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 May 17, 2012
I have received multiple requests for copies of the homily that I presented at the UUA Pacific Southwest District Assembly this year, and instead of continuing to email it out, I thought I would publish it here at Celestial Lands. The task was to reflect on what “Beyond Borders” meant to me and my ministry”. [...]
Categories: Military, Military Chaplaincy, Ministry, UU Movement, Veterans
| Tags: beloved community, chaplain, liberal faith, Military, military bridgebuilder program, military chaplain, Ministry, radical hospitality, responsibility, soldier, unitairan, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalism, Universalist, UU, UU Military, UU Principles, UUA, war, welcoming
| 5 comments
Posted by Rev. David on February 17, 2012
One of the first essays I ever wrote in seminary, and the first essay I ever had published, was on the need for Unitarian Universalism to develop integrated spiritual practices that can be shared and engaged by large groups of Unitarian Universalists. In that essay, I make the case that someone could make a spiritual [...]
Categories: Faith, Principles as Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Practice, UU Movement
| Tags: Abraxis, faith, Humiliati, liberal faith, Ministerial Sisterhood, Ministry, monastic order, relationship, religion, religious order, Spiritual Practice, unitairan, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalism, Universalist, UU, UU order, uu practice, UU Principles, UU Spirit, UU spirituality
| 6 comments
Posted by Rev. David on February 14, 2012
I remember something that my Drill Sergeant said to me, my first day of Basic Training some 20 years ago, when I was an 18 year old private at Ft. Leonard Wood Missouri. We were all in one of our first formations, and he asked us if any of us would like to take a [...]
Categories: Equality, Military, Military Chaplaincy, Prophetic Voice, Religious Freedom
| Tags: Alliance Defense Fund, chaplain, chaplain religious freedom, Chaplains Alliance for Religious Liberty, David Pyle, election, Equality, Forum on the Military Chaplaincy, free exercise of religion, Military, military chaplain, military religion, military religious freedom, Ministry, politics, Prophetic Voice, religion, Religious Freedom, responsibility, soldier, Unitarian Universalist, Universalist, UU, UU Military
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Posted by Rev. David on January 20, 2012
Break not that circle of enabling love, Where people grow, forgiven and forgiving, Break not that circle, make it wider still, Till it includes, embraces all the living. –Hymn 323, Singing the Living Tradition Recently, the conversation has begun again about what makes a Unitarian Universalist. Are you only a Unitarian Universalist if you are [...]
Categories: Evangelism, Ministry, UU Movement
| Tags: activism, church growth, church outreach, David Pyle, Evangelism, faith, hope, justice, liberal, liberal faith, liberalism, Ministry, Peter Morales, Prophetic Voice, relationship, religion, religious movement, religious tradition, responsibility, unitairan, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalism, Universalist, UU, UU movement, UU Principles, UUA
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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
| 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 December 27, 2011
My life has been one of change. Change both within and without. That reality affects my preaching, it affects how I build relationships, it affects how I look at the universe. As I have been reflecting on this past year, I have been struck by how much change was within it… and how that change [...]
Categories: Ministry, Turnings
| Tags: change, David Pyle, Frank Herbert, interim ministry, liberal faith, minister, Ministry, move, relationship, responsibility, surprises, transformation, transition, transitional ministry, universe of surprises
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Posted by Rev. David on December 5, 2011
Unitarian Universalists are almost always surprised when they see me wearing the Christian Cross on my Army Chaplain uniform. Perhaps they should not be, given the Christian ancestry of our two founding denominations, but they are. Reactions have ranged from mild curiosity to outrage to some deep pastoral need. On several occasions, those reactions have [...]
Categories: ecclesiology, Military, Military Chaplaincy, Ministry, UU Movement
| Tags: chalice, chaplain, chaplain symbol, Christian, cross, David Pyle, faith, flaming chalice, Jesus, liberal, liberal faith, Military, military chaplain symbol, Ministry, religion, soldier, unitairan, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalism, Universalist, UU, uu chapalin, UU Military
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Posted by Rev. David on October 31, 2011
This week, I received an email from an organization I track, known as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. It is an organization that advocates both legally and in the media, for the protection of the Free Exercise of Religion in the military, often with more passion than restraint. Yet, over the last few years that [...]
Categories: Evangelism, Military, Military Chaplaincy, Ministry, Religious Freedom
| Tags: air force chaplain, are military chaplains constitutional, army chapalin, bad chapalin award, bad chaplain, chaplain, chaplain corps, constituion, constitutionality, Evangelism, faith, katkoff v. marsh, Military, military chaplain, military religious freedom, Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Ministry, MRFF, navy chaplain, religion, Religious Freedom, responsibility, soldier, UU Military, war
| 38 comments
Posted by Rev. David on October 24, 2011
There are times where the internal shifts necessary to be in a life of ministry in our liberal faith tradition are more obvious than others. As Unitarian Universalist ministers, we often emphasize a radical leveling in our ministries, and many UU ministers react against the classical understanding that ministers should live “a life apart”, or [...]
Categories: ecclesiology, Ministry, Spiritual Practice
| Tags: being a minister, David Pyle, faith, introspection, liberal faith, life of ministry, ministerial formation, Ministry, reflection, relationship, seminary, set apart, Spiritual Practice, theology, unitairan, Unitarian, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalism, Universalist, UU, UU Principles
| 1 comment
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