If the unspoken facts came out, I wonder how many churches have folded for want of a pianist or treasurer, and if that number is greater or fewer than the want of a minister: professionalized, seminary-trained, full-time, residential or otherwise.
So, will I ever blog again? I’ve had some version of this blog for twenty years now and it has had its ups and downs, but I’ve written little in the last few years. My heart’s not been in it. It was a lot more fun when there was cross-talk between blogs, but I don’t expert to see so much of that ever again.
But even if the band got back together, I doubt I would ever go back to blogging the same way with a particular Unitarian Universalist Association beat (it’s hard to muster interest) or a self-imposed writing schedule (as I never had the readership to justify it.) Long form Universalist writing will go first to the Universalist Christian Initiative, which I desperately need to restart or close. But it seems worthwhile, so I’ll put my mind to that.
So let’s see if I can make a proper weblog of it; a place where I can log resources and thoughts that come to mind without getting too caught up in making a presentable article.
Next preaching appointments
I will be preaching next on April 30, May 21 and June 25 at Universalist National Memorial Church, Washington, D.C.
“Remote” communion for Maundy Thursday or Easter
If you are on the lower, especially the lower Reformed-ish, end of the church; and if you are having a streamed service where the members are providing their own bread and wine (or wine-ish) this Lord’s Supper framework seems ideal.
(I’m not interested if you think this is heresy.)
Palm crosses during COVID-19
If we can make masks out of handkerchiefs, we can make palm crosses out of legal pads. That is, the strip of paper across the top of a legal pad, folded lengthwise.Directions here: https://youtu.be/oT-0Z6YSJoU
Reformed Communion service using tumblers
I feel wholly proper for suggesting using a Japanese titanium beer tumbler for the Lord’s Supper now that I’ve read Andrew Spicer’s “The Material Culture of the Lord’s Supper. Adiaphora, Beakers and Communion Plate in the Dutch Republic” — down to the re-purposing a vessel formerly used domestically, and perhaps using something even simpler for the bread plate.
And if you read this site, you might enjoy it, too.
About the Bisbee trial
Because of the controversy around the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association’s public censure of Todd Eklof, there’s been talk of heresy trials. Of course, there’s no trial yet, just the censure and waves of accusation, though some formal action could happen. (I wonder what the euphemism will be?)
There was a trial of a Universalist minister, Herman Bisbee, that’s widely regarded as a heresy trial — and a mistake. Naturally, it’s come up in the Facebook conversations (with Michael Servetus, whom I’ll leave for someone else to write about) so good to give some context to those unfamiliar with the situation. I’m going to pull together what I’ve written about it plus any original documents I can scare up.
But Charles Howe’s article at the Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography is detailed, and rather than re-write one, I’ll point to his.
Up next
As my long-time readers have seen, I have written more here lately and hope to keep up the pace. Apart from historic connections between Unitarians and the Independent Sacramental movement I mentioned in my last update (that’ll be a longer piece), I’ll be writing next about:
- Why Universalists gathered parishes and societies at all
- Trying out short-format meditations tied to the Revised Common Lectionary
- Why I don’t engage in apologetics
- Notes about my eucharistic piety
- What Universalist “convention churches” were
- My tech-supported writing workflow
- Clippings from the Universalist General Convention
- Historic books I’ve started reading
Next scheduled sermons
My next sermons at Universalist National Memorial Church will be on October 6 and November 17.
I will post more information as I have it, and we’ll post the sermon manuscripts once preached.
Up next
Up next, in no particular order,
- A versatile order for communion for prayer breakfasts
- The continuing series about the Independent Sacramental Movement (ISM) and Universalism
- ISM overlaps with the Unitarians from generations ago
- Interesting finds from Universalist year books of the 1920s and 1930s: polity and public policy
- My next sermon manuscript
- Thoughts about shopping for church supplies