About Adam
I locate the sacred in, beyond, and among all things, holding to an open and relational theological stance. I see meaning and wisdom in the interconnectedness of ecology, the sustaining power of Spirit and the perichoresis of Divine Presence, and the all-embracing love of my Universalist religious heritage.
My spiritual life is contemplative and earth-centered, drawing on the Western contemplative tradition, my love of the natural world, and the stories and practices of my biological and theological ancestors.
My Spiritual Practices Include:
prayer, meditation, and liturgy in community and in solitude
caring for the land on which I live by learning to live more sustainably and by gardening for productivity and beauty
creating art through a variety of media
appreciation of wisdom, art, and nature through lectio and visio divina
contemplative prayer and stillness
the work of scholarship and theology
Mine is a scholarly ministry, which grounds preaching, teaching, community building, and spiritual care in the work of scholarship and reflection on lived experience. I seek to develop theology based in lived reality, speaking to the needs and the possibilities of the time, and offering practical, sustaining guidance for the path ahead. I experience spiritual growth and theological development as processes that allow us to become over time, never static nor perfectly described; instead, always reaching for understanding, developing new connections, finding better ways to live.
I now serve as the Senior Minister of the Universalist Church of West Hartford, Connecticut, while also supporting the work of ministerial and spiritual formation within and beyond Unitarian Universalism. I have been working with people individually and in groups as a spiritual director for over 15 years. I write and teach, testing the programs that I develop and then sharing them for others to use.
My academic and spiritual research, while focused on institutional practices, has also reaffirmed my own commitment to the practice of formation for myself and for those whom I serve. Taking the risk of openness to divine transformation while guided, bounded, and freed by covenant is central to my Unitarian Universalism. It is only within that openness that I may fully meet those whom I serve and encourage their formation as well; it is because of that experience that I work with religious and educational institutions to encourage stronger spiritual formation practices for everyone.