Services for August

Flourishing Together. Not long ago, I watched with joy and pride as a UU chaplain friend was promoted to Major in the Air National Guard. Of the many religious traditions whose clergy serve as military chaplains, UUs are especially well-suited to the work of ministering to service members of different faiths and beliefs. Our UU chaplains also have a unique role in creating a spiritual home for UUs in military service. So it was a jolt when the Pentagon announced at the beginning of June that the military’s list of recognized religions had been reduced from more than 200 faiths to 30 plus other—a broad category that includes UUs without further specificity. No longer can a UU chaplain call up a list of UU troops and reach out to them. If Americans are to flourish together in service to their country, a country that protects religious freedom, it is (to say the least) unhelpful to impair a chaplain’s ability to connect with troops of the same faith. The UUA, along with other faith groups clumped into other, is planning a coordinated response. But for the time being, send love and care packages to the UUs you know who are in military service—and to their chaplains. Together, we will find ways to flourish through this time.

~ Rev. Jaye

What is Saving Your Life Right Now?

Worship Team
August 2

Inspired by Excerpted from An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, by Barbara Brown Taylor, we will share what is saving our lives right now, in these times.

Summer Camp Sunday

Sara Wecht and Friends
August 9

Join us this Sunday to celebrate all that we learned together in the Fantastickal Forest, our week-long summer camp of make-believe and a little bit magick! Students explored our UU Values through fantasy world-building, games, art and storytelling; you’ll hear all about it in this colorful, all ages service.

Widening the Table

Rev. JeKaren Bell
August 16

Drawing on a story from Baptist minister Jim Dant and the Unitarian Universalist affirmation of the interdependent web, this service asks what it means that none of us built the table we eat from, and why a country of abundance keeps deciding the table is full. Food scarcity is not a shortage. It is a forgetting. And the work before us is the old, humble act of widening the table until no one is left standing at the edge of the room.

Rev. JeKaren Bell (she/her) joins us online. She is an ordained and fellowshipped Unitarian Universalist minister, certified Death and Grief Doula, artist, and poet with more than fifteen years as a religious professional. She holds a Master of Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry and a Master of Nonprofit Leadership and Management from Arizona State University. Rooted in African earth-based and womanist traditions, her work sits at the intersection of grief, transformation, and communal care. She currently serves the Unitarian Universalist Association as Co-Director of the New UU Communities Fund and has previously served on the staff of the UU College of Social Justice, as Interim Executive Director of the Doña Ana Arts Council, and as an elected member of the UUA Board of Trustees. She is married to Rev. Ali K.C. Bell with two bonus kids and two dogs.

A special potluck follows this service; stay on for the new training (for everyone) Keeping Covenant: Faithful Interruption, and Introduction from 12:15 to 1:15 pm

Everything I Needed to Know, I Learned From a Children’s Book

Sara Wecht, Kim Roberts & Laura Paligo
August 23

Sara Wecht, our Director of the Program for Children and Youth, (and former librarian!) will lead us in a rediscovery of the many truths found in our favorite Children’s Books.

Holding On and Letting Go

Rev. Cynthia Snavely
August 30

Every time I move, I debate with myself as to what I should keep and what I should let go. Deciding what to keep and what to let go can be an important spiritual practice, not just at the time of our move, but regularly throughout our lives, as we consider not just things but also our beliefs and practices.