It may not be something that is in the minds of most of the public, but today, September 20th, has been a date on my mind for these last two months. It is a day long hoped for, long worked for, and dreamed of by many. It is a day … Read more →
Category Archives: Liberal Faith
Ministry is Big, so Have Faith
I want to give thanks to my colleague Christian Schmidt for being one of two inspirations for this post, through a question he posed to me in a comment on my article on our denomination’s feelings about supporting ministries. It is a topic that I have thought about engaging many … Read more →
The Honor of Being on “Smiley and West”
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 … Read more →
To Live Like Jesus
Last week and this week, I have been attending some military chaplaincy training in San Antonio Texas, as a part of my continuing education as both a UU Minister and an Army Reserve Chaplain. The first week was a wonderful course, put on by the Rev. Dr. Chrys Parker and … Read more →
I’m a Liberal and I’m a Patriot who Loves God… Deal with It!
I think this topic is becoming a regular 4th of July weekend tradition of mine, mainly because I have had it with the idea that unless someone is a Fox News watching, gun toting Tea-Party Republican they are not a “Real American”. Beyond the fact that such definitions of “Real … Read more →
General Assembly Day 5: Passionate Arguments for Our Faith’s Center
I want to say on Celestial Lands what I said in person to many people about the overall “theme” for this General Assembly. In my most humble opinion, the overall theme was not the 50th Anniversary of the UUA. It was not where we will be as a religion in … Read more →
General Assembly Day 2: Lions, Tigers, and Ministerial Authority, Oh My!
One of the things that always amazes me about my time at a General Assembly is how different my experience is depending on what I wear. Now, for most people this might not be literally true, but it my case it is. Let’s take the first and second days of … Read more →
The Church and Leadership Development
One of my developing ecclesiological theories is that the church, especially the liberal church, serves among its many purposes as the laboratory for being a whole, full, and religious human being. The liberal congregation is the container, the laboratory where we are able to learn how to engage one another … Read more →
Unionized Ministry
Recently, I had the honor and privilege to meet Rev. Don Southworth, the current Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association (UUMA), at the Spring Minister’s Retreat for the Heartland Chapter of the UUMA. This is my first year as a “regular member” and not a student member of … Read more →
The Scripture of an Ever Changing Revelation — Sermon by the Rev. David Pyle
Last preached on April 10th, 2011 I was fifteen years old when I encountered a set of verses from the Bible that caused me to leave the Southern Baptist Tradition. Ok, that’s a bit of an overstatement. It might be more accurate to say that at fifteen, my … Read more →
Dawn Breaks on “Offer Day”
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 … Read more →
In Defense of Inherent Worth and Interdependence — Sermon by the Rev. David Pyle
Last preached on March 11th, 2011 In October of 1996, I was serving as a NATO Peacekeeper in the area of the Former Yugoslavia known as Bosnia-y-Herzegovina. A young, idealistic U.S. Army Sergeant, I was serving as an intelligence analyst for the international peacekeeping force that had been created … Read more →
Generations of Ministerial Colleagues
Last week I attended the First Year Minister’s Seminar at the UUA Headquarters at 25 Beacon Street in Boston. The program was great… it was good to hear directly from the many different UUA staff offices, and the conversation I had about my theory of social justice with a senior UU … Read more →
Faith is Hard… and Liberal Religion Needs Some
One of the earliest articles I wrote here at Celestial Lands is one where I seek to define, for myself, the meaning of faith (that faith is not belief, it is “sacred trust”). I sometimes think we Unitarian Universalists and others of Liberal Religion have a harder time coping with … Read more →
Liberal Religious Social Justice
I have had some wonderful and amazing conversations, both in person and online, in relation to my recent article on Gun Control, Militias, and the Second Amendment. I can always tell when I’m doing “good work” when people respond passionately and personally to an article, some in favor of what … Read more →
The Journey from Conservative to Liberal
I remember a day in seventh grade when I came home all excited to tell my parents that I had discovered that I was a Liberal. We had been studying the American political system in social studies class, and in our textbook was a little box that showed the typical … Read more →
Glowing Coal
Something that regular readers of the Celestial Lands might have picked up on… and something that anyone who has been in a congregation I have served as a minister probably could not have missed… is that I love our congregations. I love the congregations of this Liberal Faith Tradition we … Read more →
Liberal Faith’s Learning Lab
I recently had a series of conversations with ministerial colleagues that re-ignited a thought I have been working around for some time… What in the world do we do liberal religion for? What could justify all of the expenses of maintaining a church or a Fellowship? What makes the anguish … Read more →
Meetings and Meeting
For the past week I have been with the congregation I am serving as an Interim Minister, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland Michigan. In fact, this is my inaugural article for Celestial Lands written in the ministerial study of the Fellowship. They are a congregation easy to love, in … Read more →
Method, Message, and Meaning Making — Sermon by the Rev. David Pyle
Last preached on July 18th, 2010 Reading Excerpt from “The Method is the Message” by Angus McLean The liberal is beginning to discover that she is more in tune with natural processes than are her maligners. The liberal has been accused of not knowing where he stood, or of … Read more →
Liberalism is Dead! Long Live Liberalism! — Sermon by the Rev. David Pyle
Last preached on March 6th, 2006 Many of the greatest human philosophers come to have one or two lines that they just love to use. One or two phrases that they feel encapsulate something that they are trying to pass on to the rest of us. For Jesus of … Read more →
In God’s Name — Sermon by the Rev. David Pyle
Last preached on May 15, 2005 A little over a year ago, I spent an evening working on the computer and, as I often do, I had one of the 24 hour news channels on as background noise. Yes, I will freely admit that it was Fox News…. But … Read more →