On April 27, we had a \u201cQuestion Box Service,\u201d where people in the congregation asked questions of me, and of Kate Sullivan, our Director of Religious Education. Kate and I addressed address as many of your questions as we could during the service. But we didn\u2019t have time to consider every question. And for the questions we did address, we didn\u2019t have time enough to give full and thoughtful replies. So next fall, I\u2019m going to devote a series of sermons to consider your questions in more depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are the questions you gave to Kate and me on April 27. The questions appear within quotation marks. I\u2019ve added comments in square brackets, like this: [ ] .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[I\u2019ve grouped the following three questions together, because they all concern the future of our congregation. On Oct. 21, I\u2019ll give a sermon titled \u2018What Are Our Visions for the Future?\u201d\u2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat will happen to the church after the older people can no longer come?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhere do you see our church in 15 years, and how will we get to that vision?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow do we connect better \/ attract new members?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow have you created this spectacular inclusive environment in our congregation?\u201d [I interpret the \u201cyou\u201d in this question to be in the plural, for it is everyone in the congregation who has created an inclusive environment.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCan we become a Green Congregation again?\u201d [The Green Sanctuary program of the Unitarian Universalist Association is a certification showing a congregation has adopted best practices for environmental sustainability in its operations.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYesterday I attended a United Church of Christ memorial service. The message of a better life after this one and rejoining loved ones after death is very appealing. What is the Unitarian Universalist answer to that?\u201d [On Nov. 2, I\u2019ll give a sermon titled \u2018What about the Afterlife?\u2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow to deal with loss and unrelenting grief?\u201d [On Sept. 28, I\u2019ll give a sermon titled \u2018What Do You Do with Grief?\u2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[I\u2019ve grouped the next two questions together, and on Jan. 25, 2026, I\u2019ll give a sermon titled \u2018Faith, Hope, and Kindness.\u2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs it enough to have hope and be kind?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYour thoughts on faith \u2014 What is it? Is it religious?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDan, when did you know that you were \u2018called\u2019 to ministry? Was it a journey \u2014 how purposeful, spiritual, challenging? Were there times when you were tempted to leave that journey?\u201d [I don\u2019t have a traditional calling like Christian ministers, and I hate talking about myself, so I have difficulty answering this question as asked. But I think there\u2019s a broader issue here. In the past, many Protestant Christians believed that every single person has a calling. I think that would be great, if it could work in the real world. So on Aug. 31 \u2014 Labor Day weekend \u2014 I\u2019ll give a sermon titled \u2018Your Job as a Calling (No, Really).\u2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s a brief theological history of First Parish? It\u2019s got to be an interesting story, going from a Puritan church to the non-creedal church we know and love today.\u201d [On Nov. 30, I\u2019ll give a sermon on exactly this topic.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen kids come home with questions about god\/God, what should we say? How should we respond?\u201d [On Oct. 26, I\u2019ll give a sermon titled \u2018What Do We Tell Kids about God, Death, etc.?\u2019 Because she\u2019s a developmental psychologist, Kate has a unique perspective on this, and I\u2019ll try to figure out how she can address this topic with me.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat can we do about the reality that there is so much injustice and inequality in the world while we are surrounded by such abundance?\u201d [This is a big huge question. I had already planned a sermon on homelessness on Sept. 24, and a sermon on White poverty on Oct. 5. Those two sermons will begin to address this big huge question.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe great truths of the teachings of Jesus that are common to all major religions in the world.\u201d [This is another big huge question that I can\u2019t possibly cover in just one sermon. But I\u2019ll try to address this question on the Sunday before Christmas, in a sermon titled \u201cJesus, the Solstice, Diwali, and Hanukkah.\u201d]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[The following two questions both address the question of what our worship services are the way they are \u2014 and how our worship services compare with those of other Unitarian Universalist congregations, as well as those of other religious groups. I\u2019ll talk about this question in the Jan. 4, 2026, service, in a sermon titled \u2018Alike and Unalike.\u2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the Baha\u2019i faith, there would be a spiritual talk and after the talk the leader would ask people to give their perspectives on the topic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat about our service is most similar to other Unitarian Universalist congregations?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhere does honest dialogue begin in a time of such deep division?\u201d [Another big huge topic. No, I don\u2019t have the final answer. But in the service on Dec. 28, I\u2019ll have us take a look at some practical tips for opening the door to honest dialogue.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhich came first, the chicken or the egg? (metaphorically)\u201d [My metaphorical answer is: Yes. Actually, I can\u2019t figure out how to address this question in a sermon. If I think of a way to do it, I\u2019ll add it to the schedule of next year\u2019s services.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On April 27, we had a \u201cQuestion Box Service,\u201d where people in the congregation asked questions of me, and of Kate Sullivan, our Director of Religious Education. Kate and I addressed address as many of your questions as we could during the service. But we didn\u2019t have time to consider every question. And for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2],"tags":[388],"class_list":["post-1846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-issues","category-unitarian-universalism","tag-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1847,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions\/1847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}