Autumn Reflection Fall seems to be taking its own sweet time falling this year. I still have a yellow lily blooming in my yard long after the frosts should be well behind us. Still, I feel my body, heart, and mind settling in for the darker season. Some changes are already apparent. The hours of […]
In honor of both Indigenous Peoples Day and National Coming Out Day, Rev. Stocker uses the story of the celebrated friendship of Owen the hippo and Mzee the tortoise to examine what it means to welcome all.
Coming in, Coming Out Read More »
This year the Council has a new idea: to devote a period of time during the year to one “arm” of the Mission Statement. Our Mission Statement, as you may recall, is “to be a spiritual community, to welcome all, to nurture one another, to work for justice, and to care for the earth.”
Radical Hospitality – October 6, 2013 Read More »
In the buildup to a possible military strike against Syria, Rev. Stocker considers both the Just War theory and an emerging new theory: Just Peacemaking.
Fifty years ago – in May 1963 – the Unitarian Universalist Association passed its first resolution on choice. Ours was the first religious tradition to officially endorse a woman’s right to reproductive choice.
Sharing some personal stories of how gun violence has affected her own life, Rev. Stocker addresses what a faithful Unitarian Universalist is to do in the American culture of violence.
Beginning Again in Love: Guns and Sanity Read More »
Agnus Dei This year, as the organizing theme for Music Sunday, the Worship Committee chose perseverance – especially in the face of transitions. Certainly our congregation is in transition. And we have persevered, continuing the work of our church in our changed and challenging circumstances. Here is a story about music and perseverance. In my
Agnus Dei — Perseverence Read More »
Last week, just before the election, a campaigner showed up at my door. I listened as he described why I should vote a certain way. In the course of the conversation, I learned he was a veteran, returned from a tour in Iraq in 2009. I told him that for the past year, every week
Veterans’ Day 11/11/11 Read More »
After the Fire There is story about the Buddha that goes something like this. After he became enlightened, the Buddha began to travel around India. A man who encountered the Buddha recognized he was somehow extraordinary. So he asked the Buddha, “ Are you a god?” “No,” the Buddha answered. “An incarnation of a God?”
The Art of Threshing © Sylvia Stocker And so the autumn has come, with cool nights, pungent fragrances, bird migrations and mammalian hibernations. The autumn has come, with its bright colors, fiery before the long cold, a last gasp of liveliness before the long dormancy. The autumn has come – and the harvest to bring
The Art of Threshing Read More »
