There is an election that I have been following for several years, one that is of vital importance for the future of America, and for the World. No, it is not the Republican Nomination for the President of the United States, nor is it Parliamentary Elections in Europe, nor is … Read more →
Category Archives: Blogging
Blogging the UUA General Assembly
As I did last year, I once again intend to write an article here at Celestial Lands for each day of the General Assembly in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sandy and I are here in Charlotte, checked into the hotel suite of rooms we annually share with the Rev. Katie Norris … Read more →
A Quick Welcome
Now, I know I say that I write the Celestial Lands Blog for myself, and for my own spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and theological development… but that does not mean I do not check out the site statistics on a regular basis. Over the past week or so, I have noted … Read more →
On Why I Write
Every year around the New Year I take a retrospective look at my writings of the past year… not just here at Celestial Lands, but my sermons, newsletter articles, and assorted other writings. I write a lot… it is part of my spiritual practice to do reflection upon life, the … Read more →
The Celestial Lands are Back! (Almost)
It has been a journey to restore the Celestial Lands website… and I won’t go into all of the different challenges that occurred in the transfer process and upgrade that we have gone through in the last few weeks. It would have gone alot faster had I not been in … Read more →
In Each Ending there is a Beginning
We have closed another year here at Celestial Lands, and I want to thank all of those who read and send me comments, both in public through the blog and in private through my email. I keep this website because it is important to me… it is a place for … Read more →
All of the Things I’m Not Allowed to Write About
Every once in awhile, I get an email or a quiet conversation from someone asking why I had not said something publically on an issue. Most recently, it was an email challenging me to write something publically on my position on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the U.S. Military. What … Read more →
A Firewall in the Celestial Lands
During the next year, there will be a major section of my life that I am going to do my absolute best to keep behind a “firewall”, to keep from directly influencing my writing or engagement here at Celestial Lands. I am beginning a Clinical Pastoral Education year-long Residency at … Read more →
The Child Within
As I was flipping through websites, I saw that Peacebang had put some wonderful childhood pictures of another minister up, as a reminder of the real human being underneath clerical garb… and I thought it a wonderful idea. Not just for others to see, but to remind each of us … Read more →
Vision is the Vertical in our Covenant
In the five years of my formal study for the UU Ministry, one of the most passionate topics has been the growing idea of Covenant in Unitarian Universalism… second in passion only to arguing about having young children in worship. Recently, the debate about covenant has become passionate in the … Read more →
“A Year in the Celestial Lands”
I have a few friends and family members who wanted to read some of what I write, but who did not want to read the blog, and so for Christmas last year I put together a PDF file of some of my articles and sermons from 2008. I printed and … Read more →
Why Janeane Garofalo is Dangerously Wrong
, Any time I hear someone begin to refer to whole groups of individuals as “these people” or “those people”, my brain immediately begins to shout that there is some kind of dangerous prejudice being promoted. I found it amazingly ironic that when Janeane Garofalo launched into her prejudiced diatribe … Read more →
The Ministry and Pastoral Implications of Technology
It began for me with Facebook, this thinking about how the new paradigm in virtual and electronic communications might affect ministry, but it has expanded beyond that to many questions about how this new interconnected, virtual, on-demand world should rest with the traditional understandings of the ministry. What I have … Read more →
A Year in the Celestial Lands
A year ago today I debuted a new design for the Celestial Lands website, one that allowed me to add to the long standing online journal/archive that has served me well over the years something I did not know if I would actually use… a blog. It is hard to … Read more →
Courageous Colleague
I don’t usually point others to another blog and say “Read this one when it posts something new!” After some deliberation, and a decision to not let my own fears of guilt by association stop me, I am going to point you all to the new blog “Calling Ministers“. It … Read more →
Celestial Lands is now Cuss-O-Meter rated
Credit to James Ishmael Ford for starting this little trend in the UU blogosphere… Created by OnePlusYou – Yours in Faith, David
Blogging Best Practices
I would like to thank Shelby Meyerhoff and the UUA Blogging Resources Project for the effort to put together a survey and report on “best practices” in Unitarian Universalist Blogging. It was an honor to be asked to participate in the survey behind the report. It was also useful for … Read more →
Commenting in the Celestial Lands
I remember a conversation one day in the Curtis Room at Meadville Lombard Theological School, where among the students that had gathered were several seminarians who were active UU bloggers, myself included. We were discussing some of our motivations for our regular online writing about our Liberal Faith tradition, about … Read more →