Posts belonging to Category Inspiration
Posted by Rev. David on January 15, 2012
This sermon was presented at the UU Church of Ventura, on January 15th, 2011. As a child growing up in Hawaii, I danced the hula. This was not an abnormal thing, growing up in Hawaii. In fact, my first encounter with the hula was in a class at school, where in third grade we were [...]
Categories: Inspiration, Sermons, UUCV
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Tags: dancing, David Pyle, hula, liberal faith, matt harding, Ministry, relationship, sermon, soul, spirit, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalist, Universalism, Universalist, UU, UU Church of Ventura, UU Sermon
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Posted by Rev. David on July 11, 2011
I was determined to give myself a gift at the end of 5 years of seminary, church internship, military chaplain basic training, hospital internship and hospice residency… and I did not know what I wanted. Could I be craving a vacation on a beach in the Caribbean? Well, always… but I doubt I will ever [...]
Categories: Inspiration, Military, Turnings
| Tags: av's, Bosnia, chaplain, colorado avalanche, David Pyle, David Weber, gift, hockey, honor, Honor Harrington, Honorverse, internship, Jim Baen, Military, military chaplain, Ministry, red wings, religion, residency, sci fi, science fiction, seminary, soldier, Spiritual Practice, theology, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalism, Universalist, UU, UU Military, UU Principles, war
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Posted by Rev. David on November 30, 2010
Yesterday, I was driving home from an ordination in Rockville Maryland, and I took a route that carried me through the Appalachian Mountains of Western Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania… and I felt at home. I felt at home in a way that is hard to describe. As I spent the night in a hotel [...]
Categories: Care of the Soul, History, Inspiration
| Tags: activism, appalachia, appalachian, Appalachian State University, atrocity, beauty, Cumberland, East Tennessee State University, ecology, environment, home, I-68, justice, liberal, liberalism, Maryland, MD, mining, mountain, mountain-top removal, mountains, National Freeway, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Prophetic Voice, responsibility, serene, stop mountain-top mining, Tennessee, West Virginia
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Posted by Rev. David on November 25, 2010
As is customary on Thanksgiving morning, I woke up thinking of all the things that I give thanks for. All the things in my life that I am grateful for… and I thought I would share a few of them. I give thanks for my wife, and for the fact that no matter how much [...]
Categories: Inspiration, Turnings
| Tags: church, congregation, congregations, faith, grateful, gratitude, Ministry, relationship, Spiritual Practice, thanksgiving, unitairan, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalist, UU, UU Military
| 1 comment
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 March 6, 2010
If there is anything that makes some of my fellow Unitarian Universalists more uncomfortable than my military past and probably future, it is my willingness to call myself, both in public and from the pulpit, a Christian. I remember one day in particular that a parishioner in my internship congregation came up to me after [...]
Categories: God, Inspiration, Ministry, theology
| Tags: Chrisitan theology, Christ, Christian, Christian faith, David Pyle theology, Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, theology, Unitarian Christian, Unitarian Universalist Christian, Universalist Christian, UU Christ, UU Christian, UU's for Jesus
| 8 comments
Posted by Rev. David on December 23, 2009
It was Christmas, so I called home. That may not sound like much, but after the day I had just had, it was everything in the world to me. I had woken up that morning in my bunkbed made of plywood and 2×4′s, in a bombed out hotel room in Sarajevo, Bosnia. There was no [...]
Categories: Inspiration, Military, Prophetic Voice, Turnings
| Tags: Bosnia, Christmas, Christmas Eve service, Christmas Peace, hope, peace, Prevlaka, soldier call home, Soldier's Christmas, UCE, Unitarian Church of Evanston, war
| 2 comments
Posted by Rev. David on November 8, 2009
I have intentionally not written anything about the recent mass shooting at Ft. Hood, committed by an Army Psychiatrist, because I did not want to jump to any conclusions. We still do not know enough to draw any conclusions save one… soldiers saved other soldier’s lives that day. I am humbled by the reports that [...]
Categories: Inspiration, Military, Prophetic Voice
| Tags: Ft. Hood, Ft. Hood shooting, hope, Inspiration, Major Hasan, secondary traumatic stress disorder, STSD, tragedy
| 10 comments
Posted by Rev. David on October 9, 2009
In a surprising announcement (that perhaps should not have been so surprising) the Nobel Committee announced this morning that the 2009 Nobel Peace Price has been awarded to President Barrack Obama. They cited his efforts to reach out to the Islamic world, and his use of diplomacy rather than unilateralism in the United States’ foreign [...]
Categories: Inspiration, Patriotism, politics, Prophetic Voice, Social Engagement
| Tags: 2009 Nobel Prize, Bush imperialism, Bush Nobel Prize, Nobel, Nobel committee, Nobel Peace Prize, Obama diplomacy, Obama Nobel Prize, peace, President Obama, Prize
| 11 comments
Posted by Rev. David on September 30, 2009
My wife and I were looking at the photos and video in the media of the devastation in American Samoa, following the tsunami. My wife lived in American Samoa in a tent for months at a time, on archaeological digs. Just as I did after hurricane Ike hit our former home in Galveston, TX… we [...]
Categories: Inspiration, Turnings
| Tags: American Samoa, pictures, Samoa, tsunami
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