If we subscribe to this progressivist view of history, of evolution, of the unfolding of life in the universe – a view nominally supported by the hearts of the great wisdom traditions, by our own transient observations, and by the findings of science (at least in the human or Earthly near term – perhaps not … Continue reading New Blessings, Wiser Blessing by Eric Hepburn

We often think of justice work as ‘external’ – we focus our attention on the parts of cultures and systems and institutions that lie outside of us, outside of our control or influence. But this focus makes two mistakes – first, it presumes that we are not implicated in systems and cultures we choose not … Continue reading Healing Justice by Eric Hepburn

This is the third of a three part sermon series based on the benediction. May you find: Questions more Profound than Answers, Vulnerability more Powerful than Strength, and a Peace that Passeth All Understanding. Is it a peace that is available to us? Even in the midst of the suffering of others? Even in the … Continue reading A Peace that Passeth All Understanding by Eric Hepburn

This is the second of a three part sermon series based on the benediction. May you find: Questions more Profound than Answers, Vulnerability more Powerful than Strength, and a Peace that Passeth All Understanding. And here’s how we’re going to honor it: We tried it scripted, we tackled ‘questions more profound that answers’, now it’s … Continue reading Vulnerability More Powerful than Strength by Eric Hepburn

This is the first of a three part sermon series based on the benediction. May you find: Questions more Profound than Answers, Vulnerability more Powerful than Strength, and a Peace that Passeth All Understanding. And here’s how we’re going to honor it: You Ask, I answer… well, probably more like ponder, speculate, ruminate, you get … Continue reading Questions More Profound than Answers by Pulpiteer Eric Hepburn

A good covenant is easy to write and hard to practice. What can we do to better live the promises we’ve already made? How can we honor the spirit of a promise when its literal interpretation shifts from hard to impossible? If a promise can’t be kept literally, is it worthless? What do we really … Continue reading The Promises We Make by Eric Hepburn, Pulpiteer

We can’t interrupt the transmission of intergenerational trauma without asking deep questions. In the research on play, on imagination, on unconditional love – we begin to see the shape of some similarly deep answers. But can we do the work? Can we relinquish our expectations of conformity and compliance in favor of a world made … Continue reading Freedom to Imagine, Freedom to Play by Pulpiteer Eric Hepburn

Could it be that the best thing about democracy is the part of it that we do the worst? After all, if you look back at the history of the idea, it only really had one serious precondition. A precondition that this country stopped taking seriously as soon as it extended the franchise. Could more … Continue reading Show Up For Democracy by Eric Hepburn

Who are our dead? Are they a subset of ‘the dead’? Are they a going concern, or just a past with whose echo we must contend? Are there obligations that linger between us, the living, and them? Do those obligations flow in two directions, or in one? Do these answers inform our approach to our … Continue reading Who Are Our Dead? by Eric Hepburn

Mother’s Day started as a Peace Movement, but what has it become? Between it’s lost peace roots and our fraught relationship with gender-roles, can we find a meaningful space for celebration? for gratitude? for hard-earned lessons? Well, we’re going to try. With a little bit of that exoteric vs. esoteric discernment that we started exploring … Continue reading Mothers Lost, Mothers Found by Pulpiteer Eric Hepburn