Humans are story-tellers. It’s how we remember important things.

Advent prayers remind us what a difficult time and place Jesus was born into. And yet… has there ever been a time when it was not difficult to be born with such gifts?

December brings us Advent, the winter solstice, and if we happen to live in the southern hemisphere, high summer. Rituals abound.

Giving thanks, expressing gratitude … it’s a foundational part of a happy life.

How we approach prayer says everything about who or what or if we think God is.

How do you experience the presence of God? Is it being out in nature, or hearing/singing/playing music, or finding selflessness in meditation… it’s a universal experience that is also intensely individual.

Our separateness is an illusion. We are inextricably connected to the web of all that is. Every action we take, even the energy of every thought, becomes part of that web of connection.

“What does communion signify to you?” If you ask that question in a safe-to-tell-my-truth group, it’s often surprising what variety comes forth.

Just as progressive Christians have found new symbolism for the bread and wine of communion, so too we look for new words with which to express the ancient ritual of baptism.

Gathering for worship is rather like a chance to recharge your batteries.

How many people do you suppose have had their eyes and hearts opened to progressive Christianity because of John Shelby Spong?

Where do you feel welcome? Where do you feel like you have “come home”?

Poetry and worship seem made for each other. There we are, gathered to share our understanding of a power-that-is-beyond-understanding, and we are convinced that more words will make it clearer.

It can be a challenge to compose a funeral or memorial service when you know the gathered group will have a range of religious persuasions.

Insight comes to each of us in its own time, when and as we are ready to absorb it. With each fresh “Aha!” we realize that this path of discovery we are on is very old, with well-worn footsteps that now bear our imprint as well.

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,


The ritual of communion can have many different symbolic interpretations in its role of remembrance of the life and teachings of Jesus. The same is true of the music we sing to accompany the ritual.

Baptisms, naming ceremonies, rituals of thanksgiving for new life … all these attest to our desire to mark in some way our recognition of a new member of God’s family.

The din of our modern world works against staying calm and centered. Some days the best thing you can do for your state of mind is turn off your smartphone.

Pulled forward by hope, often pushed from behind by desperation, no immigrant leaves his or her home country without powerful emotions in play.

Summer… memories of long, lazy days and the delicious feeling of having time for whatever comes along.

To celebrate the feast day of Mary Magdalene is to celebrate an archetypical strong female leader. Preacher, teacher, the one disciple who really understood Jesus’ message… she was truly “apostle to the apostles.”

Long summer days and warm weather help us slow down, take time, find some moments to “do nothing,” allow our creativity to emerge, and generally give ourselves permission to relax.

The old adage to “count your blessings” is still good advice.

Gratitude is life-giving. It breaks down the walls that isolate us from each other and from our world.

Ecstatic sexual energy is celebrated as a pathway to transcendence in many religious traditions. Not usually, however, in Christianity!

Compassion is fundamental to every faith tradition. It’s why we find a version of the Golden Rule so often

What would light be without darkness as its opposite? How does one feel joy without also having known what sorrow is?

“If you want to have a life of prayer, then pray,” said Thomas Merton. Or in more modern adspeak, Just do it.

Lucky the bride with a poet or composer in the family! Nothing makes a wedding ceremony more personal than words written just for the occasion.

Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Spirit on the followers of Jesus. It is celebrated seven weeks (50 days) after Easter, and derives its name from that interval. (In ancient Greek Pentēkostē means “fiftieth.”)

To offer a benediction is to bless. To give and to receive a blessing is a small sacred moment that we could all use more of in our lives.

The human species is evolving. Along with the physical changes and the consciousness changes comes a natural evolution in our understanding of the Sacred.

How bleak the world would be without mystery! Even as science daily moves the line between the known and the mysterious, there is always more mystery.

Earth Day reminds us that “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” (Chief Seattle)

Everyone has doubts. Everyone has questions. It used to be a sign of “faith” to suppress one’s doubts and questions, but no more.