Archives: Services

The Flower Sermon

Legend has it that the Buddha once “preached” an entire sermon without speaking. Instead, he held up a lotus blossom before his followers, and let the flower speak for itself. Once a year we celebrate a communion using flowers. If these flowers could speak, what would their message be to us? 

Right Here

Scientist and writer Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about the concept of naturalization – that for those of us not indigenous to this land, we might become “naturalized” to it: Living on it without harming and in reciprocity. We’ll reflect on all that has happened on the land we’re on and lessons for now. Details of … Continue reading Right Here

Heartland

Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen shares learnings from what is sometimes called the heartland, flyover country where legacies of both strong social justice organizing and oppressive politics live on and the future is being made and unmade each day. 

How to Disobey a Tyrant

Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”—his ode to the prophetic power of conscience—inspired both Gandhi and Dr. King. Thoreau’s message was: “Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine.” How can our friend Thoreau help us think about disobedience and resistance in the Age of Trump.

Safe in the Swamp

Where the water and the land meet. We’ll reflect on famous US swamps – real andmetaphorical – that have bred safety, innovation and protection in times of uncertainty and oppression.

Big Love

Love is at the heart of the life of faith. But not just any kind of love. The religious life demands of us a big love—a love that stretches us, and invites us to draw wide the circle of our embrace. What are the implications of such a love for our lives and our world?

The Prophets of Fear and The Gospel of Love

The prophets of fear play on our anxieties and turn us against one another. None of us are immune from their influence. From its beginning, Unitarian Universalism has confronted the prophets of fear with a gospel of love. Now more than ever we are called to embody that legacy.