Rev. Frank Hall Services Archive

Opening Words:  The Swan, Mary Oliver   Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river? Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air – An armful of white blossoms, A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, […]

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. […]

The Latin word ‘Credo’ means ‘I believe.’  Many of us came to Unitarian Universalism because of what we don’t believe.  Getting clear about what you don’t believe, or no longer believe, is part of the process of creating your own credo. My clearing-process started with the Apostles’ Creed which was pasted in the back of […]

Opening Words, from Song of the Open Road, Walt Whitman “Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose. Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune, (Still here I carry my old delicious burdens, I carry them, […]

I changed the title of this sermon from ‘Becoming a Buddhist’ to ‘Becoming the Buddha,’ in response to the quote I found:  “When I’m a Buddhist my family hates me; when I’m the Buddha they love me.” I don’t want you to hate me—of course. In the introduction to his collected poems Carl Sandburg writes: […]

You know the story.  It’s an old story–the long freedom march from bondage to the Promised Land.  It’s about the people of Israel held captive in Egypt for 430 years under the rule of tyrants.  It’s pure mythology—that’s why it’s our story—because it’s the human story, and it’s happening right now. We humans have a […]

  Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, said of the teachings of Jesus as found in the four Gospels:  “…the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” In a letter to a friend he added, “A more beautiful or more precious morsel of ethics I have never […]

Opening Words, by Rev. Richard Gilbert Be gentle with one another— It is a cry from the lives of people battered By thoughtless words and brutal deeds… Who of us can look inside another and know what is there Of hope and hurt, or promise and pain? Who can know from what far places each […]

 Psalm 23. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters; He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear […]

I’d like to invite you on a journey—a journey of heroic dimensions—a journey inward where you will be required to tap into your True Self–a journey where you cannot get off easily, by saying you ‘agree or disagree’ with this or that statement or dismiss something out of hand as someone else’s opinion. This is […]