I believe in God, The Universal Personal Spirit of unsurpassable love, who from nothing created this immense universe of both causal regularity and chance events, and with its emerging creatures possessing various capacities and freedoms to respond to God’s love and vision for their place and function in the universe.

We believe in one God:
Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.
Amen

While adherents claim to feel more Christian, or Buddhist, or Jewish than ever, they are finding more solidarity with one another than ever before.
They seem to be moving toward a similar “sweet spot,” one that integrates similar core values within the differing beliefs that frame those values.

We are not alone.

Poetic words that will linger beneath each small start that now rests within the nursery.

In acceptance I learn change

Peace makes us One with each other

I believe in a soothing impulse, where Healing restores what is Good

The last book of the Bible, that bizarre and nightmarish Book of Revelation, is often found to be most popular among those religious nut jobs who are constantly interpreting the universal themes found in the battle of good and evil as signs of some certain apocalyptic end time; and differentiating the tribes of those who will be saved from those who will be lost, left behind and damned. However, given the obvious fact such end-time predictions have been re-scheduled over and over again for nearly two thousand years (so far), we might better consider those recurrent, universal themes to be found in this allegorical tale; and look with fresh eyes and see Revelation as more about this world of ours that continues to self-implode upon itself over and over again. How might we be open to being encountered in another, revelatory view of the polis in which we all inextricably dwell? This commentary begins a two-part reflection, based on Elaine Pagel’s newest book, Revelations: Visions, Prophecy & Politics in the Book of Revelation; and in light of the latest terrorist attacks, bombings and global violence among our tribal warring factions. You can find the latest commentary here.

THE PROJECT: Martyrs Prayers is an extraordinary endeavor born out of love – love for the Church, love for music and, perhaps most importantly, love for friends. As a musical and spiritual milestone, the album represents an event that has drawn together luminaries of the music world in order to honor those who, through the centuries, gave their very lives for their faith, their freedoms, their communities and their friends.

All lyrics contained in this song are the transcribed prayers of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero (1917-1980). Romero was murdered in 1980 while celebrating mass in a small hospital chapel in San Salvador.

Our Father who dwells within – All in all,
In you I live and move and have my being.

L: Our Father
R: Sounds a bit sexiest to me, what about our Mother?

L: Our Father who art in heaven
R: Well we could do with him down here, right enough, rather than up there

Dear One, closer to us than our own hearts, farther from us than the most distant star, you are beyond naming.

One of the problems of being a professional academic is that generally when you have to write articles they have to be heavy, well-researched pieces that connect with the on-going academic debate in one’s field. Well I don’t really want to do that here. In this short piece I want to try and dream a little, to set out some ways of how we might imagine religious faith that represent an alternative to credal forms of Christianity.

Together we hold a place where each can find voice as they long to reflect the Christ for our time.

This essay will help you write, lead, or choose a guided meditation. It starts with some simple steps for leading an effective meditation, gives some guidelines for choosing or composing a meditation, then concludes with two sample guided meditations.

The Swedes and the Hawaiians have something in common besides enjoying fish. They both have a deep understanding of the idea of “enough.”