Writing about Universalist Christianity and improving how churches work
Like looking for a liberally-licensed Bible, I take collections of public domain hymns seriously. I went back to a site I often enjoyed but has been dormant and read
09 Oct 2025 After a long absence, I am restarting activity on the Open Hymnal Project.
with activity as recent as last week. Go ahead and bookmark it, and even if you don’t share my interest in public domain and freely-licensed hymns, the materials for Christmas (PDF) should get your attention.
I was looking for some mid-century orders of service — more about that later — and found a trove of orders of service at the Internet Archive from Protestant union churches at some of the internment or concentration camps for Japanese Americans during the Second World War.
Such a terrible time in the nation’s history and a great hardship to those caught up in that dislocation, presumption of guilt, loss of civil rights and economic hardship. And then there are these documents, which in many ways are very ordinary and typical of the period. Did they have a role past the outline of the service or sharing church news? To maintain normalcy, project it, something else? I’ll leave it to those who have experience in the material to say. But they’re a worth a look, especially in the notices which describe the prisoners comings and goings — and their faith and values.
Link (Internet Archive)
A question to my occasional readers.
I’ve been using the New Revised Standard Version since it came out decades ago, but I’m looking for an additional translation or two that ideally are (1) a bit more euphonic in worship without being a paraphrase, and (2) ideally have some kind of liberal license, which is more of a philosophical choice about the ownership of common Christian properties.
Do you have any recommendations?
Over the years, I’ve run across Henry I. Cushman’s 1888 essay “Catholic Universalism” but never sat down and read it from beginning to end in one sitting. I’ve learned the best way for me to do so is to prepare a transcription for the web, and this is the result of that effort.
Cushman was part of that generation of liturgically-minded and -productive Universalists and this essay show his influence.
I’ve added links where helpful and marked page breaks in the original in square brackets.
How many private questions from readers have I answered, “Well, there’s First Universalist Church in Providence?” It’s a church close to my heart.
And now, after several years, it has a new website.
I think the Ready to Harvest channel provides objective overviews to Christian denominations, and this recent video provides a quick jargon-free introduction for non-Christians generally, though atheists are noted in the title. Each time I tried to quibble with the content, it was usually because I wanted to argue a point (so not neutrally) or thought there was room for nuance (not the point of a jargon-free introduction.) I would have liked more history, too, but that also would have made the introduction too long.
If I did have to quibble, it would be using a flaming chalice emblem to represent various Unitarian Christianities, which includes Jehovah’s Witnesses and other non-Trinitarians like the “Abrahamic Faith” churches, neither of which Unitarian (Universalist)s would identify as common kin or vice versa. But his point in bringing up the various kinds of Unitarians was to identify majority and minority opinions, and where boundary lines may be drawn. In that spirit, he specifically points out the existence and variant opinions of liberal Christians as a minority opinion through the generations and among Christians today. But — being objective — did include them, and did so fairly. Quite a lot of ground covered in just over 21 minutes.
While you’re al it, he has a 2021 video about the Christian Universalist Association — perhaps the only one I’ve seen from outside the CUA orbit — and while I hate the thumbnail, it pictures figures often mentioned in discussion of Universalism.
I’m a member of Esperanto-USA, and it recently adopted a new gift acceptance policy that I thought churches might use as input for developing their own. Esperanto-USA customarily publishes its governance and financial information in English, so there’s no need to learn la internacian lingvon to read it. Note how it clearly assigns responsibilities, makes clear expectations of donors for large gifts and avoids poison-pill gifts.
And while we’re at it, give your local food bank or pantry cash, not the refuse from your pantry. It’s looking like a hard fall in the United States, and cash is far more useful.
I can’t believe this has been going for eighteen years, but I’m consistently asked if there’s going to be a new Sunday-only calendar. Your wish is my command.
Get your copy of next year’s — and this year’s if you have a need for next three months — at the original page from 2008.
As it happens, it’s been a busy summer but I have five things to write about:
I’ve been asked about Universalist liturgical practice around All Souls Day, so I’ll share what I found.
In collecting answers to the All Souls question, I realized I hadn’t published some nineteenth-century reports that I transcribed.
In answering another reader question, I used a research source I’ve never had to used before, so I’ll review that. (I may or may not write about the original question.)
Two readers have asked about where you can find a Universalist church, so I’ll be updating that information here.
And I’ll be updating the Sunday-only calendar for 2026. I know what drives traffic here.
I doubt I’m the only one to sense national dis-ease, not only from Administration and Opposition actions, but from the economy and society as a whole, not to mention the situation in other countries. It’s a minister’s desire to share a good word, to express the gospel in way that comforts and encourages the most, and the more difficult the times, the stronger the impulse.
I have not found the words, and that’s a big reason I’ve not written anything lately. Answers are often found in the complex interplay of one’s values and customs, but those are hard to express in a general way. Other solutions may be found in acts of kindness and ordinary presence; these defy prescription. I’ll keep thinking about words to enliven and inspire; they may or may not come. But I don’t want silence confused with indifference, and that’s part of the answer, too.