The Shared Canvas

About this site

The Shared Canvas offers sermons and reflections rooted in Unitarian Universalist theology, offered as shared canvases for personal insight and conversation.

The sermons are offered not as statements of right or wrong, but rather “for your consideration”. To enable you to weigh what you read in your own conscience, to carry forward what resonates, and to set aside what doesn’t. To question, imagine, and act.

A large, unmarked canvas mounted on an easel made of light birch wood stands near a wide window, metaphorically representing “The Shared Canvas.” The canvas surface shows faint, textured brushstrokes in barely-there creams and grays, as if primed for new ideas. Scattered on a nearby side table are richly colored oil pastels labeled with abstract words like “Justice,” “Wonder,” and “Compassion,” though the text is subtle and not the focus. Late-morning diffused daylight streams through sheer curtains, illuminating tiny dust motes and casting soft, diagonal shadows. Photographic realism with a slightly wide-angle, three-quarter view and clean, modern aesthetic creates a hopeful, spacious mood that suggests collaborative, evolving UU sermons and conversations.
An open notebook filled with neat, handwritten sermon notes in dark ink lies on a smooth oak table, its pages slightly curled at the corners. Beside it rests a simple, unlit beeswax candle, a black fountain pen, and a small stack of dog-eared theology and poetry books with muted, clothbound covers. Soft morning light pours through an unseen window from the left, casting delicate shadows from the pen and candle, and creating a warm, introspective glow. Captured from a slightly elevated angle in photographic realism, with a gentle blur on the background edge of the table, the image evokes the quiet, sophisticated preparation of a reflective UU sermon and an invitation to deeper study.

About the author

A spiritual journey is a journey that you make to find out who you are and how to come to peace with the world.

A key part of my personal journey took place as I was finishing my Chemical Engineering degree at Georgia Tech and decided to enter the Masters in Theology program at Southern Methodist University. I had been deeply impressed by Bill Landiss, the Wesley Foundation campus minister, and a flaming liberal from Harvard.  At the same time, the typical church experience wasn’t doing too much for me. There was something to be gained in going deep.

Theology school was a great place to be, with a passionate faculty and dedicated fellow students.  Along the way I took a little course on “the History of American Christianity”, told largely through sermons. My expectations were very low.  Before that, I had never heard of either Unitarians or Universalists but there they were – and they were giants. About the same time, I was writing my Credo, the equivalent of the Master’s theses.  When I finished it, I found that I had written a credo within the tradition of those old Unitarians and Universalists.

I had to find if there were any of these people still around.  I found the local congregation in the Yellow Pages (remember those?), walked in one day, and have been there ever since. 

Since then, my wife (Leslie) and I have maintained our involvement with Unitarian Universalist congregations wherever we have lived, serving in a variety of positions and bringing our now-grown daughters along for the ride. I continue to write and deliver sermons (many of which are shared here) to the three UU congregations near us: Boone UU Fellowship, UU Congregation of Caldwell County, and Yadkin Valley UU Fellowship.

I am grateful to you all.

But enough about me, how about you?

It may be that my spiritual journey doesn’t look much like yours.  Relatively few folks get excited about sermons delivered by long-dead theologians. And few people will build a credo and then go shopping denominations to see where it fits.

That said, it seems to me that there is value in being comfortable asking questions about the purpose of our lives, the broader context for human existence, and our role making a world made whole. I think those questions are a vital part of having the deepest, richest experience of life that we can. 

Some people may be put off by the idea of a formal Credo.  It’s not necessary.  Stories are best.  How did it all begin?  Where are we going?  And what are we called to do?  Would you tell me that story?  I’ll bet it would be great. 

Thanks for your company on the journey.