In times of ordeal, people are good about rallying ‘round. They put aside their
differences and pitch in to help, to comfort each other, drawing strength and hope from
the sense of their connectedness. In the days and weeks after September 11, that spirit
was much on display in our land.People who attempted to raise points of view [...]
(Note from the author: In recent years, by request, I have given one sermon a year that I
have given in Wayland before. This year’s (below) can be found in Perspectives, a collection
of some of my early sermons in Wayland, copies of which are still available.)The same leaves over and over again!
They fall from giving shade [...]
Some of you may know what important event Tuesday commemorates; it is of course the
birthday of the world. If you didn’t know, please don’t feel bad, I have to admit, I didn’t until I read The Map That Changed the World, it is just one of the many things I learned from that small yet [...]
Two weeks ago I raised the hope that by now life would be, if not “normal” [for that we
won't have soon, I fear], closer enough to normal here that every visit to this room, this
community, will be both a comfort in the ordeal and at least to some degree not a part of that
ordeal, even [...]
So much has happened in the last three weeks, I don’t imagine that many of you arrived with any confidence that my sermon would be called, “Being Wonderful on Schedule,” as the last monthly church newsletter announced. Needless to say, I had no idea where we would actually find ourselves this day, as I concocted [...]
So much has happened in the last three weeks, I don’t imagine that many of you arrived with any confidence that my sermon would be called, “Being Wonderful on Schedule,” as the last monthly church newsletter announced. Needless to say, I had no idea where we would actually find ourselves this day, as I concocted [...]
One of my closest friends from divinity school, Devon, is now an Episcopal Priest serving a congregation in Minneapolis. Growing up Catholic my understanding of the Episcopal faith was very limited. It seemed to me as a young child that the only distinction between my family’s Catholicism and friends who were Episcopalian was that they [...]
At the end of an awful week, we gather together.With many differing viewpoints and experiences, but just glad to see each other, we gather together.
Some of us have had to deal with losses and crises unrelated to the events of Tuesday, while others of us have thought of little else.
Some of us have taken the [...]
KEN: We have reason to be proud of our religious education program here at the First Parish in
Wayland. Its importance to us is reflected in its success, which is reflected in our enrollment. As
you can read in the latest Directory of the Unitarian Universalist Association, we have 250
children and youth enrolled in our Sunday programs. [...]
FIRST READINGI bring you greetings today from the more than one thousand congregations all across this continent with which the First Parish in Wayland is joined in religious fellowship through the Unitarian Universalist Association. It’s been an enormous, if sometimes exhausting, privilege to serve our family of faith these past eight years as President. I’m [...]
Canvass Sunday. It happens every March here at the First Parish in
Wayland. It happens at UU churches all over the continent, usually at about
the same time. It happens in other kinds of churches, too. Canvass Sunday.Some of you will remember twenty years ago when a British
Unitarian minister, Andrew Hill, served here for six months. Along [...]
There is a wonderful new translation of the Old English epic poem Boewulf, done by Seamus Heaney. I would guess some of you have read it. I would guess that others of you, spotting the title of this morning’s sermon in the order of service thought of bolting for the door, with schooltime memories of [...]