“Of Healing and Gratitude” – Rev Karen Gustafson

As the UCE community seeks to move your story into a hopeful future with a new called minister, it is a good thing to acknowledge and give thanks for the legacy of good ministry that has helped to shape the present. Together we will reflect on the the sustaining traditions that were begun by past ministers. This service will include the sharing of bread as we honor give thanks for the gifts of community.

“Attending to Our Stories: How the Past Shapes the Future” – Rev. Karen Gustafson

Much of human discourse is story. At dinner parties or during coffee hour, in encounters with old and would be friends, we share pieces of our lives in anecdotes that build an impression of who we are and what we value. When we are part of a community, those impressions gather into a larger story which creates expectations about the the larger community and what it values. Part of our work in the Interim is to look at some of those stories and consider how they might inform the selection of the minister who will accompany you into the future.

“Attention Deficit – Scarcity in the commodity of attention” 

What do we attend to? How do we decide what deserves our attention in the age of social media when the calculated political strategy is obfuscation through intentional chaos and the most valuable commodity is our captured attention? How might we tune our attention to the things we’d rather deny or ignore? Rev. Wiviott leads the service.

REMINDER: Daylight Saving Time Ends this Sunday. Don’t forget to set your clocks back by 1 hr so you are on time to Sunday services.

“Let Love Be Our Legacy”
We celebrate All Souls Day, honoring loved ones and those who have left us precious gifts. Please bring photos or items of remembrance for a loved one to place on our altar. We will also install our new Tree of Life Chalice and explore the legacy of this treasured Unitarian Universalist symbol. Rev. Eileen Wiviott will be preaching and Martha Holman is our Worship Associate.

Sermon

Capital Campaign Presentation

History of Our Chalice and Chalice Dedication

“The Power of Song: Prayer, Story, and Resistance”

The Building a Vocal Community Workshop with Dr. Ysaÿe Barnwell concludes with our Sunday morning worship services open to all. We will be worshiping in the round, singing and learning together the power of the African American spiritual as an instrument of resistance and documentation. The 9:15am and 11:00am service will be led by Rev. Eileen Wiviott with our guest Dr. Ysaÿe Barnwell.

“Do I Belong if I Believe…?” – Rev. Karen Gustafson, Interim Minister

Unitarian Universalism claims to be a “pluralistic faith tradition”  where people with many and varied beliefs that might guide us to live lives of principle and integrity. We claim an “open canon” that includes many sources of wisdom that inform our understanding of the complexities of existence. And yet there are some folks among us, drawn by our promise of inclusion and  tolerance and acceptance, who have reason to feel that they might not belong if they shared some of the beliefs and practices that inform their lives. How might such concerns be creating unspoken divides among us? How might these concerns be limiting the desire for safety of expression and authentic engagement? What should we tell the new minister?

“Getting Beyond Categorical Thinking” – Jerry Carden and Kathleen Robbins

“Will the new minister hear me? Will MY concerns and needs be met? Will the minister understand what I’m living with? How will the community respond to our new minister?”

These are questions that when answered, a picture of the ‘ideal minister’ (categorized by age, gender nationality, physical ability, race and sexual orientation) comes to mind. With this picture in place, it can be easy to unintentionally exclude ministers who fall into certain categories. At times we get caught up in comparing candidates to our “picture.” We can even forget what it is we hoped for in a minister.

This Sunday, our congregation is participating in the Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop offered by the UUA for congregations involved in a ministerial search. The program includes the Sunday morning services and a three hour workshop following the 11am service!

Both are designed to help prevent unfair discrimination in the search process and to promote inclusive thinking about the kind of minister our congregation is looking for. In the workshop we will consider the concerns, expectations, and hopes we have for a minister, and how thinking categorically about people can sometimes interfere with choosing the best candidate.

“Take Courage & Build Brave Spaces” – Rev. Karen Mooney
Courage comes in many shapes and sizes, forms recognizable and subtle. Each of us approaches the world with a different set of lenses and experiences. What may be extraordinary bravery for one person might not even register for another. But one thing is true. We can all strengthen our heart muscles in brave space so that we can increasingly live courageous and trust filled lives.

“Anger and Forgiveness: Inscribing Our Names in the Book of Life” – Rev. Eileen Wiviott
In keeping with our Judeo-Christian ancestry and one of the Six Sources of our faith, we honor Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days. Jewish tradition says that on this day three books are opened. God inscribes the names of those who are righteous in the book of life, those who do evil in the book of death, and those who fall somewhere in between have ten days to atone. As a Unitarian Universalist, I believe we each hold the capacity to act with love and compassion or fear and hatred and that the book of life remains open as long as we live. In our human struggle to live with integrity in a complex world, anger is part of the package. Is there a place for righteous anger and compassionate judgement? Can we hold anger with our fierce love for this world and our hopes for peace? How do we move from impotent rage to restorative forgiveness?

Video Coming Soon!

“Perfect Harm: the violence of unrealistic expectations” – Rev. Eileen Wiviott

What do you do when you feel you’ve lost control? A natural response is to tighten your grip, seize up, and attempt to force the wheel of life to straighten out. In times of crisis, perfectionism is pronounced. However, expecting perfection of ourselves, each other or of life rarely generates transformative or sustainable solutions. What would a life-giving response to uncertainty look like? Can we lessen the immobilizing impact of perfectionism as strive to co-create a more perfect world?