Rev. Frank Hall Services Archive

Opening Words, from  Walt Whitman: A song of the rolling earth, and of words according, Were you thinking that those were the words, those upright lines? Those curves, angles, dots? No, those are not the words, the substantial words are in the ground and sea, They are in the air, they are in you. Were […]

Opening Words My Sanctuary, Meng Shu Ch’ing, Chinese, Ming Dynasty, 1368 – 1643 On the low wall of my garden There stands a tiny shrine, Half-hidden In the shadow of the trees. When I am weary of this sad world, And of man’s turmoil and strife, I steal off to my shrine among the trees. […]

Opening Words from Albert Einstein: “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science… It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion. “A knowledge of the existence of something we […]

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 […]

 Messenger, by Mary Oliver My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird     equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums. Here the clam deep in the speckled sand. Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me […]

OPENING WORDS: Opening Words, from Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain “Sometimes (Jim and me) we’d have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe a spark — which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water you […]

Opening Words: We are here to learn how to say thank you; not for the Christmas and Chanukah presents – hopefully you said thank you when you opened them.  We’re here to learn how to say thank you to Life itself, to be reminded that we’re in the midst of a kind of miracle, if […]

We read responsively: “Whoever you are, come travel with me!  Together, we will sail pathless and wild seas…forward, after the great companions!” Those words from Whitman are the invitation at the beginning of any sermon—the invitation to take a little trip, looking back over the landscape of our lives, looking as clearly as we can […]

We ministers love to sing the hymn ‘Rank by Rank,’ especially when we’re processing into a service of installation or ordination.  We sang that hymn this morning because I wanted to emphasize the line that refers to those who have come before – especially our Universalist forebears who paved the way for our open approach […]

Opening Words from Virginia Satir, People Making “I am convinced that there are no genes to carry the feeling of worth. IT IS LEARNED. “And the whole family is where it is learned…Feelings of worth can only flourish in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are […]