Something lighter today. In some old Universalist baptism rites, we hear this traditional question with Satan taking on a new guise. Renouncing, therefore, the fellowship of evil, will you endeavor to learn of Jesus Christ, and cooperate in the study and practice of his religion? Fellowship of Evil? Sure I’ll renounce it, especially if it… Continue reading A modest thought: standing for worship
Category: Religious architecture
Please don’t worship in the round
Small congregations, or small groups within congregations, have the tenacious habit of pulling a set of chairs into a circle for worship. The idea is that this is intimate, thus warm and friendly. Thus good. But there’s another way of looking at worship in the round that argues against it. 1. The circle is invariably… Continue reading Please don’t worship in the round
New 24
I took this picture of 24 Farnsworth, the future home of the UUA, yesterday after arriving at Boston South Station. A former industrial area, reminds me a bit of lower Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. More food options nearby than 25 Beacon, too.
If you don’t have millions to buy a Bay Psalm Book
This week one of the eleven surviving copies of the 1640 Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in English North America, sold at auction. The owner was Old South Church, Boston, and the sale reminded me of all the old Unitarian communion plate that was sold to keep the staff paid, the furnace stoked… Continue reading If you don’t have millions to buy a Bay Psalm Book
Exterior work at Universalist National Memorial
A few people — including some of my dear readers — know I’ve been attending Universalist National Memorial Church regularly for a few months after having not been after the end of my pastorate (2000-2003) there. It feels good and it feel right; it is also the best church experience I’ve had in Washington in… Continue reading Exterior work at Universalist National Memorial
Hymnboard
I was in Philadelphia yesterday. Stopping by First Unitarian, I had the pleasure of touring the building, where I saw this lovely hymnboard. It, and the rest of the furniture in the Joseph Priestley Chapel I gather came from a now-lost Unitarian church in Germantown.
A short film of hope for dying congregations
I was searching online, clicking links and reading tonight when I found this charming, touching and pleasingly funny film short. It’s about a Jewish congregation in the East End of London trying to keep a minyan on Yom Kippur. Spend ten minutes and — if your congregation is in peril — hope. “The Tenth Man”… Continue reading A short film of hope for dying congregations
Fourth Universalist, Brooklyn?
I got home this afternoon from a weekend trip to New York, and I’ll have plenty to say and show about that later. But I like to follow up on thoughts while fresh. We know about Fourth Universalist in Manhattan, but what of Fourth Universalist, Brooklyn mentioned here. (But that’s not Greenpoint, where I always… Continue reading Fourth Universalist, Brooklyn?
D.C. Pagan library an interesting institution model
Christian Science reading rooms have a place in our religious-institutional consciousness, but this new Pagan library and meeting space, just inaugurated in Washington, D.C. is particularly interesting as a cost-distributed, multi-(Pagan)-tendency resource. A public face with less financial exposure than build-it-and-they-will-come churchmanship, and less personal exposure than the British and Irish Anabaptist “resource houses” (in… Continue reading D.C. Pagan library an interesting institution model
Universalist church-transit combo!
I love Universalist churches. I love streetcars. So nice that Providence, Rhode Island is planning to run a line very close to First Universalist (pastored by a friend of mine) a block from where Washington turns on Empire, according to this map and story at the Providence Journal site. Hope it works.