Category Archives for "Our Voices"

Click To Download  PDF September 2021 Ploughshare Posted Date: September 9, 2021 

BalanceBalance is a beautiful thing.  Balance is also our Whole Souul Living Theme for September.  In a technical sense, balance is an equal distribution of weight that enables steadiness.  Balance is also about correct proportions: of power, justice, prosperity, Love… ideals seldom achieved but deeply worthy.  In these busy and troubled times, all of us […]

SpiritSpirit is our Whole Souul Living Theme for August.  The word spiritual comes from the Latin spirare, the breath.  Later this became spiritus, meaning, “the animating or vital principle in man and animals: soul, courage, breath, or vigor.”  Many consider the spiritual to be supernatural or otherworldly, but with the definition above there is no […]

Click To Download  PDF August 2021 Ploughshare Posted Date: August 5, 2021 

MercyOur Whole Souul Living Theme for July is Mercy, surely a precious and scarce commodity in 2021.  For years, maybe since the beginning, politics and the news is dominated by quick judgement, false certainty, and the drumbeat of fearing strangers.  Still, wisdom from the ages is clear; “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be […]

Click To Download  PDF July 2021 Ploughshare Posted Date: July 1, 2021 

LiberationLiberation is our Whole Souul Living Theme for June.  Broadly speaking, Liberation can be political, physical, emotional, spiritual, or all of the above.  Typically, liberation assumes a current or previous condition of being bounded or restricted, and things get interesting when we consider that it is possible to be unaware of our own bondage.  Consider […]

Click To Download  PDF June 2021 Ploughshare Posted Date: June 2, 2021 

VocationVocation comes from from the Christian tradition and refers to an internal calling or summons to do holy work.  A traditional and corollary assumption is that neary everybody has vocation whether they know it or not.  Philosopher Sam Keen wrote: A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an […]

Click To Download  PDF May 2021 Ploughshare Posted Date: May 6, 2021 

Click To Download  PDF April 2021 Ploughshare Posted Date: April 1, 2021 

CompassionLove has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Love and compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which Love is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which Love is to […]

ImaginationImagination is our Whole Souul Living Theme for March.  Consider this quote from J. K. Rowling;Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and, therefore, the foundation of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize […]

Click To Download  PDF March 2021 Ploughshare Posted Date: March 4, 2021 

Click To Download  PDF February 2021 Ploughshare Posted Date: February 4, 2021 

BrokennessBrokenness is the Whole Souul Living Theme for February, but not so that we might wallow morose or despairing.  Brokenness, whether occasional or systemic is simply an essential and unavoidable part of human life.   It often marks turning points in our life journeys; the endings of chapters, the beginnings of new ones, the places where […]

Click To Download  PDF January 2021 Ploughshare Posted Date: January 7, 2021 

PeacePeace is the Whole Souul Living Theme for January, and it represents a profoundly challenging hope.  Pacifist A. J. Muste wrote:  We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we […]

Click To Download  PDF December 2020 Ploughshare Posted Date: December 3, 2020 

SalvationOur Whole Souul Living Theme for December is Salvation (in THIS Life).  In truth, most of us need some salvation: from old habits and limitations, from creeping materialism, from a broken economy…  The nation needs some salvation: from partisan politics, easy answers, and outright lies.  The world needs some salvation…: from pollution, too many people, […]

Click To Download  PDF November 2020 Ploughshare Posted Date: November 5, 2020 

GenerosityOur Whole Souul Living Theme for November is Generosity, a topic both deeply complex (if we think about it too much) and astonishingly simple (if we simply follow the impulse).  Consider the quote, “True generosity is guided by awareness.”  The implication is that if we are truly aware…: of our interdependence, of our inherent connections, […]

Click To Download  PDF October 2020 Ploughshare Posted Date: October 1, 2020 

ScriptureScripture is our Whole Souul Living Theme for October.  Spiritual traditions like Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and many others look to very specific, historic texts for inspiration, truth, guidance, or comfort.  For our purposes, solidly in the liberal religious tradition, we will more broadly define Scripture as, “Anything we turn to for guidance, truth, […]

FirstAnnounce Eating for Good(thanks to Julie Meyers for the post)-We all know that restaurants are hurting.  Since we all like to eat, there’s a way we can help.  We’ve created a list of minority-owned restaurants with brief reviews by members of our congregation (thanks, Helen Berkman, for the idea!).  Please consider soliciting these restaurants (all […]

Click To Download  PDF September 2020 Ploughshare Posted Date: September 1, 2020 

FreedomOur Whole Souul Living Theme for September is Freedom, a profoundly important idea in liberal religion.Osho wrote; “True freedom is always spiritual. It has something to do with your innermost being, which cannot be chained, handcuffed, or put into a jail.”  Victor Frankl wrote, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space.  In that space lies […]

Click To Download  PDF August 2020 Ploughshare Posted Date: August 1, 2020 

HospitalityHospitality is an ancient value.  Legend has it the Hebrew prophet Elijah would wander about disguised as a beggar to test whether people would be hospitable or hostile.  On one occasion, a rabbi turned him away, only to learn later that it was Elijah in disguise. The moral in the Hebrew tradition is that you […]

Click To Download  PDF Ju​ly 2020 Ploughshare Posted Date: Ju​ly 2, 2020 

​The SourcesBelow is a paraphrased summary of the spiritual sources of Unitarian Universalism: Direct experience of life and the divineWords and deeds of prophetic women and menWisdom from the world’s religionsJewish and Christian teachingsThe guidance of reason and science.Earth-centered traditions and the rhythms of natureThe fact that we have a list like this defines us as […]

Click To Download  PDF June 2020 Ploughshare Posted Date: June 1, 2020 

​​​​MythA modern definition of myth comes from Joseph Campbell:  “Myth refers to an intricate set of interlocking stories, rituals, rites, and customs that inform and give the pivotal sense of meaning and direction to a person, family, community, or culture.”  From this perspective, all of us are living collections of myths, consciously or unconsciously modeling […]

​​​Change​“Whatever IS will be WAS.”  Thich Nhat Hanh wrote: “If you suffer, it is not because things are impermanent. It is because you believe things are permanent. When a flower dies, you don’t suffer much, because you understand that flowers are impermanent. But you cannot accept the impermanence of your beloved one, and you suffer […]

​​CreativityCreate:  verb 1. To cause to exist; bring into being. 2. To give rise to; produce 3. To produce through artistic or imaginative effort Our Whole Souul Living theme for the month of April is Creativity.  Human beings create art but also community, love, hope, justice, war, violence, more….  We create when we work, cook, speak, clean, sing, make […]

Click To Download  PDF April 2020 Ploughshare Posted Date: April 1, 2020 

Click To Download  PDF ​March 2020 Ploughshare Posted Date: March 11, 2020 ​

​Common GroundCommon Ground is our Whole Souul Living Theme for March.  In a world that insistently divides and fragments the human community, a central proposition of our faith is that, There is a Unity that makes us One. Rev. Victoria Safford’s wrote; We are alone yet intricately bound, inextricably connected to soil and stream and forest, […]

​Evil​This month we are considering Evil as our Whole Souul Living Theme. Obviously, we are not celebrating evil, but in the spirit of religious community, seeking healing and greater wholeness through a deeper understanding. Evil, so far as we know is not embodied in any kind of being called Satan, and certainly not, at least […]

PreparationPreparation is the Whole Souul Living Theme for November, a time-honored yet under-rated spiritual discipline. Preparation is the answer to the question, “How can I live a more authentic life?” Or, “What if I have to speak in front of hundreds of people?” Preparation focusses and clarifies both our skills, and our intentions. Consider this […]

TranscendanceTranscendence is the Whole Souul Living Theme for October, appropriate for this time of seasonal change. Undeniably, all of Life is a series of transformations, transcending what we were, later became, and into whatever we are currently becoming. Sometimes transcendence happens slowly over years; one day you realize that you barely remember the person you […]

EconomyEconomy is our Whole Souul Living Theme for January, which probably needs just a little introduction. In a sense, everything has some economy to it because everything comes with trade-offs. E.B. White once wrote, “I wake each morning torn between two impulses: the impulse to savor the world, and the impulse to save it. It […]

Click To Download  PDF December 2019 Ploughshare Posted Date: Nov 27, 2019- 1:31pm | Author: GlennBarr

DivinityOur Whole Souul Living Theme for this month is Divinity. For traditional Christians, the word usually refers to the Christian God and/or Jesus. For Jews, divinity could apply to anything from the orthodox God of the Old Testament to the cosmic Ein Sof (without end) of Kabbahlistic teaching. For many Indigenous People, divinity could refer […]

Click To Download  PDF November 2019 Ploughshare Posted Date: Nov 27, 2019- 1:31pm | Author: GlennBarr

Click To Download  PDF October 2019 Ploughshare Posted Date: Oct 03, 2019- 12:09pm | Author: GlennBarr

Whole Souul Living CommunityCommunity is our Whole Souul Living Theme for May. In a wonderful allegory, Rev. Barbara Pescan wrote: One of the old ones stood up into the morning light and spoke to those who had come back to the river: “Now we have come again to this place; it is a good thing. […]