http://boyinthebands.com Scott Wells on the practice of Christian faith Sun, 11 May 2008 20:27:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I mentioned that there are a number of Unitarian Universalist congregations that are not members of the Unitarian Universalist Association but neither are they declared to be "emerging" with the goal of joining the UUA, really dormant or inactive; in essence a "submerged congregation," independent, which includes some former members of the Universalist ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/in-orbit/ After the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly in 2006, I asked if any new congregations were admitted. This I researched and also noted which congregations were no longer a member. I've just now reviewed the minutes of the UUA Board of Trustees and the observer notes of the District Presidents Association ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/congregational-comings-and-goings-since-ga-2006/ I grabbed this domain today. (No content.) Seems unwise for it to be floating available -- it could be snapped up by anyone -- when it could be very valuable for Unitarian Universalist promotion. Even more valuable than magazine ads. Cost: $24 for two years. Just saying. http://boyinthebands.com/archives/unitarianuniversalistsorg/ Since a picture -- or map -- is worth a thousand words, I've created a Google map showing where all the emerging congregations in the Unitarian Universalist Association are. I've tried to put the most recent details with each congregation, but if you see an error, please make a comment. View ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/these-are-the-emerging-congregations/ I'm going to take a couple of days to consider the issue of congregational growth in the Unitarian Universalist Association. So I asked myself: How many emerging congregations -- organizations in formation and those (once covenanted) that plan to join the Unitarian Universalist Association -- are there? Their number is a ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/how-many-congregations-are-emerging/ Do you know of free and open source software (FOSS) for managing public transit (public transportation) systems? Especially small, bus-based systems. Perhaps I don't know the lingo well enough, but all I can find are expensive, proprietary systems. You would think there was a need. As in earlier requests, pointers to ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/help-needed-foss-for-public-transportation-systems/ A follow up to the idea of congregation growth in the Unitarian Universalist Association. The fact is that, at last, everything dies: organizations and relationships included. Congregations do choose to leave the UUA, consolidate or (perhaps not by choice) disband. Even though we often talk about human death in a beautiful ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/let-us-say-goodbye-with-respect/ It's no secret I love OpenOffice.org. It's no secret that there's a new 2.4 release and a beta for the 3.0 release out. Perhaps less well known is that you can run Windows and use OpenOffice.org. (The 3.0 version, with full release due in September, should benefit long-suffering Mac users.) The ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/helping-lower-walnut-office-suite/ Do you know of a good organization (a c3 or an advocacy c4) -- in addition to the National Association of Railroad Passengers -- that advocates for increased passenger rail service in the United States? Especially state initiatives. Thoughtful blogs are welcome, too. http://boyinthebands.com/archives/help-needed-passenger-rail-advocacy/ You'll recall the Rev. Angela Mather and her cash-strapped parish in Lower Walnut, Maine: a use case for free and open source software and other solutions for congregations. One of the problems she had was an old Windows computer that was sluggish and temperamental. A friend from seminary thought it might ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/helping-lower-walnut-a-free-antivirus/ I am not watching primary returns; I am looking over to replies I made to my gracious readers. A few weeks ago, a reader asked for Universalist liturgical help for a service with a theme that featured a historic woman. I suggested that the service could end with the benediction Phebe ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/readers-question-historic-liturgy-help/ A strong quarter for blogging; much about ministerial formation and practice. Dinner with Universalists Monday, April 4th, 2005 Few things annoy me more than the pseudo-truism that Universalists were the simple, earthy yokels while the Unitarians has cultivated such powers of the mind that they never touched the ground. Gay and Christian in ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/blog-in-review-april-june-2005/ As others have written, Mildred Jeter Loving died last Friday. She and her late husband Richard were co-plaintiffs in Loving v. Virginia, which in 1967 struck down the remaining miscegenation (anti-mixed-ethnicity marriage) laws. That case has long given me hope that Hubby and I might enjoy legal marriage without having ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/thank-you-mildred-loving/ More entries on UUA certification -- not interesting -- and other ephemera marked this quarter. Proper blogging picked up around March but -- ah! -- so many of the resources I then found point to dead sites. Ubuntu two Monday, January 3rd, 2005 Earlier, I referred to the Zulu word ubuntu, musing on ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/blog-in-review-january-march-2005/ The Universalist Japanese mission is one of those episodes in denominational history that perplexes those who might be interested in it. It flourished through the twenties, barely survived the War (I gather) but a single congregation of it -- the Doojin Christian Church, Tokyo (no Web site) -- remains today. ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/book-on-the-japanese-universalists/ Hubby and I watched the first two-hour installment of Cranford, an adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's atmospheric novel Cranford tonight on Masterpiece Theater, on PBS. The first reason: it is very good and faithful to the book. The second reason: I read the book is because he and I visited Knutsford, the ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/cranford-on-pbs-think-of-unitarians/ At Day Job, we love data visualization. I do. Many people do. So much easier to share, learn and appreciate information when the data is expressed in a chart, map or tag cloud. Noodling around for a Google map for a post to come out tomorrow, I ran across a ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/visualize-world-unitarians-and-universalists/ On Friday, I got a nice email from Jamie L. Thompson, the Unitarian Universalist Association Stewardship and Development Office Coordinator with the copy of the Annual Report on Giving I requested. Why wasn't it online for general download? "[I]n order to respect the privacy of individual donors." A bit cautious, but ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/giving-report-in-hand-er-on-screen/ Hubby and I won't bother with religious organizations that are hostile to our lives as gay men, with respect to the polity of the congregation concerned. That means a gay-agnostic congregational-polity church in a hostile association is better than gay-affirming church in a hostile connectional system. This makes affiliating with ... http://boyinthebands.com/archives/bad-news-from-the-united-methodists/ A triad of insurance and nonprofit organizations have just launched Blue Avocado, with tips, resources and advise useful to nonprofit staffs and boards. You might like it too. Blue Avocado http://boyinthebands.com/archives/add-to-feed-reader-blue-avocado/