On Father’s Day we hold up our fathers in appreciation and memory. We celebrate what they bring and have brought to our lives. How we view our fathers often depends on what we bring into focus. For many of us the sense of appreciation may feel mixed. On this Father’s Day we choose to bless […]
To paraphrase scientist Richard Dawkins: the blessing is that you are. Out of the countless possibilities that could take form, the universe became you. If being itself is a blessing, how are we to be the blessing that we are? Rev. Rob Hardies poses this as the challenging question: “How am I blessing the world?” […]
The theme for June is Blessing. Blessings are gifts given. On this Sunday, we count our blessings and practice appreciation. Appreciation recognizes the good that is in us and around us and then says thank you. We welcome New Members and recognize the Family Ministry Program as their program year concludes. Join us as we […]
That’s the title of a sermon by Rev. Peter Friedrichs. It’s also a paraphrase from lifetime Universalist minister Gordon McKeeman where he says that for freedom from to be whole it requires an accompanying sense of freedom for. “Freedom to do what? Freedom to be who? ‘Freedom to” is forward–looking, pulling us toward the future. […]
Pick a dualism. It’s the dominant and default way we see and organize our world(s). Right/wrong, me/you, us/them, conservative/liberal, Republican/Democrat, theist/atheist, this/that, either/or. But as much as we try to make it be otherwise, the world is not clear and clean and neat; reality is organic and relational. Poet David Whyte describes himself as being […]
That’s all most of us want. We come for the feel good part, but when the call to a good, meaningful life gets challenging (with or without the god language) we tend to turn away. The title comes from a poem by Wilbur Rees. He’ll take “just enough to equal a cup of warm milk […]
Palm Sunday challenges us to rise up from our hesitations and our fears and step into engaged life and action in body or in spirit. In “A Prayer for Courage,” Jo Carr and Imogene Sorley call it being crocus-minded. “Somebody has to stick her neck out, somebody who cares enough to think through and work […]
Wait, doesn’t the phrase read: “truth to power?” It does, but we are also challenged to connect across and through “the tension of our differences” that we might reclaim the civility of our communities, our neighborhoods, our families and friendships – and in the process, our country. Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh says, “speak the […]
I would add “and Freedom and Hope and Grace Beyond what that Commitment envisioned,” but the sign can’t hold such a long title. Take action, lift despair, empower grace. In these challenging and important times, you become part of the difference you hope to make, and your hope becomes more than you alone when it […]
February’s Soul Matters materials remind us “that perseverance isn’t a solo act.” “As people of perseverance we are being called not just to grit and strong wills, but to gentleness and self-care.” It’s a balance of the prophetic and the pastoral. Think of something or someone that has given you heart to persist; “a person, […]