on the occasion of the ordination of Gregory Jones October 18, 2020 Reverend Karen G. Johnston In addition to Ruth Feldman’s “Detour,” I offer two brief quotes. First, from the 20th century Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber: The second is from Joy Harjo, member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, current U.S. Poet Laureate. She wrote it …
Reverend Karen G. Johnston October 4, 2020 The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, New Jersey What is at stake is nothing less than our future. So says Widening the Circle of Concern, the highly anticipated report from the UUA’s Commission on Institutional Change. Published this past June, it was a central focus of this year’s General …
The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, NJ January 26 2020 To not let go of the thread, we have to find the thread, know the feel of the thread, make it ours, and hold it in our fingers. That thread – our communal thread – is our mission. Our reason for existing. Our purpose for being. …
The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, NJ January 12, 2020 John Woolman, a New Jersey Quaker from before the Revolution, is most-known for seeing abolitionist values among the Quakers. It is also from him that the concept of “right relationship” comes, calling on humans to live in right relationship with all creation. In a nod to …
The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, NJ October 27, 2019 Fisticuffs.[i] Violent shoving. Spitting in the face. Name calling. In June, I preached on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, what is commonly understood as the start of the gay or queer liberation movement. But the aggressive behavior I just described, while it did happen …
The Unitarian Society East Brunswick, NJ May 5, 2019 Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout is the Director of Music and Worship at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor. A Black, gay man, he wrote, not all that long ago, about an encounter he had with a white woman at General Assembly, the national gathering …
All Good Intentions: A Sermon on White Fragility Read More »
I borrow this series of questions from my colleague, Rev. Peter Boullata. You might also remember that I asked you these same questions about a year and a half ago when I preached about change and generational shifts. The need to speak on the phone in public persists. We just meet that need differently now. …
From Phone Booth to Cell Phone: Building the Next RE Program (sermon) Read More »
The Unitarian Society East Brunswick September 30, 2018 (This sermon was preceded by the poem, Monet Refuses the Operation.) Are there Star Wars fans in the house? Can I get a sense with a show of hands: how many of you have seen the most recent Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi? …
No Hell Below Us: A Sermon for John Murray Day 2018 (sermon) Read More »
The Unitarian Society East Brunswick, NJ January 7, 2018 READING: God Gave Me a Word by Amy Petrie Shaw A grandmother — who was not only the end of all arguments in his large extended family, but often the start of them as well. This is how Bryan Stevenson often begins his talks: with the …
New Member Sunday The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, NJ Not long after the presidential election, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder published an article that has been republished all over the internet and was turned into a little book. This little book. Originally titled, “20 Lessons from the 20th Century on How to Survive in Trump’s …