Daniel Shkolnik quotes the Persian poet Kabir, “I laugh when I hear that the fish in the sea is thirsty,” and notes, “Are you thirsty for the divine? The sacred? The clear light of awakening? All around you, the world is wet with it.” In this season of dark and long nights, we will practice … Continue reading Approaching Presence with Mindfulness and Prayer
Where do you go to lay your burden down? To repair your spirits. Your heart. Your soul. Today we’ll visit places in the world, in the heart, and in our community, where we can practice the art of repair. Where spiritual practices don’t bypass our issues and needs; they bring us closer to actions that … Continue reading The Practice of Repair
Mister Rogers famously affirmed, “Listening is where love begins.” In UU, we listen to many sources for making meaning of what happens in our complex lives. Yet one of the primary sources UUs tend to listen to for evaluating truth claims is the testimony of our own experience and the lived experiences of others. As … Continue reading The Practice of Deep Listening to One Another’s Testimony
This Sunday we’ll celebrate coming together again for the beginning of our 2024–2025 congregational year. For our in-gathering water ceremony, please bring a small amount of water to symbolize a body of water that is important to you, whether it is from where you live, or a place you have visited. We will gather the … Continue reading The Practice of Invitation: Gathering the Waters
Pluralism is one of the core values of our UU tradition. And it is part of the motto of the United States, “e pluribus unum”—out of many, one. Sociologist of religion Robert Bellah states, “Not only is there such a thing [as institutionalized civil religion in America], …this religious dimension has its own seriousness and … Continue reading The Dance of Pluralism in UU and in the U.S.
UUs have long advocated to protect Earth’s ecosystems, struggling with the United States’ culture of independence, individualism, and capitalist freedoms to exploit people and the planet. What if the urgency of the climate crisis, paradoxically, calls for an end to protest and a deepening of acceptance? As human beings, we live with great dependence and … Continue reading The Middle Way of Interdependence
Have you ever received secondhand advice? How do you know if you’re actually being helpful when you’re trying to help someone by talking it over with someone else? The service adapts the story of Motke, the fish peddler, who is helped a little too much by his friends. This Jewish folk tale will lead us … Continue reading The Transformative Impact of Direct Communication
Stewardship is about more than money. It’s about our relationships. Relationships give us audacious hope, and ways of being generous, just and equitable in our communities. Today we’ll learn about the audacious hopes of UU ancestor and Civil Rights advocate Whitney Young, and of Seattle and Tacoma community organizers. And we’ll ask ourselves where VIUUs great … Continue reading Who Do We Need to Find a Way?
Come celebrate a Unitarian Christmas with carols and stories from our history and a candlelight ceremony to mark the return of light to our world in the Northern hemisphere. A recording of this service is not available.
According to Bill Plotkin, author of Nature and the Human Soul, Mystery is the undifferentiated realm of spirit and soul. While spirit permeates, animates, and transcends everything, soul calls us to our unique, individual, and communal relationship to the whole. Today we’ll be tracking the Mystery, the transcendent and the imminent, from the mystery of dark matter … Continue reading Tracking the Mystery
