As the church year came to a close this past June, Facebook groups of UU ministers filled with stories of congregations treating their ministers poorly. What ministers define as poor treatment can take many different forms, but the result is usually the same: the minister determines it’s time to move …
As I write, over 50% of American adults have been fully vaccinated. In San Diego County, over 50% of residents have been fully vaccinated. All covid metrics in San Diego are dropping: case rate per 100,000 people, testing positivity percentage, community outbreaks, hospitalizations, ICU stays, and deaths. The Centers for …
The following sermon was shared at the July 30, 2017 worship service at Chalice Unitarian Universalist Congregation. To be a parish minister is to bear witness to loss and grief in their many forms and permutations. To be a parish minister is to companion…YOU…through your many losses, through your grief. It …
The following sermon was shared at the July 9, 2017 worship service at Chalice Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Human beings. We’re capable of great good and capable of great evil. In so many ways, we are amazing: inventors, problem-solvers, compassionate, and generous. In so many ways, we are absolutely flawed: destroyers, fear-mongers, …
The following sermon was shared at the December 4, 2016 worship service at Chalice Unitarian Universalist Congregation. “We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.” Does this idea sound a little idealistic? …
This is the letter I shared with my congregation when I returned from sabbatical in November 2016. Beloved community, The first two months of sabbatical, I found myself processing a lot of grief. I have been present to quite a bit of suffering and death in my first few years …
The following sermon was shared at the July 3, 2016 worship service at Chalice Unitarian Universalist Congregation. In October 2007, I was living in San Diego (where I was born and raised), and I had been attending First Church, the big UU church in Hillcrest, for three years. I came home …
This is the letter I shared with my congregation in June 2016 before taking a four month sabbatical: Beloved community, Since my sabbatical was announced earlier this year, I have been asked dozens of times—by people within our congregation and outside it as well—“What are your plans?” It is only …
When I was in seminary and we seminarians were feeling anxious about seeing the Ministerial Fellowship Committee (the “MFC”), we would reassure ourselves that we would certainly become ministers someday no matter what because “all you really need is to be ordained.” Only congregations have the power to ordain a …
I am blessed to have one Sunday off each month, and I usually sleep in and rest up that day, grateful for a precious TWO DAYS OFF IN A ROW (Monday being my usual day off). I don’t usually think about attending church; it would defeat the purpose of a …