A Hug Remembered – One of the great gifts of serving a congregation is the opportunity to hear people’s stories.  Because I am, “a minister,” people share things with me — often things that are very personal, and very profound.

Last night I attended a public forum hosted by the Blue Ribbon Commission the Charlottesville City Council called into being for the purpose of deciding what to do about the large and prominent statues of Generals “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee.  Earlier this year a high school student started a petition to have the statue...

Driving in to work following the first Presidential debate, I heard a commentator describing the different views of the United States that he’d heard the night before.  Of Donald Trump’s he said that it was “negative” and “dystopian,” and that it was as if he saw the US as “the...

This morning I submitted the following letter to my local paper The Daily Progress.  In July I wrote a post which expanded on this theme.

Here’s a catchy title for you:  A Platform of Church Discipline Gathered Out of the Word of God and Agreed Upon by the Elders and Messengers of the Churches Assembled in the Synod at Cambridge in New England.  Kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?  Trippingly, as my mom used to...

TJMC-UU Special Congregational Meeting Sunday, October 2, 12:45 pm in the Sanctuary All Members: Join us for a specially called Congregational Meeting to vote on adoption of long-term public witness in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement and Racial Justice. Childcare will be provided. Our Youth will offer a...

Click HERE for the Fall 2016 complete listing of Adult Faith Development offerings at TJMC UU.

Dear parents, Your children, aged 6 – 12, are invited to join the TJMC children’s choir! Rehearsals will be held on Sundays, 10:30 am – 11:05 am, in the sanctuary, and will start on September 18. There will be no rehearsals on Oct 16., Nov. 13 and 27, Dec. 25, or Jan. 1....

I was once advised that asking someone “why” — as in “why did you do that?” or “why do you think that way?” — tends to make people feel defensive.  It’s better, then, to ask, “Can you help me to understand … ?”  Most people, after all, respond positively to...

Considering Covenants We continue this year our practice of asking ourselves each month a question as a way of shaping our faith exploration.  That question is, “What does it mean to be a community of … ?”  Each month we’ll look at a different way we could describe what it...