If we want peace, it has to start with us. We must uproot violence from our language, in the ways we relate to one another.

The Tarrying Place represents the wit and wisdom of the community of more than one hundred women-folx who make up our ever-expanding Circle, each of whom is engaged in their own life’s journey to activist-centered self and community care reflected in our guiding mantras.

Auburn gathered individual groups of Black, Latinx, and White leaders of faith and moral courage to discuss what it means to belong to each other in a profoundly divided world.

Decompress. Share. Feel seen. Be real. Stay as anonymous as you wish. Your parishioners, congregants, local colleagues, subordinates, and superiors needn’t know that you are cracking around the edges, losing hope, etc.

The Center for Open and Relational Theology exists to promote... open and relational thinking, networking among like-minded people, projects that build upon or advance open and relational ideas, announce news, and provide open and relational theology resources.

The Charter created a Islamophobia Handbook a few years ago. The first section, "Speaking Out and Taking Action," may be very helpful to all of us as we navigate through these difficult times.

The Interfaith Family Journal is an invaluable resource for couples and family members practicing different religions (or none). Interactive exercises and creative activities help interfaith families decide how they want to honor their histories, cultures, and beliefs in ways that nurture joy, creativity, and empowerment.

Fifteen of the individuals profiled here are Jewish and fifteen are Christian. The biographies feature “pioneers” who were highly active some decades ago as well those who are “contemporary voices.” You can view, download or print these biographies.

In May 2017, people from all over the world will gather in Portland, Oregon to share knowledge and wisdom, learn from each other, celebrate, be inspired, and find the tools needed to create and enliven local movements within our communities. Together we will explore sacred oneness, Christ consciousness, eco-spirituality, social justice and the way of universal and personal transformation that honors the Divine in all.

Life is full of these kinds of sacred signs, when we are open to them. They are like the sign posts pointing us down the paths of our dreams. They are like the nudges our loving mothers give us to move forward in spite of our fears. They are the reminders of what we already know but have mostly forgotten, like the dreams that fade when awakening. I know I am on the right path, when things easily fall into place and magical moments occur.

These curricula can be used with a broad range of constituencies including schools, youth groups, universities, community groups and grassroots interfaith organizations. And these resources address a broad range of issues including education, social justice, ecology, peace-building, conflict-resolution, spirituality, diversity and global consciousness.

“Faith Fight”—that’s what the local news is calling it. Eight churches in Fountain Hills, Arizona, led by the Rev. Bill Good, pastor of

Live recording of Climbing PoeTree's "Awakening" poem featuring Leah Song on vocals and Biko Casini on Ngoni.

We are here to praise and enjoy God with body and soul, mind and heart, with song and word, with hands and feet. We are here to give because of the abundance God has given us, to share with each other, and to receive, because God has created us to depend on each other. We are here to celebrate the differences that otherwise might divide us: differences of age, of body, of culture, of opinion, of ability, of religious conviction. We are here to put things in perspective: to celebrate what matters, to laugh about things we take too seriously, to cry about things that truly touch our hearts. So may it be this morning: Amen!

We find ourselves in a food economy that sickens us. Health is divided along race and class lines: the food economy particularly sickens those whose wages do not allow them to buy the foods that can cure us of the diseases industrial “foods” cause. Corporations, who do not speak the language of human love and health, wrangle to profit from the stream of ill Americans falling from the industrial foods conveyor belt. But we know that type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and some cancers are fully preventable by replacing part of what we eat with fruits and vegetables. Why, in a wealthy, fertile country are we wrecking the environment to produce foods that kill us?

What does a new kingdom look like when your family becomes disconnected from the patterns of the sea and must function within a more “efficient” system? Would the new kingdom Jesus talked about lead you back to a balance between humankind and the fishing patterns you once knew? Is something lost when we begin to place layer upon layer of human ingenuity between us and the sustaining power of earth and sea?

Relating Kindred Spirits: A Collection, spirituality and songwriting, Newcomer writes “I am one of a growing number of people who don’t want to put the sacred in such a small container. I am disturbed that one very narrowly focused and extremely political brand of Christianity being called the ‘religious voice.’ There are wide communities of spiritual people who believe that walking this world in love and compassion is about feeding the hungry, providing for the poor or sick, caring for our elders, making sure that the table of love includes and welcomes everyone, educating our children and young people, honoring our beautiful and interconnected planet. These communities believe that women are equal spiritual beings, and that the highest and most honorable work is creating a less violent, more just and kind world. Isn’t a life of compassion bigger than a catch phrase or sound byte? Isn’t love wider and deeper than fear?” Speaking more to this point, she shares, “If a spiritual leader is teaching hate, it is not spiritual message, it is political message.”

Carrie Newcomer with special guests, Indian peformers Amjad Ali Khan, Aaman Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan, in concert Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 2nd Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis. This special performance promotes the release of Newcomer's latest album, "Everything is Everywhere". Proceeds from the album benefits the Interfaith Hunger Initiative, a multi-faith effort dedicated to elevating hunger and the roots of poverty in the USA and abroad.

Carrie Newcomer explores the intersection of the spiritual and the daily, the sacred and the ordinary. Over the course of her career she has become a prominent voice for progressive spirituality, social justice and interfaith dialogue. She has been described as "a soaring songstress" by Billboard, a "prairie mystic" by the Boston Globe and Rolling Stone has declared that Newcomer "asks all the right questions." Author Barbara Kingsolver wrote, "She's a poet, storyteller, snake-charmer, good neighbor, friend and lover, minister of the wide-eyed gospel of hope and grace."

This book is a call to action for a new era of spirituality-infused activism. Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems--economic, political, educational, and religious--discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world.

With morbid fascination, I'm watching the leaders of the United States group-think their way into a counter-productive use of American military force. It's disturbing to observe otherwise intelligent and well-motivated public servants drift into a bad decision.

We worked all day. Dad and Rachel were on one team, Father Crespi and I were on another, refilling tanks, cleaning up trash around them, and placing new ones. Five new blue flags, marking the new tanks, waved defiantly against the demon of thirst, and fluttered in the breeze over the desert at sundown that evening. The crew enjoyed a dinner at Rachel's house prepared by the Women's Society of the Federated Church.

This past week, I've engaged in a couple of intense conversations about manhood in America. A lovely, thoughtful young friend of our family,

Religion and violence—the two concepts seem incompatible given the emphasis in religion on virtue, love, forgiveness and compassion. Yet many scriptures contain martial

Awakened World 2012, http://www.agnt.org/awakened2012.html was recently convened and hosted in Italy by three American organizations. I learned about the conference through the Association of Global

The issue of the gods we believe in made headlines this week when Richard Mourdock, a Tea Party Republican candidate for US Senate in Indiana, stated that pregnancies stemming from rape, however horrible, are “something God intended to happen.”[1] While Mourdock has sought to soften the impact of his statement, I believe that his words reflected his – and many other Christians – understand of God’s presence in the world.

Chris Stedman is an atheist working to foster positive and productive dialogue between faith communities and the non-religious. Visiting from the States in

Isaiah, the prophet, who said "… seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow." (Isaiah 1: 17) This passage is a key to the whole scripture; It’s what led Jesus to say three times to his disciple Peter, after Jesus’ resurrection: if you love me, feed my sheep. All my sheep.

I am a quasi retired Spiritual Director and Church Consultant within the United Church of Christ (UCC). I am deeply concerned with the fetters of 4th Century “packaging” of Divinity related to the religious challenges of the 21st Century.

The back story to the Tower of Babel myth is that the orignial plans called for anything but babble. But where once humankind may have all spoken the same language with one unifying plan to build a place all could dwell and abide one another, it has long since ever been the case. “We live in a pluri-verse, not a uni-verse,” says Raimon Panikkar. Ours is a pluralistic age in which we have many different and opposing – even sometimes mutually incompatible -- worldviews that threaten planetary human coexistence. In the midst of such chaos and confusion, how can we tolerate each other’s differences? Or, some might ask, should we even try? I consider myself a very tolerant person! The only people I cannot abide are ignorant and intolerant bigots! Does that make me intolerant as well, or merely principled? What would constitute a forbearance of principled intolerance, with a leniency of spirit? Here's John Bennison's latest Commentary from Words and Ways.