Archive for July, 2006

Schulman’s Manual of Worship

Monday, July 31st, 2006

I was able to order a copy of Frank Schulman’s A Manual of Worship: insights from over fifty as a Unitarian Universalist minister before it became available at the UUA Bookstore. It now is so available. PeaceBang clued me in on it. I got my copy today.
This kind of guide, intended mainly for ministers but [...]

Chutney rants (correctly) about ministry

Monday, July 31st, 2006

Chutney (Making Chutney) has a little rant about ministerial ordination and education where he throws a big wet blanket on the conventional mainline ministerial formation process. I read it in context of some of the tight-sphinctered replies at the infamous post at PeaceBang’s Beauty Tips for Ministers. For the record, he and I both have [...]

Unfair wage

Sunday, July 30th, 2006

I’m home sick, with a cold. But even if I had felt fit the news about the House vote on the minimum wage would have brought me low. After all, nine years without an increase has let inflation erode the minimum wage to shocking levels. $5.15 today had the buying power of less than $4 [...]

Making a church website sub-blog: 1. starting up

Saturday, July 29th, 2006

For years now I’ve been trying to come up with a reasonably-flexible middle option for churches (and temples, mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras, spiritual assemblies, or other worshipping congregations) that want a clean, attractive, usable website but don’t have a lot of patience or native tech ability. Or where the tech person doesn’t have a lot [...]

Havurot: a parallel for Christians?

Friday, July 28th, 2006

I have a soft spot, in personal terms, for Jews.
In high school, my brother and I were thought to be Jews. We chalked it up to our olive complexon and the fact — noteworthy in suburban Augusta, Georgia — that we didn’t attend a church. (Or at least a church anyone knew of; I was [...]

Focus on lay ministries and leadership

Friday, July 28th, 2006

The ad hoc  “what I expect in a minister” thread at PeaceBang’s Beauty Tips for Ministers blog seems to be winding down; it seems to have hit a few nerves but has still only scratched the surface of ministerial formation, ethics, expectations and the implied spectre of clericalism.
I’m going to take the next few days [...]

You have to change oxcarts at Hartsfield

Thursday, July 27th, 2006

I’m a native Georgian, and can’t believe what passes for being well-informed by those from outside the region, particularly from Yankees, all earnest and know-it-all-y and pushy. I’ve grown up with this all my life, and now it looks there’s a new generation to train/suffer. Yes, Southerners have paved roads and electricity. I’ve only seen [...]

Universalist desk reference

Thursday, July 27th, 2006

The Rev. Roger Butts points out in his last comment a useful and serious assortment of universal salvation theological links at The Fire and the Rose blog.
Universalism in Blogosphere (The Fire and the Rose,  D.W. Congdon)

The Churchless God

Wednesday, July 26th, 2006

Stephen Lingwood writes briefly about the paradox in Britain between high level of identification as Christians and low church attendance, and thinks about the alternatives the “alternative churches” (like Unitarianism) are offering.
In short people are interested in a church-less God, and Unitarianism is offering a God-less church.
He make a good point, and one Americans should [...]

Spiritual Seekers Society (Hong Kong) blogs

Wednesday, July 26th, 2006

The Spiritual Seekers Society of Hong Kong (尋道會) has an English-language blog describing activities (including translation projects) they’re doing. They identify as Unitarian Universalist and are listed as an “other group” with the ICUU. I think one of the members of this group approached me as the web point person of the UUCF years ago, [...]


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