#universalist

[qenmaicha]

day ??? of looking for fellow quakers or UUs on this app 𖹭

would love to find a community of pals

* footnote that i do not consider myself christian, but am more than open to having progressive/queer christian pals which is why i included those tags (also bc both religions did indeed offshoot from christianity haha)

[vernnillion]

Name ideas for this drawing in my sketchbook?? I drew it one night after 🍄 while I was waiting on my girlfriends to be done with a zoom or whatever call with our temple /in the universalist sense

[pinkpetalbee]

🌈🌸✨ "The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well." 🌟🌺🎀 ❤️ Ralph Waldo Emerson ❤️

[leave-it-all-behind]

Leaving the Fold

Talking with Christians and asking them the question, “why do you stay? What compels you to stay?” makes me want to write, to find words, for why I have done the opposite.

My deconstruction took a year, just a year, yet it was slow and methodical. The question of whether God was good or not made me ask, what would it mean for God to be good?

The logical conclusion I reached was universalism. That God was strong enough, compassionate enough, merciful enough to forgive all, to heal all, to bring all home. If the good shepherd had 99 sheep and went out for the 1, then how can that not show that none would perish?

And that gave me permission to ask what are we being saved from? And realizing the inherent abusiveness of the gospel. Of telling children they were inherently evil and in need of saving. Of the shame thrust upon us. Of telling us we have a sickness we don’t have and selling us a solution that costs our life, our joy.

We all find stories that give meaning to us. I know progressive universalist Christians who find meaning in a Brown anticapitalist Christ. They see Christianity as worth saving. But as for me, I have washed my hands of the gospel. I have washed my hands of the story that drown me in shame. That has been used to justify wars, colonization, and white supremacy.

So off I go. To find a story that I do not have to justify. And a world without God, that is this beautiful and messed up and holy and gut wrenching does not have to be justified either. It is. And I am. And I am so grateful. To be conscious in a world with no meaning. That will one day end. And so will I. And I have peace like never before.

[uumendu]

We're still streaming services!

Tomorrow's is "The Waters of Life" by Rev. Patricia Hatch.

If you're curious, here's the blog entry, which has the YouTube link as well. It streams at 10:30! If you live near Mendon, MA, feel free to join us in person <3

[thetithingman]

A gift from the 3rd Universalist Church in Cambridge to Amicable Lodge.

[hdslibrary]

Smile, It’s National Dentist’s Day!

Henry Nehemiah Dodge (1843-1937) was a Universalist poet, author, and dentist. He attended Columbia and Hamilton Colleges and graduated in 1868 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, then graduated from the Philadelphia Dental College (now part of Temple University) three years later. He began to practice dentistry with his father and brother in New York City, and later founded the Morristown Free Dental Clinic in New Jersey. 

[dailycharacteroption]

Class Feature Friday: Arcane Builder Subschool (Universalist Wizard Subschool)

 Here it is, the last entry on the traditional schools of the wizard class, though not the last wizard school we’re covering. We still have all the elemental schools to cover as well!

Just as the universalist is not really a specialization school on it’s own, today’s subject isn’t really a sub-school of it’s own either, but rather, a specialization all it’s own.

So-called “arcane builders” are just that, those that devote themselves to the crafting of magical items. If there is someone to thank or blame for the proliferation of magic items in your setting, these may be a likely candidate.

The reason why these crafters are derived from universalists is fairly simple, after all, only a universalist can learn the wide variety of spell needed to craft magical items without hinderance or penalty, reducing the difficulty to create any item significantly.

Needless to say, most arcane crafters will have a wide variety of spells drawn from all disciplines, though not necessarily those that are practical for adventuring. With that in mind, a lot of their personal budget will probably go towards learning a wider variety of spells or procuring scrolls of said spells when necessary.

Arcane builders have a profession of sorts built into the very nature of their specialization, but this can still vary a lot depending on what crafting feats you decide to take. You could be an armorer, a crafter of exotic trinkets, or the local potion-brewer supplying the locals with useful concoctions, scrolls, and so on.

 Rather than learn the “hand of the apprentice” power, these mystics instead learn an additional crafting or metamagical feat a bit later into their careers. What’s more, when a magic item calls for a metamagical feat, their understanding of such things give them greater insight into applying them to a magical object.

If you want to be a master craftsman or just have an extra metamatic feat to use with the metamagic mastery ability later on, this archetype can certainly be interesting. Just remember that you can end up lacking a bit of offensive potential in early levels due to not getting the normal 1st-level offensive power. Like a normal universalist, you’ll probably want to choose a focus item over a familiar for the bonus slot, but there’s numerous ways you can build this archetype depending on what items you want to craft. Metamagic rods are a natural choice, of course, though you can also go for a variety or focus on fast-tracking a greater feat like craft construct. Regardless, you’ll definitely be carefully managing your feats, spells, and gold to get the most out of them.

 The stereotype of the bookish, insular wizard that spend most of their time in their workshop certainly fits an arcane builder, but you might also see more charismatic arcane shopkeepers that understand the art of haggling and establishing rapport with customers. Some may even be just in it to gain extra metamagical training, fancying themselves masters of metamagical techniques.

  Utterly fascinated by arcane magic’s ability to transform, Mikki, a gnome-born ganzi, has been studying magic item crafting since she was very young, her lifelong dream being seeing a wild magic event spontaneously create a stable magical item, easily a one in a million event.

 The local bounty board has a quest for hunting giant frilled lizards, presumably because their frill-skin can be used to craft magical items dealing with fear-related spells. However exactly why the wizard needs such an item is another story entirely.

 A high-ranking priest has been assassinated, but in the struggle, the murder weapon, a magic dagger, was left behind. Examination concludes it is of recent make, and tracking down the crafter might lead to discovering the identity of the killer, but it will lead to a much wider conspiracy.