Sunday Worship: The Great Invitation — A Meditation on Queering Religion

Rev. James Ishmael Ford, preaching
Sue Bickford, Worship Associate

In April, James was officially designated a “Distinguished Alumn” at his seminary, the Pacific School of Religion. When he visited, he witnessed some of the consequences of the steep decline in mainstream religions, especially Christianity. He also witnessed some things that gave him hope for a vital and useful spirituality in our perilous times.

We welcome back the Rev. James Ishmael Ford is a Unitarian Universalist minister, a Zen teacher and retreat leader, a blogger, and an author. He is minister emeritus at the First Unitarian Church of Providence, RI. For the past three years he has served as a consulting minister with the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. He is also an active member of the teaching circle of the Empty Moon Zen community. Rev James’ blog “Monkey Mind: Easily Distracted” is hosted at the religious portal, Patheos. And his sixth book, an exploration of the arc of a spiritual life is forthcoming next year from Shambhala Publications.