As I follow the news in Glasgow, I remain hopeful for our future despite the empty promises which have been made before. As one commentator put it, “at least these industrialized countries are willing to put their past shortcoming up to the world’s spot light” and promise again to help save our world. I am […]

Around the country today people are going to the polls in this “off year” election cycle. Most contests are for statewide and municipal candidates. The Governor’s race in Virginia is seen as a bellwether for the direction our country is going. I find it remarkable that the news pundits are casting this election as a […]

Every year Francis and I have a discussion about what to do for Halloween. We are both big fans of the Holiday. When we were younger we would hold a fair for the church and the neighborhood we called “Ghost Town” on the Saturday closest to Halloween. These were very elaborate affairs each with its […]

This coming Sunday I will be speaking about “The Wider Self.” What I have come to believe is that we are so much more complicated than any one theory about human nature. We “contain multitudes” as Walt Whitman observed, and within those multitudes is the very essence of what makes any of us a person. […]

I have been so impressed of late with how we find the families we need even if they are not the families we are born into. This is especially true for those who identify outside our gender binary categories. Some among us have been largely ostracized for being LGBTQ and have had to create family […]

We are in the midst of a Great Turning. We didn’t call it the Protestant Reformation until many centuries later. We are part of the next great reformation. Even though we don’t see evidence of positive change all around us, the change is happening. How do you see change around you? I would like to […]

As the pandemic grinds on we are slowly finding our way to a new world. Masks will be with us for a long time, and we need to accept that the virus is part of us and our society. Perhaps it is even calling on us to re-examine our priorities. One of those priorities has […]

The fact that our climate is changing is not debatable. The question is how fast and to what end? There are hundreds of possible outcomes, some better than others and all of them worse than the world we are living in now. When I talk to young people, the existential crisis of climate change is […]

In my sermon on Sunday, I told the story about old Mother Earth who wove the fabric of life in brilliant colors while at the same time stirring the stew of life, being sure it did not burn. One day, with her garment of life almost done, she had to walk to the back of […]