I’ll not hide the lede: Unitarian Universalism is not heresy, even when it’s not right. It’s hurtful and vexing that it’s a common assertion that Unitarian Universalism is a heresy, and that it is built on heresies. [Here’s a link to a Google search for “unitarian universalist heresy” to underscore my point.] At worst, this… Continue reading Unitarian Universalism is not heresy
Category: Unitarian Universalists
Should Christian worship have non-biblical readings?
Having non-biblical readings has become such a canon among mainline Unitarian Universalists that Unitarian Universalist Christians face a crisis on the subject of readings. Is it proper to have non-biblical readings in worship? The question of authority isn’t clear-cut. My home library has several works of daily readings: selected sections meant to be read regularly… Continue reading Should Christian worship have non-biblical readings?
Tool to search news broadcasts
Internet Archive has a tool that searches news broadcasts back to 2009, but since it’s fairly new, you may not have heard about it. Lots of uses, but I’m thinking particularly of those preachers who heard of, or were told of, a news segment but then don’t have access to it. I thought a demonstration… Continue reading Tool to search news broadcasts
Do we have a gospel?
So, dear Unitarian Universalists: today is Palm Sunday and Passover starts tomorrow. You’re probably busy, so I’ll keep this brief. Do we have a gospel? Not a bunch of gospels, or pieces that can be grouped into a gospel, but a story that makes it possible for a group of disparate persons into a particular… Continue reading Do we have a gospel?
Neighborhood of Boston, 2014
The 1922 “neighborhood of Boston” map I posted a couple of weeks ago, plus my own need for a visual reference for maybe one day visiting a UU Christian clergy meeting (how close churches are to T stops) and a curiosity to guess at what parts of metro Boston were underserved led me to knock… Continue reading Neighborhood of Boston, 2014
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
Do you use Github?
A call out for Unitarian Universalists and kindred: do you use Github? Asking for noodling a proof of concept. And you can follow me (bitb) here. (There’s not much there. Yet.)
Another Unitarian reference in The Daily Show
See 1:25. Not so flattering to the unstated Unitarian publishers of this paper, but there’s some comfort in knowing nineteenth-century Universalist papers were (as I remember from long-ago) generally respectful of Catholic immigrants. And promoted toleration of Mormons.
“Wholly symbolic” communion?
In the joint Unitarian and Universalist 1937 Hymns of the Spirit the shorter communion service has a provision where “there is to be no distribution of the elements” “the communion being wholly symbolic.” I’ve never seen this ever done myself; has anyone?