Each Sunday I invite folks to share their reflections, their spiritual perspectives and experiences with another another, because this is one of the gifts of caring liberal religious community. It’s one of the ways we grow to understand and guide our life’s journey, and help one another do likewise. Along those lines, here’s what I can say today about my own journey:

Because of my upbringing, I draw heavily from the Judeo-Christian cultural traditions. I appreciate their rituals and writings, and although I often wish that I could feel centered in their theologies, the fact is that I don’t. 
While my spiritual practice includes prayer, and may include reference to God or other biblical figures or stories, the God of my prayers is not the omnipotent author of creation. S/he is creation. To me, God is the non-gendered ultimate and sum total of all that is, and all that is possible – which is far more than ever can be comprehended by human beings. 
When I pray to God, I open myself to Truths larger than myself, hoping that they might flow through me as insight and clarity regarding how best to live out the great Truth of Interdependence. This latter experience is of a mystical nature, and it can occur in diverse situations/settings (particularly in nature, with animals, or in bearing witness to the poignancy of human experience: expressions of pain and joy, the unexpected kindnesses of strangers, the courageous revealing of deep truths). It can also occur in moments not usually considered “prayerful” (such as in moments of conflict, or heated dissention).


My theology is strengthened through attentiveness to each moment, each relationship, as an opportunity to deepen spiritual understanding and connection. As such, it is grounded through and enriched by respect for the uniqueness of individual journeys – including those journeys expressing a theology different from my own. And 
I am deeply moved and continuously inspired anew by this liberal religious tradition, which guides so many individuals to seek lives of moral integrity; to reveal to one another their strengths and vulnerabilities; and to recognize covenanted sharing as central not only to their well being but to the greater good. I honor Unitarian Universalist ministry as a grave and joyous responsibility, and I pledge my own commitment to serve with integrity, enthusiasm, and authenticity.