Share “In the spring of 2013, in a garden overlooking Jerusalem, I spoke with a rabbinic student named Amichai about the deeply interiorized myths that keep the Jewish people bound up in suffering…. Amichai hails from a long line of rabbis. His grandfather was fifty years old when he led his congregation to the gas chambers of Treblinka with a Torah scroll in his arms. “Finding himself undeniably gay in the Orthodox world in Jerusalem opened for Amichai the reality of the other. His break from his family’s religious community was enormously pai...

Share Transgender Awareness Week, dedicated to honoring the lives of and obstacles faced by the transgender community, covers the seven days before November 20, Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDR). This day began in 1998 after the death of Rita Helser, a transwoman killed because of her identity. Originally intended as a vigil planned by Rita's friend Gwendolyn Ann Smith, TDR blossomed into an annual day to honor lives lost to violence against trans people. Rates of violence against trans individuals are extremely high, with one out of every f...

Share Very few of us — children or older — have had the opportunity to see ancient cave and rain-forest art in its original settings, and we can only wish to be able to go back in time and witness the pictures' creation. But we can come as close as possible to these experiences through this dynamic, engaging book about our "ancestory" — a clever blend of "ancestry" and "story". Realizing that our ancestors exercised imagination even 70,000 years ago — when they engraved crosshatch-patterns at Blombos Cave, South Africa — is mind-blowing. So thi...

Share The Baha'i faith is based on the teachings of 19th century Persian prophet Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892). His timeless message of practicing tolerance, kindness, and love has created a lasting religious following. Bahá'u'lláh, whose name means "The Glory of God," taught that there is one God whose successive revelations to humanity have been the chief civilizing force in history. The agents of this process have been the Divine Messengers — chiefly seen to be the founders of separate religions — whose common purpose has been to bring the human r...

Share Diwali (or Divali) comes from the Sanskrit word Deepavali which literally means "a row of lights." This auspicious holiday, known in English as the "festival of lights," is celebrated by Hindus around the world, and for most Hindus marks the beginning of the New Year. It historically symbolizes the victory of good over evil and celebrates light and life on both community and personal levels. On the one hand, it is a time to rejoice and feast with friends and family. Homes are cleaned and decorated with bright earthen lamps in every corner...

Share The late Thomas Berry (1914 - 2009) was a pioneer in the advocacy of a "universe story" and the espousal of an Earth-based spirituality. He spent his life studying and teaching ecological living — what he called "the Great Work" of our time — to all who would listen in church pews, library niches, college classrooms, retreat centers, and lecture halls around the world. Born on this day in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1914, Berry was the third of 13 children. When he was 12, he had an epiphany about unity that you can read about in the S...

Share Dorothy Day (1897-1980) founded the Catholic Worker Movement; she was an extraordinary peace and justice activist. Even as a high school student, she was fascinated with city life. Her concern for plight of the poor which was fed by the Russian writer Peter Kropotkin. In 1927 she became a Catholic and then in 1933 launched with Peter Maurin the radical publication Catholic Worker. This project enabled her to harvest her passion for social justice, to write regularly, and to take care of her daughter from a failed marriage. Soon a communit...

Share Dylan Thomas died on this day in 1953. He lived in and out of words. They were his daily bread. He once wrote: "There they were, seemingly lifeless, made only of black and white, but out of them, out of their own being, came love and terror and pity and pain and wonder and all the other vague abstractions that make our ephemeral lives dangerous, great, and bearable." Poetry that lasts and speaks to people all over the world comes from creative souls who cherish language as a sacred trust and who love to play with words. Dylan Thomas is on...

Share “When we lose a husband or a wife, we likely are parting with someone with whom we have lived for years, decades. There is a home filled with belongings that were theirs. A home filled with reminders of their lives and our connection with them. As it was heartbreaking to say goodbye to our partners, it is arduous to part with each reminder of them. “After some initial straightening up of the house in the weeks following Karen’s death, I left things largely as they were. Every now and then I would put something away or discard an item that...

Share This little book will be a help to many because surviving the death of a spouse is one of the most common painful experiences human beings share. It is also an experience we’re usually unprepared for. Greer is a United Methodist minister and trained pastoral counselor with many decades of practice on the counselor side, who recently faced his own need for counseling when his wife of fifty years died. The opening scene is a family gathering for Thanksgiving dinner, for the first time without their beloved spouse, children, and grandchildre...

Share Albert Camus, born in Algeria, was a literary philosopher and man of action. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957. In his plays, fiction, and essays he tried to work out an honest, humane, and persistent vision of life. Camus was active in the French Resistance Movement during the German occupation in World War II. Up against the inhumanity and barbarism of the twentieth century, this writer eloquently spoke out for the spirit of liberty, the validity of reason, the value of conscience, and the art of being present in the world. ...

Share Queer Space is an ongoing affinity group for queer folks who want to connect with meaning, purpose, higher calling, spirit, and/or God in an environment that is radically open and affirming. We will engage with queer theology, books, movies, art, etc., and with that inspiration offer one another solidarity, encouragement, and community. The group will be gently facilitated by Reverend Julie Davis, who is trained to hold space that is interfaith, non-judgmental, curious, warm, and brave. Because we want Queer Space to become a consistent c...

Share Queer Space is an ongoing affinity group for queer folks who want to connect with meaning, purpose, higher calling, spirit, and/or God in an environment that is radically open and affirming. We will engage with queer theology, books, movies, art, etc., and with that inspiration offer one another solidarity, encouragement, and community. The group will be gently facilitated by Reverend Julie Davis, who is trained to hold space that is interfaith, non-judgmental, curious, warm, and brave. Because we want Queer Space to become a consistent c...

Share Eugene V. Debs was born on this day in 1885. Throughout his life he was an ardent believer in justice, fairness, and freedom. A visionary, he protested the economic gap between the rich and the working class Americans. In a 1918 statement delivered in Federal Court in Cleveland, Ohio, he proclaimed: "I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure bar...

Share Vandana Shiva was born on this day in 1952 in Uttarakhand, India. In this Himalayan forest environment, she learned from her earliest days a sense of non-separation from nature. She chose as a young child to study physics because it helped her understand how the world works. She received a master’s degree in the philosophy of science from Guelph University, Ontario, in 1976 and a PhD in Quantum Theory from the University of Western Ontario in 1978. She says that Quantum Theory taught her how to make connections. She felt an imperative to ...

Share “Years ago, I asked my late artist friend Jo for help creating a prayer basket. I wanted to find a way to remember everyone in my prayers. I had tried drawing a map but it was too one-dimensional. We wove a basket of willow wands and copper wire, lined it with cutout paper leaves, softened and stained with tea (a process she’d been working on). I still have the basket, its wands rising, the woven copper strands bright when the sun touches them. Things are tucked into the basket—feathers, talismanic bundles. But after a time I stopped usin...

Share Thousands of readers will know this author for her series of novels featuring a Celtic Mary Magdalen, The Maeve Chronicles. Elizabeth Cunningham is descended from generations of Episcopal priests, and she writes beautifully here of that heritage, of growing up next door to her church and also the woods she felt compelled to enter to discover more. In the opening chapters, God, Cunningham’s father, and a certain Miss Schultze (“eccentric, exacting musician, organist and director of the adult and children’s choirs”) are written about with a...

Share The multi-talented Will Rogers (1879 - 1935) once quipped, "We are all here for a spell: Get all the good laughs you can." Such a broad view of comedy enabled him even to poke fun at his birthday: "I was born on November 4, which is election day. … My birthday has made more men and sent more back to honest work than any other days in the year." This versatile American entertainer was born and raised in the Cherokee Nation. With a mixture of charm, cowboy skills, and homespun humor, he worked in Wild West shows, radio, film, and theatre; h...

Share What grandparents teach their grandchildren goes way beyond words. A gesture, a glance, a gentle embrace can show affection and even demonstrate profound truths, as this story shows. The narrator and his grandmother — his Baba — do not share much language in common. She lives simply, "in a chicken coop beside a highway," where his father drives him every morning so that she can care for her grandson during the day. To communicate, she points and the boy nods. When he accidentally drops a bite of food that she has cooked for him, she picks...

Share When Father Shannon Kearns started the Queer Theology podcast with Brian Murphy in 2013, each episode focused on the lectionary scripture for the week (the lectionary is a schedule of Bible readings for each Sunday and for holy days). It was presented as a resource for ministers who wanted to add queer perspectives on scripture to their sermon preparation. However, Queer Theology quickly became “church” in itself, offering listeners the fullness of a spiritual experience. The podcast is now in its tenth year and recently celebrated its 50...