Category Archives: All is Welcome Here

All Is Welcome Here: Still Work To Do

Posted on July 31, 2017 by Bob Patrick

The message of this song has come home to me in so many ways just in the last 24 hours. Yesterday at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett–so many new faces and first time visitors. All is welcome here. And … Continue reading →

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All is Welcome Here: the Gateless Gate

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

Gates are potential openings in walls and fences, but until they are open they are barriers themselves.  Frequently they are locked and to enter we must have the combination or key.  We all have our walls and fences that surround … Continue reading →

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All Is Welcome Here: We’re Okay

Posted on July 27, 2017 by Bob Patrick

I have had the occasion this past year to be in conversation with some younger (than I) adults, and it’s only dawning on me now that there is a pattern in those conversations. Sometimes, they are about teaching and working … Continue reading →

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All Is Welcome Here: Even the Troubles

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Bob Patrick

I’ve spent a long time now observing what happens to many of us when a life event takes us to some edge of human experience that is too troubling to allow into our lives. When I was a very young … Continue reading →

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All Is Welcome Here: The Real You

Posted on July 13, 2017 by Bob Patrick

His name was Clyde.  He stood a good head and a half taller than me, an African American man probably about the same age as me. We had agreed to be conversation partners at a meeting held by the ACLU … Continue reading →

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All Is Welcome Here: Doing Our Work

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Bob Patrick

Jennifer Garrison, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett, and I had a conversation after the service this past Sunday, and then she followed up sharing her reflections.  These are the kinds of interior journeys that become our … Continue reading →

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All Is Welcome Here: Changing our Stories

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Bob Patrick

When Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, says that changing the narratives that support inequity and racial injustice is one of the major requirements for changing the world we live in, he is tapping into something very … Continue reading →

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All Is Welcome Here: Doing the Work

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Bob Patrick

I had the privilege of listening to the Ware Lecture from General Assembly this year just a couple of weeks ago, live streamed from New Orleans.   Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, AL, offers … Continue reading →

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All Is Welcome Here: Yearning to Belong

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Bob Patrick

In psychological terms, thanks to Carl Jung and others, we sometimes speak of introverts and extroverts. I understand extroverts to be those who are energized by being around large groups of people and introverts those who are energized by being … Continue reading →

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All Is Welcome Here: One Race?

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Bob Patrick

My first teaching post at a Catholic high school in Alabama was in the theology department.  Among other things, I taught a course in social justice.  I owe a debt of gratitude for my colleagues at the time who helped … Continue reading →

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