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November 19, 2023 by Linda Dove, Chris Edwards, Robin McNallie, and David Lane Apple Communion Beryl’s apples fall for Kroger boxes to enclose and keep till Sunday service-goers take and eat as many as they will. Through blue September days they fall, through nights that darken, lengthen, end all summer. They fill one season, yes. But empty first another. Fall apples then, the windfall sign that times and marks a season’s end -- that speak their sermons not in stone, com

November 5, 2023 ©Rev. Janet Onnie A few weeks ago the weather was unseasonably warm for the Saturday morning Staunton Farmer’s Market. As I shouldered my way through a bumper crop of chatting adults, unleashed children, and many, many dogs, I remembered a column by Perry Bacon Jr. who was bemoaning his inability to find a religious community for himself and his daughter. He wrote, “The Saturday farmers market in my neighborhood and a weekly happy hour of Louisville-area jo

What does it mean to be truly human and fully alive in the twenty-first century? by Tom Hook August 20, 2023 We shall be known by the company we keep by the ones who circle round to tend these fires. It is time now, and what a time to be alive. In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love. These words from MaMuse might seem conflicting to the times we are living in. With the immense knowledge humankind possesses at present, and the myriad of crises the global communit

August 6, 2023 © Rev. Janet Onnie           In 1971 John Lennon wrote the wildly popular song, “Imagine”.  Some of the lyrics, “Imagine there’s no heaven, No hell below us, ” is core Universalist theology.”  No one is damned, all are saved.  What I find problematic, however,   is the lyric, “Imagine there's no countries, nothing to kill or die for – and no religion too.”  And also no religion??  The implication is that religion is the basis for all conflict and if we could j

By Andy Schmookler July 16, 2023 Who are we human beings by nature? Why has our story been such a troubled one? What do we need to do to achieve the kind of world we want? As a civilization, we have not had adequate answers to those questions. And an important part of the reason for that is this: We have not been seeing ourselves in the perspective that shows us some fundamental truths about the story of our species. For millennia, humankind developed its answers without good