Yesterday morning I joined with a group of people in a park in downtown Charlottesville. The park has been getting a lot of attention lately, both locally and in the national media, because of an effort to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee which stands so prominently in its...
June Art Show-Sara Gondwe (Opening-June 4th after church) Born in 1949 in Beaver Dam, WI, Ms. Gondwe earned a B.A. degree in Philosophy and a Masters degree in Education. This earned her a career as a Reading Specialist for students in kindergarten through 12th grades. She spearheaded both the Gettysburg...
Yesterday I promised that I would return to one of the most frequent responses people who identify as white have to the use of the term “White Supremacy” as the way to describe the dominant culture in which we, to borrow a phrase, “live, and move, and have our being.’...
During the years I served the First Universalist Church of Yarmouth, Maine, I regularly had lunch with a colleague from the United Church of Christ congregation across the street. I don’t remember what prompted this particular exchange, but Peter once made the observation that Unitarian Universalists, as a whole, were...
According to my local paper, The Daily Progress, last night: “Several dozen torch-wielding protesters gathered in Charlottesville’s Lee Park just after 9 p.m. Saturday, chanting “You will not replace us,” “Russia is our friend” and “Blood and soil.”” Lee Park has been in our news a lot lately, since the...
Fun fact: the first time a crèche, a nativity scene, was ever used as part of a Christmas Eve service was in 1223. It was a living crèche – with a real donkey, a real ox, a real mother and father, and a real baby – and it happened in...
We, the TJMC-UU and the UU Community Church, are delighted to invite you to attend the Ordination of Pamela K. Philips into the Unitarian Universalist ministry on Saturday, June 3, 2017 at 2 pm in the TJMC sanctuary. A reception will follow in the Social Hall. Ordination is the act...
Ever since I served as your President, I’ve wanted to continue the discussion about our solar panels. Thanks to John Semmelhack’s expertise and industry, we have some facts to share. Thanks to others “who were there,” we have some history and perspective to share. So on Earth Day 2017, as...
Then and There I called out letters blurred and less blurred. My eyes were examined. Machines and I agree. I can see the written page, the threading needle, the paved road. I look and look for, but what I can’t see is the later, the after this. I am blind...
For my non-Unitarian Universalist friends (whom I still love anyway!), the faith tradition I serve is currently embroiled in what I’m calling a struggle for the soul of our faith. I don’t think that that’s hyperbole. I think at question is no less that whether we are truly the people...