Death is a regular part of my job, which makes small talk weird for me at parties.

Just as I can believe in others, I also believe in me.

Sometimes we need someone to witness the pain in holy stillness.

Let us imagine washing the feet of someone who has wronged us. Their feet, too, are calloused and muddy from the road.

Your minister is not, cannot be, your friend.

None of us are mission-making machines.

UU Society for Community Ministries Co-President Ben Gabel explains how the new Chaplain Endorsement Program will help religious professionals working outside UU congregations.

May we release ourselves from the need to fit every truth neatly into our own language.

I miss the way things were, and I know they’ll never really be the same.

For Unitarian Universalists, ministry is not a supernatural state of any kind. It’s a choice, a process, and an ongoing relationship.

What I do know for sure is that hope matters. One of the best things we can do is to hold hope for someone when that person cannot hold it for themselves.

Two prison chaplains who minister together in Oregon’s only women’s prison discuss the need to end the prison-industrial complex and mass incarceration.

A haircut, a cup of coffee, or just an honest “How are you?” can be transformed into a powerful moment between two people living in a hard world.

Surrender is the last thing, often the only thing, available. And so we give ourselves to it. We fear it is our end. Sometimes—with grace or luck—we find it is our liberation.

This work isn’t all prayers and beautiful moments, nor is it laments and trauma. It’s not even both/and, because this work is something greater than you, greater than us, greater than the whole of those we serve. This work is a calling. And we’re doing it. Day after day, night after night,...