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Watch the service HERE. Listening is complex, requiring keeping our mouths shut, feeding back what we hear, and asking deepening questions. It also requires stillness. What is this stillness, and how do we use it in the service of being more present to others? Rev. Barbara Stevens preaching, with Worship Leader Jan Apland-Curtis. Music from … Continue reading Listening Out of Stillness
Flower Communion Sunday – bring a flower, take a flower. Watch the service HERE. We have been conditioned, dare I say, brainwashed, to appreciate and cultivate only the well-bred members of the botanical family — the fine roses, the graceful lilies, the amusing black-eyed Susans, the elegant peonies. Weeds such as the kudzu, the clover, … Continue reading Stubborn Flowers with the Wisdom to Survive
Also: New Member Welcoming Ceremony Watch the service HERE. The ideal topic for us freethinking UUs is improvisation! How do we get the balance right between practical planning and necessary routines in our lives, while nurturing some creative space for spontaneity? How can practicing improvisation lead to more creative thinking and better communication? Rev. Robin … Continue reading Yes, And…Improvising A Life
Watch the service HERE. During the COVID pandemic, all across the planet, human beings experienced what some called “The Great Pause.” As we sheltered indoors for the better part of two years, we read reports that skies were clear in Los Angeles, fish more visible in the canals of Venice, and wildlife roaming freely in high-traffic National … Continue reading We Are The Blue Boat Home – A Service for Earth Day
Watch the service HERE. “Schismogenesis” is a term used by anthropologists and sociologists to describe conditions between cultural areas or individuals that causes the separate cultures or individuals to take on identities and rituals that are opposite of each other in almost every way and therefore each becomes defined by what the other isn’t. It … Continue reading Schismogenisis and The Space Between
Watch the service HERE. In the hit Netflix series, “Squid Game,” a group of desperate South Koreans risk their lives to pay off their crippling debts. The series reflects a real social problem in their country – too much money too easily borrowed. This week, the taxman cometh to our doors, and Americans find themselves … Continue reading “Squid Game” and the Death Knell of Debt
Watch the service HERE. Is it any wonder that the word “Evangelism,” which means literally “preaching of the good news,” has an uncomfortable ring to many religious liberals? For many reasons, some valid and some stereotypic, we tend to associate evangelism with religious bullying and intolerance, with corruption and hucksterism, with rigid creeds and finger-pointing. In some … Continue reading Evangelism in a Liberal Key
Watch the service HERE. As Easter and Ramadan converge (and with Passover on the horizon), 2024 offers us a valuable opportunity to practice a “free and responsible search for Holy Week.” What is the common thread in the Abrahamic faiths (and in our own tradition) that lifts up universal love and “salvation” in ways that … Continue reading The Paradoxical Commandments – Love Them Anyway
Watch the service HERE. I found the reading “A Conversation with a Mayfly” in a decades-long pile of papers I was sorting through. It humorously and seriously considers whether one’s importance is linked to the length of one’s life and what is important. And, after reading it, I spun off on so many different ideas related to those two that … Continue reading A Conversation With A Mayfly
Watch the service HERE. Aside from being one of the summer’s boffo blockbusters, the film “Barbie” has sparked a robust and important conversation far beyond the iconic doll introduced by Mattel in 1959 as an alternative to baby dolls. The eye-popping production design, the memorable musical numbers and the snappy dialogue entertain. Yet, the film … Continue reading Let’s Talk About Barbie
