The Rev. Dr. Forrest Church, formerly the senior minister at All Souls in New York City and now the Minister of Public Theology there, announced in early February that he has terminal cancer.

Rev. Church has devoted his ministry to not just caring for his people and his community, but also to scholarship and theological writings meant to further the movement of Unitarian Universalism. Many of his writings can be found at his website, and he has also published many wonderful books.

The central message of his life, however, has been consistently that of how we are called to love one another. This sermon (PDF), given on February 3, 2008 to All Souls New York and a week later to All Souls Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a culmination of that message.

Love and Death

by the Rev. Dr. Forrest Church

Audio from Tulsa can be found here.

Although I have delivered some thousand sermons on almost as many discrete topics, one way or another each circles back to a single theme. This tendency, I’m told, is not uncommon. Every minister worth his or her salt has one great sermon in them. It’s no wonder that we return time and again to its familiar music and uplifting chords.

Even church administrators pick up on their bosses’ penchant to repeat themselves. In certain instances, they have little choice. One of my storied colleagues, James Madison Barr of Memphis, Tennessee, had a habit of disappearing periodically, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays, when the office staff was composing and printing the weekly church newsletter. At the top of each newsletter, they included the sermon title for the following Sunday and a brief précis of its theme. Whenever Dr. Barr was missing in action and necessity forced the Memphis church administrator to be creative, she listed his forthcoming sermon as follows:

“The Great Mystery”
James Madison Barr, Preaching
What Dr. Barr will be preaching about this Sunday is a mystery, but we’re certain it will be great.

Whether great or no, my recurring sermon, too, is rich with mystery. Time and again, I return to the abiding themes of love and death. I do so this morning for personal reasons. Since there is no way, or call, to be artful about blunting this news, let me begin by reading you the letter I shall send tomorrow to the members and friends of this wonderful church, whose destiny and mine have been interwoven now for so many years.

(Read on … )

People come in to Unitarian Universalism for many reasons, and sometimes for nothing more than basic human companionship. What one person finds within our communities may be completely different than another, and our reasons for staying are just as varied.

The Rev. Suzanne Meyer, who serves the First Unitarian Church of St. Louis, Missouri, shares wisdom from an unexpected source in this sermon from 2003:

We Are All About Saving Souls

by the Rev. Suzanne Meyer

They say confession is good for the soul, and since I am talking about souls this morning, I’ll make a confession. Those cheap, paperback murder mystery novels are my guilty pleasure. I buy and read tons of them and know the names of all the authors. So one day when I was prowling around Border’s bookstore in the religion section, scanning the shelves in search of sermon fodder, I noticed a new book by a familiar author, a woman who calls herself Nevada Barr. She is the author of one series of those paperback mysteries to which I am addicted. What was that book doing over here in the religion section? I just assumed that another customer who shares my book browsing and buying habits had picked the book up in the mystery section, had walked over to peruse the religion section, and had absent-mindedly set the book down and forgotten it. So I picked up what I thought was another one of those murder mysteries with the intention of glancing at it and either buying it or returning it to its proper shelf.

The title of the book was Seeking Enlightenment . . . Hat by Hat. Odd title for a mystery, I thought. I turned to the table of contents, and much to my surprise, I discovered it had not been misshelved, after all. In fact, it is a book about the author’s search for spirituality. Oh, dear, I thought, not another one of those “I’ve found it” books. A mystery writer finds God, gets saved, turns her life around, becomes an evangelist . . . Nevada Barr, you disappointment me!

(Read on … )

Further exploring the ideas that come to mind when someone asks, “What is Unitarian Universalism, anyway?” I came across this snippet from a sermon by the Rev. Tony Johnson. Many people look to religion as a source of comfort, of solace, and even of escape from the “real” world. Rev. Johnson, I think, hits the nail on the head when he says that while our Unitarian Universalist churches do provide such comfort, the goal is not to draw people into our communities and keep them sheltered, but to prepare them to go back out into the world and do the work that must be done.

Rev. Johnson served the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Essex County, in Orange, NJ for nine years, and is now affiliated with the Community Church of New York, Unitarian Universalist.

Shelter from the Storm: Unitarian Universalism as a Safe Harbor

by Rev. Tony Johnson

I would suggest to you this morning that Unitarian Universalism is a religion for people who do not want too much safety in their religion. Maybe that’s not the best way to put it. How’s this? Unitarian Universalism is a religion for people who realize that life is just too complicated to make sense of with a single explanation, or that individuals and the world can be saved - whatever that means - by only one faith or path. We want shelter from the storm, but we know the truth of the words of the late mathematician and naval officer, Grace Murray Hopper: A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.

(Read on … )

I’ve spent a very enjoyable portion of the morning exploring The New Hymn and Tune Book, with services, published by the American Unitarian Association in 1914. Blogger Fausto was kind enough to point me to this book in the comments on this post over on my journal, and luckily, Google Books has the whole thing readily available and searchable.

The theologies and liturgies from the turn of the last century fascinate me, and make me wonder what Unitarian Universalism might look like today and in the future if we were to engage more fully with the words used in our churches a hundred years ago, perhaps adapting them for our modern sensibilities. This prayer is one of many from this particular volume that speaks deeply to me.

Prayer for Comfort and Faith

from The New Hymn and Tune Book, with services, 1914

O thou whose name is Love and whose compassions fail not: let thy merciful kindness be for our comfort when burdens are heavy and sorrow is near, — when our hearts fail us for the things that are coming to pass, and we fear as we enter into the cloud. When our dear ones die out of our sight, still, grant to us a large and happy faith, and in our own last hour lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou art the strength of those who put their trust in thee. Send out thy light and thy truth, to shine pure and strong over death and the grave. Amen.

Source: Prayer for Comfort and Faith, from The New Hymn and Tune Book, with services, pg 48, published by the American Unitarian Association in 1914