In 2004, after marriage between persons of the same sex became legal, I wrote a blog post about what a pastor might do when the couple had already vowed themselves to each other in the only spheres available: the social, religious or both. Husband Jonathan and I are clear that our wedding seven years ago [...]
As some of you know, on August 21, Jonathan Padget and I legally married at home in the company of some local friends. He and I were married at church in 2003, but now that the District of Columbia marriage law encompasses same-sex couples we wanted to “complete” our marriage. (The liturgy follows.) The Rev. [...]
Hi, dear readers! I’m back to blogging after several days of web quietness — more about that later — only to find that something is wrong here. My host? My local connection? Domain redirection? Other causes? Logging in has been a chore this evening. I’ll be back when I have the problems solved. And it [...]
Here’s a tool for bloggers and others with websites that refer to members of Congress. Some of you know I have secular work — with the government transparency organization, the Sunlight Foundation. Sunlight does some pretty amazing things, but I don’t normally speak of it, so as to not present a confusion between my own [...]
There aren’t that many church-focused free- and open-source content management systems. Perhaps I should be happy there are any, but each of them has its quirks. I found kOOL — even the name is a quirk — at churchtool.org. I found it because I was looking for church-related uses for the typesetting language LaTeX, which [...]
Digging into the Rules of the Unitarian Universalist Association, a church-planter would find Rule 3.3.5.f, which begins: A congregation should be incorporated when possible under the laws of the state in which it exists. A congregation shall include in its articles of incorporation or other organizing documents a clause providing that the assets of the [...]
Review this map. (Note that the District of Columbia is colored in.) And now think about church growth. The title is a big hint to where I’m heading. More later. Share this article Hide Sites $$(‘div.d4188′).each( function(e) { e.visualEffect(‘slide_up’,{duration:0.5}) });
Sad news from Doug Drown emailed to me earlier today and reprinted with permission: Thought you would like to know that it has been reported on the Maine Conference UCC website that the Gardiner United Church of Christ in Gardiner, Maine (former First Universalist Church) has closed. The property and assets have been turned over [...]
I’ve been studying the Quakers more than usual lately. Not just the Friends General Conference — the main fellowship for liberal Quakers, including many who aren’t necessarily Christian — but others, including the Holiness pastoral Quakers, and the Conservatives, with whom I would likely be most at home, should I ever go to the Friends. [...]
Funny: after all these years as a Universalist and living in the mid-Atlantic, I’ve never been to Murray Grove, the campground on spot of the New Jersey shore where Universalist pioneer and minister John Murray landed and met the “forerunner” Thomas Potter, thus restoring his faith. But I would like to go, if only for a little [...]
