UUFM is a community of compassion and companionship, and compassion and companionship are both forms of giving that sustain both the giver and the receiver. As we begin our 2022-2023 pledge drive to raise the funds needed to sustain the ministries of this Fellowship, we explore theologies of giving and receiving. Greeters and Worship … Continue reading Intentional Gratitude
Throughout the Enlightenment period, whose modes of inquiry and thought inform, among other things, our political system as well as our system of higher education, Imagination was seen as a suspect mental capacity. Reason has been and continues to be conceived as the ultimate way of thinking. Even our Unitarian Universalist Six Sources enshrines reason: … Continue reading Artful Imagination
The advent of the new year brings with it the dreaded “New Year Resolution.” And making a new year resolution so often brings us into a place of lack and fault-finding. How about this year, instead, we take a leap and open ourselves up to epiphany, to the possibility that our lives might unfold in … Continue reading Intentions and Possibilities
Even during a pandemic, and maybe because of one, it is difficult to find stillness within all the noise, bustle, and nervous energy. And why seek stillness? How might we both find it and cultivate it? Rev. Rita preaching. Our space is virtual, but our worship is real, vital, and life-sustaining. The Zoom information … Continue reading Stillness Inside and Out
This morning we honor a long-standing tradition conceived in new ways for our strangely distanced times. Worship bags will be available prior to the service, so that we might enjoy breaking bread together although we are physically apart. Our space is virtual, but our worship is real, vital, and life-sustaining. The Zoom information for … Continue reading Healing through Companionship—Celebrating Bread Communion
Culturally, we have learned to react in horror to a wound—to see it as ugly, untoward, something to cover over, to forget about, to keep out of the light of day. If we admit that some wounds simply don’t heal—don’t close up and fade away—much as we would like them to, can we learn to … Continue reading When Wounds Don’t Heal
Our American democratic system holds much promise for equality and justice for all, yet we know that it has never functioned in an entirely inclusive and equitable way. As we face the realities of the election, whatever they may be, we will have to work hard for the justice that has not yet been achieved. … Continue reading Healing (from) Our Democracy.
Healing has been described in terms of retreating from engagement: going off alone to lick your wounds, rolling up in a blanket, taking a time out. What might it look like if healing ourselves and our world required more intense, more loving, more expansive engagement? Let’s imagine together action that flies and dances and moves … Continue reading When Holding Nothing Back is Healing.
Physician and writer Rachel Naomi Remen writes that, “Our listening creates sanctuary for the homeless parts of another person.” What if we approached those with whom we disagree in this spirit—that they have a homeless place within that needs care and attention? What if we thought of our struggles to listen in these terms, too? … Continue reading Listening to Others
Theologian Paul Tillich wrote, “The first duty of love is to listen.” While we all want to be loving, a variety of things might get in our way of listening—how a person talks and what they say, thoughts about the world filling our own minds with distraction, our own worries and wounds. If we learn … Continue reading What Gets in the Way of Listening?
