The Spiritual Odyssey Collection
June 5 - John Rawls
Calluses in all the wrong places – a progress report from the rambling spiritual path of a fortysomething UU
Raised by a biology professor and a Christian preacher, my life’s journey led me to naturalism and buddhism before I found ERUUF and a faith that could save the world. I’ll recount some of the peaks and valleys I’ve encountered so far along this path, including my struggle to find balance between my spiritual growth and personal life.
June 12 - David Tucker
But the greatest of these is love.
Growing up as a Methodist, leaving the church and being in essence a secular humanist in my 20's, and then discovering and embracing both Unitarian Universalism and Buddhism at age 30, my spiritual odyssey has taken me down many winding roads. But all of them keep leading me back to the path of compassion, awareness, and love, found in all of the world's great and true religions, such as in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. To uplift and support others and myself, I continue exploring ways I can be part of building strong, transformative, liberal religious communities, based on wisdom, service, spiritual maturity, hope, accountability, faith, justice, deep kindness, and joy.
Podcast not available.
June 19 - Sue Coon
Is there such a thing as a lapsed UU?
Though I was raised a UU, I spent years wandering before coming back home. My wayward path and ongoing journey.
June 26 - Jim McCrae
Q: How does an a-theist, a-gnostic believe in God? A: The same way (s)he believes in the color red.
The a-theist does not believe in a God that intervenes on behave of human concerns. The a-gnostic does not believe in anything beyond what the senses can confirm. So what is left?
Raised in a quasi-religious household that revered science and secular humanist issues, and ignored conventional piety, I started forging my own idea of what God might be at an early age. When my father died unexpectedly a month before my 16th birthday the path to that understanding became more intensely urgent. Through the decades I have connected together a set of concepts that serve as an explanation. I am happy with this explanation with the full understanding that it falls short and may be wildly wrong. Such is our place in the universe and I am happy with that. I will open the door onto my journey and conclusions as of June 26, 2016. I'm looking forward to your presence.
Books I mention in my Spiritual Odyssey:
"Musicophilia", Oliver Sacks"The Gnostic Gospels", Elaine Pagels
July 3 - Jonathan Sheline
Keeping it simple, and true to my nature.
Family physician, married to Barbara, father of two, raised in family of seven competitive children, will describe how I have gradually learned to love and accept myself for who I am: disorganized, vulnerable, curious, open to new ideas and experiences, playful, artistic, lover of nature, and spiritual in an atheistic way. I will never be a world-famous scientist like I thought my father wanted me to be, but am finally fairly content to be a good doctor, teacher, father, husband, and believer in “voluntary simplicity.”
July 10 - Alan Hollister
A UU Family
I'll tell about my family (my parents were founding members of 4 UU congregations) and my adult experiences moving about the country and the 5 congregations that we've been involved with. Our kids were a significant influence in which congregation we chose (when there were options), and their experiences had a great impact on their lives.
July 17 - Joan Tilghman
July 24 - Beth Harvat
Discipleship as a Spiritual Quest
Being both taught by my family and personally called to a life that would help make the world a better place, my spiritual journey has been all about learning how to make that happen on many levels - energy, spirit, relationships, wisdom, sensing/feeling, conquering pride and an ever-evolving understanding of and trust in what has been called God.
July 31 - Joyce Boucheron
Be Here Now and Other Spiritual Lessons from People and Dogs I Have Known
I’ll tell stories about the patchwork pieces of my spiritual quilt. A strong family and Congregational church foundation, a family death, marriage, motherhood, dogs, science, ERUUF and more have provided the cloth.
August 7 - Amassa Fauntleroy
My Journey to Christian Humanism
The first eleven years of my life were lived in a racially segregated but social class diverse community. Growing up in my family's protestant church, American Baptist to be exact, I learned the ethical values which are with me to this day. The people I learned to love in the world of my youth were by no means perfect role models. The phrase "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" had a profound meaning to me. I learned to love the 'beautifully flawed' human beings who populated my world. These experiences ultimately led me to humanism. I will discuss how all of this led me to Unitarian Universalism.
