On Mother’s Day, let us consider the actions that cultivate abundant life for Mother Earth and all our relations. What are the paths that energetically transform our relationships in ways that build understanding and life-giving community among earth’s diverse living beings? Carol Hackbardt grew up in an inter-denominational Community Church in California. She served as […]
“Belief” seems to be at the root of many of the ills of our society today as people use their “beliefs” to justify all sorts of damaging and unproductive behavior. This talk will look at the nature of belief and explore some of the distortions which have arisen over the last century. We will then […]
If you look in your Thesaurus, you will find dozens of words related to “earth”, “earthling”, “earthly”, and “earthy.” They are wonderful words that range from the soil to the biosphere, men and women to the goddess Gaea, the corporeal to the global, the folksy to the hard-boiled. Each poet has his or her own “take” […]
History tells us that war, politics, disease, deforestation, and drought have all contributed to societal collapses that punctuate human history. But there is another factor of at least equal importance. In fact, Wes Jackson of the Land Institute is persuaded that it may pose a more serious threat to human life than does climate change. Yet, […]
When a person with a great mind, heart, or message passes away, we find the fact of their death hard to process. This is particularly the case if their end was unexpected, violent, or at the hands of the enemies of justice. In a year which has seen deep and disturbing manifestations of death and […]
“Upward mobility—the American Dream—has become a myth. Concentration of wealth and power has skyrocketed. Dr. King’s dream of justice and equality has fractured. Half of all Americans are impoverished or struggling, as the middle class shrinks and billionaires take the profits. Where’s our commitment to the Common Good? Our Unitarian Universalist (UU) tradition places its […]
Now that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa is diminishing, it is a good time to reflect on the meaning of this global health crisis. On the one hand, an immediate response to the spread of the disease was fear, a reaction increased by the media coverage of the epidemic. On the other, some individuals […]
We are surrounded by sounds every day from our morning alarm clock to the drone of late night TV. At times it may seem sound permeates nearly every aspect of our busy days. Our ears are always “on.” We have no ear-lids after all, so whatever noise occurs around us, we hear it. So how […]
Each year on or near International Women’s Day, we pause to reflect on the condition of women here and elsewhere in the world. While some claim that women in the U.S. have gained equality, the news about who is at the bottom of the economic ladder, whose reproductive rights are under fire, and who is […]
Join the co-artistic directors of Third Avenue Playhouse in Sturgeon Bay for a lively discussion of why the experience of live theatre matters. Theatre provides the spiritual experience of communion among actors and audience members in a way that no other medium does. At its best, theatre sparks personal growth and social change. James Valcq […]