Note: The opinions expressed on the PFJ blog are those of its author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the PFJ Board of Directors or its members.

Identity Crisis Ukraine

By Ruth Ann Angus

September 26, 2023

We all want to know who we are, where we came from. This is evident in all the interest in Ancestry.com and DNA tests. Even though we who were born in the United States can say we are Americans, our interest in our forebears is keen. When the war in Ukraine broke out, I saw the name of a city in the western section of that country that matched the name of the city in…

Paying it forward — mutual aid keeps violence at bay in Morro Bay

By Ruth Ann Angus

September 21, 2023

Faced with increasing violence, a coastal community in California turns to mutual aid to meet needs and make everyone safer.

About That Flag in Your Sanctuary

By Rich Kurrasch

June 6, 2022

As of this writing, the Supreme Court is seemingly poised to reverse or severely restrict Roe v. Wade and the question of a woman’s access to an abortion will revert to the states. Nearly half of the states (or more to the point, nearly half of the state legislatures) are poised to follow suit immediately or soon thereafter. Polls have consistently shown over the years that a majority of Americans support Roe, but that did…

There Is No Us and Them

By Maggie Fertschneider

April 1, 2022

I am a “cradle” Methodist which means I started attending Sunday School as soon as I could walk and sit on a chair. I attended Sunday School all though elementary school, high school and college. In addition, during high school, I attended Methodist Summer Institute, a wonderful week at a camp in the mountains complete with worship and Bible study. When my husband and I married, we attended adult Bible classes and later, week day “Disciple…

What Arc – Which Universe?

By Rich Kurrasch

March 30, 2022

Unitarian Minister and Abolitionist Theodore Parker said it, Civil Rights leader and American prophet Martin Luther King, Jr., affirmed it, but sometimes I’m just not so sure: The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice Try proclaiming this bit of good news to, say, the Ukrainians, cruelty, brutality, barbaric and senseless destruction reducing their country to rubble. The longer term challenge is no less daunting … coming to grips with what it all…

We Are Deeply Entangled with Nature

By Guest Blogger: John Horsley

February 11, 2022

The Nobel Prize in physics this year was awarded for work that demonstrates the mysterious phenomenon of quantum entanglement by which two particles can be instantly connected even though separated by an enormous distance. Quantum physics has been a rich source of metaphors, such as “a quantum leap,” and quantum entanglement has been suggested as a metaphor for our long-distance relationships with our loved ones. Could it also represent our relationship with nature?

John Cobb’s Meeting with PFJ and Central Coast EcoCiv Members on January 12, 2022

By Mike Egglestone

January 20, 2022

Where does one start? Dr. John Cobb at age 96 is probably the world’s preeminent process philosopher, a pioneering eco-theologian, author of over 50 books, and the co-founder and still guiding light of The Center for Process Studies, Pando Populus, and the Institute for Ecological Civilization. Born in Japan, residing in California, he might be called a rock star in modern China where he helps to coordinate 23 centers of the Institute for Postmodern Development…

Take Ecological Hope Wherever It May Be Found

By Rev. Mike Eggleston

January 9, 2022

Though the discussions in some ecologically minded groups that I attend say that “we have to do it ourselves, because governments and technologies, international conferences and business won’t help in time on climate change…” I still look for eco-hope wherever it might be found. In December of 2022, two international conferences meet again. COP27 on climate change meets at Sharm el-Shiekh, Egypt; the second, COP15 on biological diversity, meets in Montreal. There is hope for…

Maimonides’ Golden Ladder

By Rich Kurrasch

December 18, 2021

With so many necessary appeals coming from so many worthy causes, agencies, and organizations, this time of year, I find myself reflecting on Maimonides’ Golden Ladder. Moses Ben Maimon was a Jewish Talmudist, physician, and philosopher of the Middle Ages, and his Golden Ladder helps us answer the basic questions about why, when, how, and how much to give of our time, treasure, and talent. If we press the matter a bit further, the Golden…

In Our Diversity

By Pastor Jason Sisk-Provencio

December 1, 2021

I recently had a brief conversation with Jennifer Adams, CEO of Lumina Alliance (formerly RISE SLO + Stand Strong). She talked about all of the ways that Lumina Alliance serves individuals and families in our community, and works for a community free from sexual and intimate partner violence. One of the things that really stood out to me was an important change in terminology they made. Previously, she said, they talked about providing services to…

Time for a Peace Dividend?

By Rev. Rich Kurrasch

September 2, 2021

Two numbers leapt off the page of the New York Times: 170,000 and 2,000,000,000,000. The first is the number of lives lost in two decades of fighting in Afghanistan and the second is the dollars it cost(1) (or perhaps we should say it initially cost since it was funded on credit, the interest expected to add another $6.5 trillion; commitments to Afghanistan and Iraq veterans are estimated to add another $2 trillion, those costs to…

Persist to Exist

By Rev. Mike Eggleston

August 13, 2021

As I was visiting his church last week, a recently widowed man realized that the woman who had cared for his wife was someone I knew, and might see later that day. He asked me to share with her some very high praise. The caregiver, he said, was an amazingly patient and persistent person. His wife in her last several months had been difficult for caregivers, especially when it came to eating anything. My friend…