beginning. We’re here to re-dedicate ourselves to the purposes, both stated in our covenant and constitution, and those purposes that are […]

Opening reading From ‘The People, Yes’ by Carl Sandburg A father sees a son nearing manhood. What shall he tell that son? ‘Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.’ And this might stand him for the storms and serve him for humdrum and monotony and guide him amid sudden betrayals and tighten him for […]

One night a rabbi in Moscow feeling despondent – overwhelmed by the state of the world — went for his evening walk, lost in thought, forgetting where he was and who he was and he inadvertently wandered onto a military installation.  The guard on duty saw him and hollered out, “Who are you?  And what […]

Opening Words:  One night a man was crying Allah! Allah! His lips grew sweet with praising, until a cynic said, “So! I’ve heard you calling our, but have you ever gotten any response?” The man had no answer to that. He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep. He dreamed he saw Khidr, the […]

What do you think? What, for example, do you think about religion; what do you think about the stories in the Bible – stories about Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah; stories about Moses and the Red Sea parting and the angel of death passing over the households marked with the blood of the […]

Opening Words by Emily Dickinson, sent to me this week by Julie Fatherly. This poem is written in the voice of a bird.  It refers to the surplice, which is clerical garb — the loose-fitting white gown with wide sleeves worn over a cassock. Some keep the Sabbath going to Church — I keep it, […]

Opening Words: from e e cummings when faces called flowers float out of the ground and breathing is wishing and wishing is having- but keeping is downward and doubting and never -it’s april(yes,april;my darling)it’s spring! yes the pretty birds frolic as spry as can fly yes the little fish gambol as glad as can be […]

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your […]