Today is May Day, Beltane, a celebration of spring for many people, especially including those who choose the path of earth-centered, or pagan, religious traditions. This creation story comes from Lady Abigail, high priestess of the Ravensgrove Coven in Greenfield, Indiana, and was taught to her by her great-grandmother. It strikes me as a story that would be most welcome in our Unitarian Universalist circles as well.

Mother Earth and Sister Moon: A Beltaine Story of Creation

by Lady Abigail, remembered from her great-grandmother

In the beginning, there was no land and no water, no stars and no sky. Only a great void filled with all that could be. Living within the void was creation, not yet by name for no words had yet been spoken. Silence was the void.

Then like a whispering wind gentle on a summer night, a sound crossed the great void. Our Grandmother of the Night called to the Grandfather of the Day. “Grandfather, do you see we are alone and have no children; our sky is empty and our hearts alone.”

Suddenly, Grandfather Day spoke in a deep thundering voice. “Then we shall have Children: daughters, two daughters.”

(Read on … )

Easter can be a tricky holiday for Unitarian Universalists: our faith is deeply rooted in Christian teachings and traditions, but many of our members do not feel a close affinity with the particulars of the crucifixion and resurrection stories as they are told in the Bible. Many carry wounds from encounters within traditional forms of Christianity and the emphasis that is placed on the violence of the story.

However, as the Rev. Kathleen McTigue, who serves the Unitarian Society of New Haven, Connecticut, says very eloquently in her Easter sermon from 2006 (PDF), we are called as Unitarian Universalists to “look beneath” for “the kernel of gold, the core truth, still there underneath the layers of dogma.” That kernel, she says, can be found within our own hearts.

What We Bring Forth

by Rev. Kathleen McTigue

One of the great gifts of the Universalist part of our faith is that it teaches us to look for spiritual truth not in one particular religious tradition alone, but in many of them. It teaches us to look for lessons in scripture, but doesn’t let us think of those lessons as exclusive. It lets us move away from orthodoxies that don’t work for us anymore, but pushes us to look beneath them to find the kernel of gold, the core truth, still there underneath the layers of dogma.

But there are perils in Universalism, too. One of them is that if we’re not careful, we can sometimes dilute the particularity of each religious tradition. We can look so hard for a common denominator that we end up reducing down to almost nothing the specific beauty of a story, a tradition, a spiritual practice. That’s especially perilous at this time of year because the Jewish and Christian holy days of this particular season are intertwined, and always have been. It isn’t accidental that the celebrations of Easter and Passover fall at the same time. Jesus and all his disciples were Jewish, after all; and according to the gospel story the last meal they shared with each other before his arrest and death was the Passover meal. As long as Christians have celebrated Easter, they have done it right around the time when Passover is being celebrated.

(Read on … )

Two years ago today, Rev. John Cullinan led this meditation at the Christmas Eve service at Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Oak Park, Illinois, where he served as the ministerial intern. He now serves the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos, New Mexico, where we will happily celebrate Christmas Eve in story and song with family and friends.

Bright blessings on you and yours, and Merry Christmas.

Postings will continue in the New Year, so stay tuned!

Christmas Eve Meditation

by Rev. John A. Cullinan

Put away, for one moment, all the anxiety and obligation of this season.

It is another time, another country– a place shattered by violence, oppression, and poverty. Its people cry out for peace and for love.

On a silent night much like any other night, to a family much like any other family, a child was born who would answer that call.

Tonight, we come together in celebration of that one night. It is a different time, a different country, and yet so much now remains the same. Our world is still touched by violence and fear, still cursed with poverty and oppression.

Tonight, we still cry out for peace and for love.

(Read on … )

Right about now is when I look up from all of my December busy-ness and try to remember just what it’s all about. Rev. Jane Rzepka, the senior minister of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, comes to my rescue, with this selection printed in the December issue of Quest.

The Mystery of Christmas Past

by Rev. Jane Rzepka

The middle of December. I know what it’s like. I know what goes on. The time has come. You bundle up, start the car and drive in the drizzle over to The Mall. You can’t find a parking place. Finally you spot somebody—a fellow walking to his car—and slowly, you follow him as he wanders around the parking lot, drifting from aisle to aisle, lane to lane, until he finally finds his car, fumbles with his packages and car keys, gets in, smokes a cigarette, and vacates the parking space. Why are you in single-minded pursuit of this space? You need this parking space because 2000 years ago, a baby was born in a stable.

The store is crowded. It’s 30% off, plus the 10% off coupon you hope you really did put in your pocket on your way out the door. You purchase the percolator for your mother-in-law even though as it turns out, the 30% off does not apply to “small appliances” and the coupon wasn’t in your pocket after all. You harvest a number of Christmas presents, a baby doll — “Baby Wiggles and Giggles” to be precise — an electronic dart board, a large bottle of rum, a gingerbread house with M&Ms on it, a chain saw, an oversized tin can of caramel and cheese flavored popcorn, and some gift bags with illustrations of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on them. Oh. And an inexpensive Grinch wristwatch for yourself, and a red sweater, too, for those parties coming up.

Why are you buying the reindeer bags and the chain saw and the gingerbread house? You spend your money and your time on percolators and popcorn because—well because once upon a time, it is told, a wrinkled little baby was born to a mother named Mary.

(Read on … )