Celestial Lands began in 2004 as an Archive and Journal for me (Rev. David Pyle) to collect and store all of my religious essays, quotes, sermons, and Unitarian Universalist worship materials in one, searchable location.  It was inspired by the journals that Ralph Waldo Emerson kept throughout his life.  The collection of quotes, book notes, essays, and sermons that Emerson kept in his journals was the inspiration for much of his later writing.

I hope one day Celestial Lands will serve a similar role for me.

Emerson spent 5 years simply indexing his journals, but due to the miracle of modern technology, the programs that run Celestial Lands make the journal easy to search, and also allow me access to all of my writing no matter where I am, through the internet.

Celestial Lands also hosts my liberal religious faith blog… my reflections upon the world.  The Celestial Lands Blog is open for moderated comments.  I look forward to your thoughts and engagement.  I am currently on a Sabbatical from new writing at Celestial Lands, due to an increased level of responsibility in my professional life as a Parish Minister and Military Chaplain.  I plan to return to active writing again in the Summer of 2013.

Celestial Lands is also the home of an online collection of Classical Liberal Religious books, sermons, and texts.  Writings by Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Marcus Aurelius, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and many others are hosted here both in HTML and also in Microsoft Reader.  All of these materials are either open source, or here at the writer’s permission.

I (David) am an ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister in Preliminary Fellowship and a Graduate of the Meadville Lombard Theological School, in Chicago.  I serve as the Assistant Minister for the UU Church of Ventura, California, as well as a U.S. Army Reserve Chaplain.  I am married, with no children (other than my cat Athena).  I am a Unitarian Universalist, a religous liberal, and a Universalist Christian with a meditative spiritual practice and a Deistic understanding of God (and if being all of those things confuses you, try it from my end).  My home churches are the Church of the Larger Fellowship and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston County, TX.  From 2007 to 2008 I served the Unitarian Church of Evanston Illinios as the Ministerial Intern and then Summer Minister, and from 2010 to 2011 I served as the Interim Minister of the UU Fellowship of Midland, MI.

I am the co-founder with Chaplain (LT) Seanan Holland, USN, of the Great Lakes Military Ministry Project.  You can contact me through Facebook, or through the Celestial Lands Blog.  I can also be reached at david@celestiallands.org .

Welcome to The Celestial Lands

Books I have essays in …