Service and Gathering Planning

"Blue Christmas" services, which take place to support people struggling emotionally during the holiday season, are becoming more common. This song was written for such services. Ken Janzen sings and plays the instruments.

"Blue Christmas" services, which take place to support people struggling emotionally during the holiday season, are becoming more common. This song was written for such services. Ken Janzen sings and plays the instruments.

When AARP Massachusetts was looking to honor the state's top volunteer, Paul's and Charles's names rose to the top. They have made a difference in the lives around them, sharing their knowledge, experience, talent, and skills to enrich the lives of our community.

So why do we persist in comparing ourselves to others? And suffering the frustration that results?

There is no question that the voices of marginalized people are found in the Bible if you look carefully. The New Testament also presents a picture of a beautiful man who talked about a God of love and forgiveness and who urged his followers to create communities that practiced nonviolence, inclusion, and the pursuit of social and economic justice.

Imagine . . . you begin the day in the classroom of the earth, learning about God’s good creation by feeling it, working with it, helping coax its fruit to maturity.

4 Advent Video Hymns written for the Worship Design Studio, which created its own separate videos. Recordings and videos by Ken Janzen

Every parent and educator will welcome the blend of multicultural tales, biographies, universal spirituality, and original fun adventures of children who could live on your street. Expansive, respectful, real, and warm with kindness, these stories offer possibilities for life to children and adults who feel in their heart that they belong to a larger reality.

I am deeply concerned about the rise of Christian nationalism in this country. I say this not just as a Christian but as the president of Pacific School of Religion (PSR), a progressive Christian seminary founded in 1866.

Does Jesus really mean we must love our neighbor? And who is our neighbor?

The material we are exploring is controversial; the subject matter is often tied to deeply held beliefs. The intention of this study guide is not to change your mind but to challenge your beliefs.

"The Way" integrates religion and science and reconciles Eastern and Western worldviews, confirming with the mystics and the scientists that everyone is related, and everything is connected.

Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines sat down this week for an interview with Ciprian Khlud about the basics of Progressive Christianity.

Let's assume that a chance for peace still exists on the other side of the current Israeli/ Hamas war.  By no means a sure thing, but we have to hope. 

An old hymn of mine, recently rewritten slightly. Recorded here by the Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Choir.

Jesus’ words and Paul’s words have changed millions of lives, and will change yours. The Bible records their teachings separately, so we must join them afresh as one. This book will open your ears and your heart to their shared work.

Learn about how people have sought physical immortality since the beginning of time, what means are employed to escape death, how various religions promise you eternal life, and about the men and women who are said to have already become immortal.

This book offers a treasure-trove of practical tools for grounding ourselves emotionally and spiritually amid both the long-term crises and the related challenges that confront us moment to moment as we navigate unprecedented events and their invariable consequences. 

The novel takes us through the racial struggles of the sixties, the horrible plague decimating gay men with AIDS in San Francisco in the ‘80s, and the devastating consequences of a Roman Catholic priest preying on a young boy.

The polarization we see in society is also reflected in the Church.

The mystic seeks direct experience of the divine to explore its perceptual, emotional, and metaphysical nature. For the mystic, the entire universe is conscious and alive, saturated by an all-encompassing eternal and loving Presence.

What I am saying is that if we are not looking at the whole reality of being human, the good the bad and the embarrassing, then we simply will not have the wisdom to know how to make use of, them in, or regulate AI.

The second in the series that looks at the life of Jesus.

"The Way" integrates religion and science and reconciles Eastern and Western worldviews, confirming with the mystics and the scientists that everyone is related, and everything is connected.

    It has been so hard to watch the events unfolding in Gaza and not fall into the ease of a hardline

Some of the most important aspects of Jesus teachings were repressed from the beginning. The Hebrews started the repression. The Roman Catholic Church expanded it. And by and large the Protestants followed.

Who is Jesus to you? What informs and shapes your view of Jesus and his work?

Suitable for progressive/inclusive/justice-focused Christian congregations. Written for The Fountains, a UMC congregation in Arizona.

Join Mark and Caleb for this live recording as they enjoy a themed drink (or two) and bring their high-octane progressive Christian perspectives in consideration of Season 1 of Disney+'s latest Star Wars show, "Ahsoka."

The Current is a loving, learning community. While much of our focus is on Jesus as our spiritual Rabbi, we welcome all faiths, ethnicities, gender identities, and questions here. We mean it when we say, “Come as you are.

You get no racism, no sexism, no homophobia, no classism…no negative stuff at all from Progressive Christians. You get positive people doing positive things.

In the mystical consciousness of divinity, love saturates my being,

Inspired by my March 2023 visit to The Fountains UMC in Arizona; written with a very simple melody and small range to maximize small congregations' ability to learn and sing the piece.

Join Mark and Caleb for this live recording as they enjoy a themed drink (or two) and bring their high-octane progressive Christian perspectives in consideration of the first episode of Season 2 of Disney+'s "Loki."

I belong to a support group of seven retired mainline clergypersons. Six of the seven no longer affirm historic, creedal, orthodox, traditional theology.

It is now possible to answer the question of why Christians should engage in politics. The answer is simple: God is calling on them to do so with the whisper thoughts that float through their awareness

I’m currently sitting in the 10+-year-old chair, listening to the sounds of rain on the top of the tent, and writing the words that will turn into this very article you are currently reading. It is my tradition to spend the evening and the day of Yom Kippur in a tent.

This is the first in a series that looks at the life of Jesus and contrasts the story that has come down through the ages with what probably really happened.

As the persona of Donald Trump continues to dominate our public lives, increasingly, we have become aware of the cult of personality that has risen up in his shadow.  To be sure, it has evolved over time, but its existence as a cult cannot be denied. 

This Communion hymn, commissioned by the First Congregational Church, Branford, CT, is appropriate for progressive/inclusive Christian churches.

Join Mark and Caleb for this live recording as they enjoy a themed drink (or two) and bring their high-octane progressive Christian perspectives in consideration of the first three episodes of Prime Video's spin-off to hit show "The Boys": "Gen V."

This progressive Christian hymn images Jesus as healer, teacher, and prophet, and invites all people (regardless of their religion) to be healers, teachers, and prophets in our time.

Spiritual Direction is a vocation that supports others as they explore and deepen their spirituality. Eco-Spiritual Direction includes the rest of the sacred and alive world in that companionship.

One of the things I’ve gathered from reading scholarship about the historical Jesus is very little about him can be said with certainty. Historians generally agree he existed and was crucified, but, beyond that, almost everything is debated.

Making a difference is a deep motivation for many of us.

I had long silently harboured a deep foundational belief that what the Church taught about forgiveness was wrong. My experiences of it being used by various Christian people, as well as the Church, against me to guilt me, reinforced it.

So it was a great irony that some of the most homeful people in Palo Alto were the houseless.  And some of the most homeless people in Silicon Valley were the housed. 

Tim Scott is running for president. It's an impressive feat as the only African American Republican in today's U.S. Senate and the first Southern Black senator since Reconstruction.