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I have been recently starting to follow the online ministry of Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. Naomi King. She has a wonderful ministry spread across a number of social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Typepad. Rev. King is a UU, but clearly comes from a more spiritual side of the tradition so I think non-UUs may find something of value in her work as well. Certainly thought some around here might enjoy hearing about what she does.

New avatar time. This one I picked up courtesy of Phil Plait, the astronomer best known for the blog Bad Astronomy. It is the Earth taken from 630,000 km by the EU's Rosetta space probe. The spacecraft's main mission, for which it just woke up, is to drop a lander on to a comet; the first ever attempt to land on one. IOW, this spectacular view of Earth could just be the beginning of one spectacular space exploration mission.

Mendalla

On Sunday, I am service leader at my UU fellowship, working with the minister on a service about Solstice and Christmas. I have long wanted to talk about Christmas and the traditional Nativity story in the context of my UU'ism so for my part of the service, I am offering the following reflection. The reflection in our service is an opportunity for the service leader to offer their own thoughts on the theme of the service.

Since I know there are some here who are interested in Unitarian Universalism, I thought I would throw out a couple links that are quite helpful in seeing some of the breadth and diversity of "The Chosen Faith" (as it was termed in a book many years back).

Wandering the deep time

I saw the light of God explode forth

Rays of holy energy permeating me

Filling me, the Cosmos, with God’s Power

God’s Word

God’s Will

God’s Love

And I danced among the stars,

Singing the praises of the Most High

Who had lifted me to Heaven

And filled me with Holy Light.

Amen

Why I put this on my wall instead of my blog, I'll never know. Moving it here to make it easier to link to.

I post this so often, I'll just stick it on here for quick reference. It is by Robert T. Weston and has been a reading in at least two UU service books, including the current hymn book Singing the Living Tradition. It captures my thoughts on the subject so perfectly that I can't see any reason to write any commentary on it.

Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the handmaiden of truth.

After seeing the latest trailers for Disney's upcoming movie John Carter, I felt compelled to update my avatar. Keeping with my ape theme, I'm using one of the Martian white apes. These are aggressive four-armed beasts that vaguely resemble terrestrial apes, hence the name "white apes".

Think of water

Falling as rain

Bubbling up from springs

Running down as streams and creeks

Until they meet in the larger flow of a river.

Think of a River;

Water flowing;

Carrying silt and debris

From all the places it has touched.

From all the streams and creeks that have fed it

Think of the ocean

Receiving the water and all that it carries

From all the rivers

From all the streams