Quest Monthly Magazine

In 2019 the Rev. Bill Sinkford and the wonderful staff at First Unitarian Portland invited me to join them for “Seminary for a Day,” when we reflected together on how our inherited liberal tradition is accountable to the theological work of liberation.

I love the phrase “praying with our feet.” It often comes to mind for me in protests at the Texas Capitol, when I wait in line to vote, and perhaps most especially every Friday, when I lead my Zumba class, where we pray with our arms, our hips, our everything.

“Every disaster movie starts with the government ignoring a scientist” — social media meme, unknown origin

About eight years ago I started a meditation practice of drawing or doodling that I call “inklings” —as it gives glimpses both inward into one’s self and outward into connection with others, the earth, or the great unknown.

Once upon a time I rejected the concept of surrender without hesitation or investigation Would not even risk thinking it (surrender, indeed!) and yet…

The Church of the Larger Fellowship is comprised of over 2500 individuals serving Unitarian Universalism—half of whom are currently incarcerated.

In a congregation I once served was a man who’d been there many years—not a noisy person, but one who was pretty loud in his dislike of silence in the Sunday service.

Silence is the tool that brings us back from fragmentation into wholeness.

Three sanctuaries of silence come to mind as I think about creating more space for silence in my life.

The day Gerry and I moved to Neenah from Milwaukee was a long, exhausting one.

When I was a child I used to fear the silence. One of the tortures I endured was being thrown into a small closet with no light, and being left there for days at a time.

Where I live, December marks the beginning of winter. And in the Hudson Valley of New York, those winters are often cold, silent, and dark.

During my first year living in Seattle, I heard a news report of a woman being arrested for throwing a frozen chicken out her apartment in the middle of a crowd of runners in a 5K race.

As we head into the depths of winter I am always reminded of that in other parts of the world, people are experiencing the height of summer.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence…begins an ancient hymn that is still a popular Christmas carol.

Close to 20 years ago Rev. Jane Rzepka invited me to join the CLF team as the editor of Quest. 

You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org

You, silence, are the ground on which we build the fragile sandcastles of our every spoken word.

Working at Greensboro Health Care Center, a nursing home, was a rewarding experience for me in many ways.

In Lewis Carrol’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, Alice is talking with the White Queen, who lives in a backwards world where effects happen before their cause.

Back when I was still new to Texas I met up with black eyed peas for the first time. I was not impressed.

In February of 2015 I went to the Unitarian Universalist Minister’s Association Institute for Excellence in Ministry, and I had the opportunity to spend a week in a workshop with activist, eco‐philosopher, writer, and spiritual elder Joanna Macy.

What could a convict have to say about possibilities? At a time before prison, I would have thought Not very much.

The November issue of Quest will be completed and mailed long before we know the outcome of the most important election of our lifetimes.

My friend Shannon was one of a kind. She had a huge heart, full of love and loyalty to those of us in her chosen family.

The CLF’s Nominating Committee seeks members to run for positions beginning June 2021.

I like to think of our theme of Possibilities in terms of walking on a winding path through the woods.

The possibilities of what the CLF might offer the world are endless—and have never been more essential.

You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org

Perhaps you’ve held this image in your head since you were young...

When you’re a capable, confident, 28-year-old child of privilege and experience, then you are accustomed to taking the challenges that come up in life and simply…managing them.

One of the many ways to carve meaning out of grief is to honor the memory of those we have lost.

The movie Gravity, which came out in 2013, is about grief. And it’s worth watching with this in mind, because what Alfonso Cuarón, the director and co-writer, and Jonás Cuarón, the other co-writer, have to tell us about grief can help us through it.

When you lose someone you love, there are some things that are just really hard to hear: They’re in a better place. Time heals all wounds. I know how you feel.

Grief is more than just an intense form of pain. It is the emotion triggered by severe loss—a loss of a part of the self.

The CLF serves over 1,100 members who are currently incarcerated.

What helps when you are living with loss, grief, and great change?

So much of who we are is retained in our memories.

“Sit, Naomi, and pay attention!” This was my ongoing, never-ending command to my Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier.

We tend to talk about grief as the feeling that arises when someone we love dies.

You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org

17 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them.

One of the best ways I know to get things moving when I’m facing significant change is to engage my imagination.

When I was in college, a professor began the term by assigning a novel set in a dystopian future, where everything was grim and hope was absent.

We live in a world that seems bereft of potential, a world that seems to have lost its imagination.

When I was a boy, I had a vivid imagination. Some might have even called it overactive.

I have to say that I feel like I am writing this to you from another country.

The Church of the Larger Fellowship has always been fueled by imagination.

The CLF Board enthusiastically announces the CLF New Leadership Team

We are who we imagine ourselves to be.

In college, I majored in Women’s Studies. My sense that I lived in a world that objectified and devalued women was strong.