“Time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all its sons away; they fly, forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day.” (Isaac Watts)

Autumn….the harvest…. the fall equinox…. days grow shorter and we are reminded of nature’s cycle moving inexorably toward winter yet again.

Autumn is the time when we return from our travels, with pictures to show and stories to tell. Visiting other places gives us a perspective on home…

Transition into a time of worship can take many forms: a quiet moment of deep breathing and centering, a poem, a responsive invocation, gathering music…

Praise and gratitude go hand-in-hand. Both are a natural response to our recognition that, as the old saying goes, “God is God. You are not.”

The inspirational power of a good idea is constantly amazing. Consider the case of California organic farmer Michael O’Gorman, who put together two seemly-unrelated trends: the aging of American farmers and the high unemployment among returning military veterans.

When the way ahead seems uncertain, when the news is mostly negative, when we feel powerless to effect change, it is good to remember that we are hardly alone.

We are each walking up the mountain of spiritual enlightenment, each on our own path, each discovering the same ancient truths in our own way and in our own words.

  With the Olympic Games set to begin in Tokyo on July 23rd, we celebrate one of the few venues that brings the nations of the world together peacefully.  While we cheer for the athletes from our …

All cultures have rituals. One of the liberating outcomes of worshipping in a progressive faith community is the freedom to create new rituals as well as adapt old ones.

Getting to peace begins at home and extends out to neighborhoods, cities, states, countries and across the world. The challenge always is to stand for peace without using violence to accomplish it.

Nature provides us with a never-ending source of imagery for the Divine.

More than 1200 years ago, the Islamic saint Rabia of Basra wrote:
In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel.
Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist…
(from “Love Poems from God”, trans. Daniel Ladinsky)

Being a father is one of the most challenging and most rewarding roles we may ever get to take on. Particularly in this day of self-help books and über-parenting, it is perhaps helpful to remember Clarence Kelland’s words about his father:

Consider these few lines by beloved poet Mary Oliver:
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

Change is a challenge at any age in almost any context. Human nature seems to prefer the known, the predictable. Churches, as we know, are no exception!

Prayer is our heart speaking. In most of our Protestant churches, we get an abundance of head speaking, which makes the balance afforded by prayer time all the more important.

Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Spirit on the followers of Jesus, seven weeks after Easter.

To be blessed as we leave worship and go out into the world is a lovely moment.

  As we move through the Season of Spring, we are reminded of the cycle of life. This week we will focus on the life transformations that occur in life, death and rebirth- both in nature and …

Celebrating the diversity of religious traditions.

As children, we learn the “magic words” please and thank you. They do indeed smooth the way for us throughout our lives. What do you suppose would happen if children also learned to say I’m sorry regularly?

  Earth Day is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation of Earth’s natural environment. It is hoped that it will inspire people to connect more deeply to Earth and all that it provides for us as well …

The Blessing of the Taxes is a national effort initiated several years ago by Jim Burklo and adopted by various churches and temples around the country.

Easter can be a challenging time for progressive Christians. We have let go of much of the traditional Christian doctrine that contains the answers to Big Questions, but the questions themselves remain.

Waiting… waiting… the images of waiting are everywhere just before Easter. Mary Magdalene at the tomb, the disciples wondering “what now?”, all of us in suspension after the events of Good Friday and before the release of Easter Sunday morning.

Good Friday, with its graphic images of death and despair, is endurable every year because we already know that Easter is coming, soon. But what if we didn’t know that?

The symbols we choose to focus on become planted deep within us. In the liturgical season of Lent, and especially during Holy Week, we think primarily of the cross and crown of thorns… outward evidence of a humiliating and painful death. But other symbols appear during this time, like the towel and basin of water on Maundy Thursday.

When we read words written by others, we often don’t know the context in which the words were written. Sometimes the story behind the words is the best part.

One reason we search for new language, especially at this time of year, is that for many Christians, the traditional words have lost their ability to touch us. Repetition can bring the joy of the familiar, but it can also cause us to glaze right over….

Traditionally Lent is a time during which we “give up” something, but more recently many people have moved to “taking on” something during the Lenten season.

Of all the symbols we encounter during Lent, none is more recognizable than the cross.

Lent comes early this year. It seems like we just put away the last of the Christmas decorations and turned to face the new year, and here comes Ash Wednesday (Feb. 13).

  May this time of Lent be a time for introspective meditation, letting go, acceptance, and rebirth.   The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for Spring, which is derived from a verb meaning: to lengthen. Lent …

For many people, music is a source of experiences of the sacred. That makes the choice of music for worship services both important and challenging.

There is a story that connects the Lord’s Prayer with the six-petaled rose at the center of an eleven-circuit labyrinth, such as the famous one found at Chartres Cathedral. Each of the petals corresponds to part of the Lord’s Prayer,