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By J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. January 31, 2021 Three weeks ago Tom Hook spoke about “Imagination, ” the topic this month from Soul Matters, with today the last of the month. While he mentioned a dark side to imagination, he mostly focused on its positive aspect, providing visions of better futures that may be achieved with proper hope and effort. Today we shall be more concerned with the dark side, people imagining things that are simply unreal and are not going t

By Mary Hahn January 17, 2021 I woke up one morning and saw the frost on the roof and on the grass and I looked out at the mountains that stood strong like an unbreakable sentry that has stood guard over the valley for millions of years. The mountains are the soul of the region. To understand the mountains is to know ourselves. During our brief lifetime we see little change; they appear much the same. My mind drifted back to the times in which we live. The acrimony and the pa

By Tom Hook January 10, 2021 IMAGINE THAT! Can I? Can we? When I chose this video for this morning, it was before the devastating attack on our Democracy this past Wednesday. This video, titled “The Great Reversal” is based upon Isaiah 60. Isaiah wrote this for the Jewish exiles who are returning to Jerusalem after their captivity in Babylonia. Cyrus of Persia, who had defeated the Babylonians, allowed the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and even provides funds to financ

By Les Grady December 27, 2020 As part of the service, Linda Dove read RUBAIYAT FOR PLANET EARTH . So, what’s an apocaloptimist? The urban dictionary definition is “someone who knows it’s all going to hell, but believes it’ll turn out OK, ” with “it” being the country, the environment, humanity, or something else. For me, it’s the climate. I’m an engineer, and most engineers are, by nature, optimists. We solve problems, which requires optimism. If a problem is so large an

By Tom Hook, November 8, 2020 Quote - bell hooks (author & social activist) What Does It Mean to be a People of Healing? pdf format Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion. Healing is an act of communion? Let’s ponder that a bit…. Here we are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic of Covid-19, racial and civil unrest, economic uncertainty, and just five days from one to the most vicious, divisive elections in history and we hear from b