In this multigenerational service, we will discover how sharing our gratitude for the smallest things can ground us in hope throughout the complicated holiday season. The Tree of Gratitude that we will create will spark a spiritual practice to share throughout the year. And our glorious anthem, “Love Has Always Been Our Song,” will set … Continue reading A Tree of Gratitude and a Source of Hope for the Season
We launch this month with gratitude for our Unitarian Universalist faith, which asks us to be in compassionate relationship with an ever-widening circle of people, creatures, and things. Yet compassion also requires us to set some healthy boundaries–in our families, friendship groups, and communities. How do we hold Love at the center and also hold … Continue reading Gratitude, Compassion, and Boundaries
No matter what our age or life experience, we often feel swamped these days by feelings and thoughts that we don’t want to have yet can’t avoid. In this gentle hands-on service for all ages, Rev. Nancy and Britt invite you to name one of these feelings–grief, fear, anger, uncertainty, loneliness–and see it as just … Continue reading Cultivating Kindness for Ourselves
When we want to push someone or something harmful or undesired away, our feeling of aversion usually erupts in anger, hatred, fear, or rejection. Yet in Buddhism, aversion itself is a cause of human suffering. Its opposite is the practice of loving-kindness. As we cultivate compassion this month, let’s explore what orientation toward our current … Continue reading Is Compassion the Antidote to Aversion?
This Sunday in a special ritual, we confer the title of Minister Emerita on UUCG’s former minister Reverend Jan Taddeo, and we hear her reflection on our inclusive and defiant Love! We explore how the “flame of belonging” that we build at UUCG can spiral outward to warm and embrace communities beyond our own. Please … Continue reading The Flame of Belonging: Honoring Rev. Jan Taddeo
Belonging to each other is written into our DNA! So let’s defy our current culture’s efforts to divide us and instead embody the ways we recognize and cherish each other’s gifts and vulnerabilities. For our Annual Water Ceremony, please bring a small container of water from home, your travels, or other source. You’ll add your … Continue reading We Belong to Each Other
Theologian Frederick Buechner says that when we’re looking for what we are called to do and be as people of faith, we want to look for “where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Can you name two or three sources of your deep gladness–the joy or meaning that abides even in hard … Continue reading Where Our Deep Gladness and the World’s Deep Hunger Meet
We begin this new program year by “Returning to Love,” August’s theme. Love sits at the very center of our faith; it is the fuel, compass, sustenance, and support for our lives, both communally and personally. But Love is a wide-encompassing word. What kind of Love in particular do we learn, embody, and carry out … Continue reading What Kind of Love Do We Carry? Blessing of the Backpacks!
How do we carry a message of freedom to the world that we touch and that touches us? How do we follow the guidance of teachers past and present who point to a deeper freedom for all? Through this celebration of Juneteenth and more, Rev. Nancy and the worship team sum up the work of … Continue reading Toward the Daylight of Freedom: How Juneteenth May Guide Us
Let’s launch our exploration of Living Love Through the Practice of Freedom with these questions: “Where do we find our freedom now? And how are we to use our freedom? What is it for?” On this Volunteer Appreciation Sunday, we look at the ways we can use our freedom to create a Culture of Care. … Continue reading Using Our Freedom For…: Honoring the Gifts of Service
