The Reverend says

Jim Covington sailing to Bermuda on Arkangel ~ 1981

From Reverend Jim Covington

Minister of the UU Fellowship at Croton, NY

Dom,
. From time to time I read something and think, "How I wish I could share this with everyone." Most of the time I don't, because I don't have the time. And you probably don't have the time either, especially nowadays, inundated as we all are with e-mail and stuff. But this time I am going to yield to that impulse.

. Recently, I read Bill Moyers' new book, "Moyers on America" - He is about to retire from his TV position, but I doubt he will fade completely away, at least I hope not. In these excerpts from his book, Moyers reflects on his own faith and on his "Genesis" TV series:

I am a journalist, but I am also a pilgrim. I believe that within the religious quest, in the deeper realm of spirituality that may well be the primal origin of all religion, lies what Gregg Easterbrook calls an essential aspect of the human prospect. Here is where we wrestle with questions of life and purpose, of meaning and loss, of yearning and hope. I am grateful to have first been exposed to those questions in my own Christian tradition.

As I too am grateful, J.C. -- Moyers continues: T.S. Eliot believed that no man has ever climbed to the higher stages of the spiritual life who has not been a believer in a particular religion, or at least a particular philosophy. As we dig deeper into our own religion, if we are lucky we break through to someone else digging deeper toward us from the core of their tradition, and on some transcendent level we converge, like the images inside a kaleidoscope, discovering new patterns of faith that illuminate our own journey. I respect the Christian story, my own story, even more for having come to see that all great religions grapple with things that matter. Although each may come out at a different place, each rises from within and expresses a lived human experience.

Buddhists have taught me about the delight of contemplation and the infinite within. From Muslims, I have learned about the nature of surrender. From Jews, about the power of the prophetic conscience. From Hindus, about realms of gold hidden in the depths of our hearts. From Confucianists, about the empathy necessary to sustain the fragile web of civilization.

I confess there is something liberating about no longer being quite so deaf to what others have to report from their experiences. They led me away from condescending toleration of other faiths to an anticipation and affirmation of positive engagement with them. In the words of the Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel, "No religion is an island. We are all involved with one another. Spiritual betrayal on the part of one affects the faith of all."

Since the [Genesis' television] series I am often asked to identify my favorite verse in the whole of Genesis. It is the third verse of the second chapter: And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. I take this to mean that creation is not finished. Life is dynamic; like democracy it is continuously in renewal. Genesis is about the beginning. What happens to creation is up to us.

Couldn't have said it better myself, Jim Covington

Nor could have anyone else, Dom Gabriele