Posts belonging to Category Pastoral Care
Posted by Rev. David on August 27, 2012
It has now been over 2 years since I was ordained as a Unitarian Universalist Minister, and each of those years I have spent in more than full time ministry as a minister in our congregations, as well as a reserve military chaplain. Prior to that was a little over 5 years of ministerial preparation, [...]
Categories: ecclesiology, Ministry, Pastoral Care, Turnings
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Tags: change, David Pyle, liberal faith, military chaplain, Ministry, ordination, past, relationship, religion, responsibility, soldier, tranformation, transition
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Posted by Rev. David on October 17, 2011
In the fall of 2011 I was honored to attend the first ever OutServe Leadership Conference. This was the first time for this organization of LGB persons actively serving in the military to gather publicly, since such public gatherings and recognition was made possible by the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Harass, Don’t [...]
Categories: Equality, Faith, liberal faith, Military, Military Chaplaincy, Ministry, Pastoral Care, Religious Freedom, Social Engagement
| Tags: activism, bi-sexual, chaplain, David Pyle, Equality, Evangelism, faith, Forum on the Military Chaplaincy, gay, GLBT, hope, justice, Las Vegas, lesbian, LGB, lgbt, liberal, liberal faith, Military, military chaplain, Ministry, Outserve, politics, Prophetic Voice, relationship, religion, responsibility, Service Members Legal Defense Network, SLDN, soldier, unitairan, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalism, Universalist, UU, UU Military, UU Principles
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Posted by Rev. David on August 31, 2011
There are many amazing aspects about the process of meeting a new church. Of course there are the challenges of moving into a system that is already well established, of becoming subject to traditions and power-lines that are long established, and to engage congregational dynamics as they flow and shift. It is to see the [...]
Categories: Ministry, Pastoral Care, Spiritual Practice, UUCV
| Tags: Buddhism, depth, dogen, emotion, identity, Ministry, relationship, self, soul, spirit, Spiritual Practice, theology, Zen, zenji
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Posted by Rev. David on August 25, 2011
This weekend I will be on a short segment of the Public Radio International program “Smiley and West” with Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West. It was recorded today, to be aired this weekend. It was an honor to have a letter I sent to the program selected for the “Take Us To Task” segment, [...]
Categories: liberal faith, Pastoral Care, politics, theology
| Tags: activism, Cornell West, fundamentalism, fundamentalist, liberal, liberal faith, liberalism, politics, progressive, progressivism, Prophetic Voice, radio, radio show, religion, Smiley & West, Smiley and West, Tavis Smiley, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist
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Posted by Rev. David on March 15, 2011
It is an interesting part of being an Interim Minister, that you come to love a congregation, that you have ministered among them, that you have hopes and dreams for them, that you are an intimate part of a religious community… and you know that you are only there to prepare a place for the [...]
Categories: liberal faith, Ministry, Pastoral Care, Turnings, UU Movement, UUFOM
| Tags: faith, interim, interim ministry, interim pastor, liberal, liberal faith, ministerial search, Ministry, pastor search, relationship, responsibility, temporary shepherds, unitairan, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalism, Universalist, UU, UU Fellowship Midland, UUFOM
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Posted by Rev. David on November 15, 2010
This past Sunday, I became emotional in the pulpit… again. Ok, truth to be told, I’m always emotional in the pulpit. It’s part of why I never schedule anything for Sunday afternoon, because preaching a good UU sermon will wipe me out, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I usually maintain enough reserves to make it through [...]
Categories: Inspiration, Pastoral Care, Worship
| Tags: crying in church, emotion, emotive faith, emotive worship, laughter in church, liberal faith, Ministry, Spiritual Practice, tears in church, unitairan, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Unitarian worship, Universalist, Universalist worship, UU, UU worship
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Posted by Rev. David on September 13, 2010
I don’t know if there is another human relationship like that a minister needs to build with their congregants. Or even the relationship a minister needs to build with the congregation as a whole. As I have been building my relationship with the members of the congregation in Midland Michigan, an old ministerial adage has [...]
Categories: Ministry, Pastoral Care, UUFOM
| Tags: agape, faith, love humanity, ministerial love, ministerial relationship, Ministry, relationship, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland, UU, UUFOM
| 3 comments
Posted by Rev. David on May 27, 2010
I have come to the belief that what makes our culture so afraid of grief is that we often have buried within us layer upon layer of losses, one piled on top of another, the way that sand piles up upon the ruins of ancient cities, gets packed down, and turns to dirt, clay, and [...]
Categories: Care of the Soul, Ministry, Pastoral Care
| Tags: bereavement, berevement, death, dying, fear, grief, griefs, grieving, hospice, loss, mourn, mourning, relationship, sadness, stages of grief
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Posted by Rev. David on April 17, 2010
I am fascinated with how we human beings create narratives or stories, and then derive our meanings from them. In politics, this manifests in several different ways, one of the most obvious being how a “narrative” is created by any successful candidacy for high political office (Obama the Reformer, McCain the Mavrick, Biden the Good [...]
Categories: Care of the Soul, Pastoral Care, politics, Social Engagement
| Tags: activism, activist, advertising, common wisdom, ethics scandal, image, judges, judicial activism, judicial appointments, justice, legislate from the bench, lobbyist, narrative, narrative theory, political image, political scandal, political story, politics, public relations
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Posted by Rev. David on April 11, 2010
I want to posit a few aspects of my theory of the primacy of human emotion. The purpose for this article is that I am currently developing, as a part of my Clinical Pastoral Education Residency, both a theory and theology of Pastoral Care. I am well aware that this project is rife with paradoxes and irony… [...]
Categories: Care of the Soul, Ministry, Pastoral Care
| Tags: anthropology, cpe, emotion, emotional creatures, emotionalism, family systems theory, human paradox, narrative theory, paradox, Pastoral Care, pastoral theory, primacy of emotion, primacy of reason, rationalism, rationalize, reason, theology, theory, theory of emotion
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