Blog

Rather than dump more of my own thoughts here, I want to share an article I read and appreciated recently - an interview with a Black spiritual director. Perhaps it will prompt you to seek out some of her work.

The podcast that is linked directly ...

We had a lot of graduates this year! Three of our high school graduates - Nora Burrows, Nathan Cideciyan, and Nick Cideciyan - offer their reflections on where they've been, what comes next, and what the church has meant to them. Congratulations to ...

One of the lovely things that has emerged in our church over the last year is a collaboration that crosses the globe, generation, gender, and more.

Sitting at her childhood piano, one person records a song on her iPad and sends off an audio file ...

We've been issuing an open invitation for more voices in worship. On May 23, Eli Krych took us up on that and read an original poem as our First Reading for the day.

Stay Strong

Some say you are weak.

But no, you are powerful, you are strong, ...

If you go out into your yard, or a place where people have not sprayed chemicals on the grass, you might find tiny, beautiful, purple violets. If you pick some of these, you can make some super-cool, color-changing violet syrup. Here is a short ...

As we marked the 51st celebration of Earth Day last month, and as we move ever-closer to irreversible climate catastrophe that disproportionately impacts low-income and communities of color, Joy Bergey, the Director of our Environmental Justice ...

During lockdown last spring I began to take stock of my relationship with alcohol. Like an increasing number of Gen Xers, I was “sober curious” and had been flirting with the idea of going alcohol-free for some time. I was an occasional, social ...

(I am large, I contain multitudes). - Walt Whitman

Don’t worry; I’m not going to make you go find a copy of Leaves of Grass so you can puzzle your way through “Song of Myself.” If you feel motivated, you are perfectly free to send me a brief essay ...

In September 2011 Chestnut Hill United Church, along with about forty other congregations of different religions and cultures, brought the country’s newest faith-based community organization - POWER Interfaith - to birth. Initially created as ...

Dear Friends,

Though this past year has been a very challenging year to say the least, we are starting to see the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel and have been fortunate to have seen light all along in our faith community. We found ...

The world may have been a little quieter with people shut inside, but my mind certainly hasn’t been. Maybe that feels true for you, as well. This poem from Marie Howe’s collection, The Kingdom of Ordinary Time, has been speaking to me of ...

Our Environmental Justice Center has been busy pushing for stronger public policy to rectify long-standing injustices that disproportionately hurt People of Color and those at the margins of our society.

• We're fighting hard in Harrisburg for ...

After choosing from my list of potential names I faced a new task: telling other people. As with most personal decisions, there is something vulnerable with sharing that decision with others. And with this, I was both sharing that I was no longer ...

It was October, 2000. I had just moved to Philadelphia from Chicago with my husband Zolani, who had just accepted a job as professor at Haverford College, and our 3- and 4-year old toddlers, Sonja and Sarah. I was singing with the Anna Crusis ...

POWER Interfaith Has Helped Philadelphia Move Toward Policies That Protect Black and Brown Bodies

Note: The following is adapted from information on POWER Interfaith's website. You can read the original at ...