The greatest Unitarian preacher

I'm going through the list of UU churches podcasting here. This means that I often listen to five or six sermons a week. I usually listen to them while doing the washing-up. I feel like this studying of sermons, good and bad, is good preparation for my own sermon creating, which will become a very large part of my life very soon.

For the most part, I'm not that impressed. Most UU sermons I find boring and uninspiring. So far I quite like Second Unitarian Church of Omaha, Nebraska (Nebraska's one of those states I can never find in the middle of the USA) I don't really know why.

Then there's Bill Darlison at the Unitarian Church in Dublin. I think I can say he's the best Unitarian preacher I know. I don't always agree with him (his last sermon was on astrology, and I disagree with his beliefs about this). But comparing him to American preachers he's refreshingly different. Mystical and humourous, he's without a lot of the pretensious political stuff that comes out of American pulpits. His sermons are thought-provoking and spiritual. I like them.

I've also discovered UU radio. I may have some thought on this later. At the moment I'm not too impressed.

Comments

Paul Wilczynski said…

Don't forget http://www.UUAudioSermons.com which is a central source for the podcasts.

1:17 pm

Anonymous said…

Easy, Mary Katherine Morn
http://www.uucf.org/Sermons/tabid/57/Default.aspx

10:50 pm

What does it mean to be non-creedal?

Steve Caldwell says "The problem here isn't humanism vs. theism for theist Unitarian Universalists -- it's the non-creedal nature of Unitarian Universalism" This is a good point. We need to think much more deeply about what it means to be a non-creedal religion. The first thing I want to say is that there is more than one possible understanding of non-creedalism. The Disciples of Christ are a non-creedal church, they say here : " Freedom of belief. Disciples are called together around one essential of faith: belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Persons are free to follow their consciences guided by the Bible, the Holy Spirit study and prayer, and are expected to extend that freedom to others." Quakers are also non-creedal and say here : Quakers have no set creed or dogma - that means we do not have any declared statements which you have to believe to be a Quaker. There are, however, some commonly held views which unite us. One accepted view is that th...

LOST and theology: who are the good guys?

***Spoiler alert*** I'm continuing some theological/philosophical reflections while re-watching the series LOST. One of the recurring themes in LOST is the idea of the "good guys" and the "bad guys." We start the series assuming the survivors (who are the main characters) are the "good guys" and the mysterious "Others" are definitely bad guys. But at the end of series 2 one of the main characters asks the Others, "Who are you people?" and they answer, in an extremely disturbing way, "We're the good guys." The series develops with a number of different factions appearing, "the people from the freighter" "the DHARMA initiative" as well as divisions among the original survivors. The question remains among all these complicated happenings "who really are the good guys?" I think one of the most significant lines in the series is an episode when Hurley is having a conversation with ...

Is humanism theologically tolerant?

OK, well this might be controversial, but I feel the need to say it. Is humanist tolerant? Please note I'm not asking about humanism within society. Clearly humanism certainly believes in tolerance within society and I'm forever glad they are often the only people in the media calling for a separation of church and state. No, what I'm talking about is descriptions of Unitarianism like this and adverts like this , discussed at Peacebang here , which say that humanism is one option, Christianity is another, God is one option among many. The trouble is, humanism, by definition is theologically opposed to theism. This is very different from the relationship between Christianity and Buddhism. These two traditions may be vastly different, but Buddhism, by definition , is not opposed to Christianity, and Christianity, by definition , is not opposed to Buddhism. But humanism is consciously defined in opposition to Christianity and theism. So to say that humanism and theism can bot...

Reignite

Search This Blog