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  • When I was small and just learning how to do life in my body, I didn’t hesitate, didn’t hold back, didn’t worry how it would look, didn’t look for cues or ask for a line. My imagination ruled... I was entirely free to be, driven by the innovation my body inspired. This is the wild...
    Reading | By Rebekah Taussig | September 27, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Anti-Oppression, Body, Dignity, Direct Experience, Freedom, Justice, Oppression, Wholeness
  • Shame seems to be a bestselling product pumped out of all these crushing systems.
    Reading | By Rebekah Taussig | September 27, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Brokenness, Direct Experience, Disability, Identity, Justice, Oppression
  • I believe in your grace and protection and cannot imagine them slipping through the cracks.
    Reading | By Vanessa Titang | September 15, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Contemplation, Mystery, Presence, Searching, Transcendence, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • The 8th Principle is about actively dismantling racism.
    Reading | By Shannon Lang | August 23, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #8thPrinciple, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Humanism, Integrity, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • The following is an excerpt from the Theological Statement that opens the May 2018 Report of the UUMA Ableism Task Force. The members of that Task Force were Rev. Josh Pawelek and Rev. Barbara F. Meyers, co-chairs; Rev. Mark Belletini; Rev. Erika Hewitt; Rev. Evan Keely; and Rev. Theresa I. Soto.
    Reading | August 17, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Anti-Oppression, Body, Disability, Inclusion, Wholeness, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Don’t argue with salvation when it arrives on your shores.
    Reading | By Alex Jensen | July 26, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Abundance, Gratitude, Salvation, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • To see how we fight still after entire lifetimes of struggle—and then to tell us to be more polite is just plain cruel.
    Reading | By Ijeoma Oluo | June 30, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #8thPrinciple, #BlackLivesMatter, Anti-Oppression, Humanism, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Conflict resolution is in fact one of the greatest things that you can accomplish in your life and in your relationship. [W]hen I view people as not bringing conflict up, I think it’s being unfaithful to the relationship. I think it’s an abdication of your role in the relationship, and you are...
    Reading | By Amanda Doyle | June 23, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Caring, Conflict, Direct Experience, Friendship, Humanism, Marriage, Relationships, Secular, Vulnerability, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Čapek turned to the beauty of the countryside; to the beauty of flowers.
    Reading | By Teresa Schwartz, David Schwartz | June 16, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Flower Communion, Unitarianism, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Why do we so readily hand over what's priceless for a meager sum of money—or a major sum, for that matter?
    Reading | By Jill Duffield | March 5, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Character, Christianity, Ethics, Integrity, Leadership, Lent, Money, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Maundy Thursday means that followers of Jesus serve.
    Reading | By Jill Duffield | March 3, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christianity, Humility, Lent, Service, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • We in the developed world are like homeowners who inherited a house on a piece of land that is beautiful on the outside, but whose soil is unstable loam and rock, heaving and contracting over generations, cracks patched but the deeper ruptures waved away for decades, centuries even....
    Reading | By Isabel Wilkerson | February 22, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Anti-Oppression, History, Race/Ethnicity, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Since I was a kid, I have had a penchant and passion for my touch on my body. This was sometimes shameful, sometimes wonderful, and deeply private from fairly early on, as I received messages from family and neighbors that it wasn’t “right.” It has only been as an adult, as i have witnessed...
    Reading | By Adrienne Maree Brown | January 30, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Anti-Oppression, Beauty, Belief, Body, Direct Experience, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Sexuality, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • The soul of America has yet to be born.
    Reading | By Peggy Clarke | November 16, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), America, Democracy, Generations, History, Humanism, Indigenous Peoples Day, July 4th, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular
  • At the core of American racism is the belief that the things we the Blacks desire, the fact that we the Blacks desire, are perversions.
    Reading | By Imani Perry | October 27, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Anti-Oppression, Challenge, Character, Imagination, Race/Ethnicity
  • I was born nine years after four little girls were killed in Birmingham, Alabama, and two other boys later the same day.
    Reading | By Imani Perry | October 27, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, History, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • We teach girls to be likeable, to be nice, to be false. And we do not teach boys the same. This is dangerous.
    Reading | By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | October 22, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Beginnings, Character, Children, Coming-of-Age, Direct Experience, Education, Freedom, Gender, Generations, Humanism, Secular, Self-Respect, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Black men are not a species. They, you, belong to humanity.
    Reading | By Imani Perry | October 19, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Character, History, Race/Ethnicity, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • It’s important to honor the footprint others leave on our heart.
    Reading | By Lauren Robbins | October 1, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Change, Direct Experience, Discernment, Ending, Friendship, Humanism, Pain, Relationships, Secular, Self-Respect, Vulnerability, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Q: “I’m really struggling with my anger lately. I just feel angry all the time. What’s wrong with me?” There is nothing wrong with you because you are angry. Anger is a normal human instructional emotion, just like joy. It’s just that we as women—just like every marginalized...
    Reading | By Glennon Doyle | July 10, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Activism, Anger, Justice, Oppression, Women
  • I learned the hard way that there is a deep difference between the Jesus that Black folks worship and the Jesus that white Christians worship.
    Reading | By Austin Channing Brown | June 27, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Christianity, Direct Experience, History, Power, Race/Ethnicity, Religion
  • Ironically, Americans who self-identify as not racist—whether they're conservatives, moderates, liberals, radicals, progressives—they don't realize… that we are connecting ourselves to a history of slave traders who self-identified as not racist (although they didn't use that term). We're...
    Reading | By Ibram X Kendi | January 16, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), America, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, History, Identity, Juneteenth, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Oppression, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity
  • A seed knows how to wait. Most seeds wait for several years before starting to grow; a cherry seed can wait for a hundred years with no problem. What exactly each seed is waiting for is known only to that seed. Some unique trigger-combination of temperature-moisture-light and many other things is...
    Reading | By Hope Jahren | January 9, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Child Dedication, Climate Justice, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Environment, Growth, Humanism, Nature, New Child, Patience, Secular
  • The first time I was told that I was too queer to be a congregation's minister, they asked, "What will the neighbors think?,” as if it were the most natural question in the world. It was then that I understood how grace works: it’s costly. It requires us to be uncomfortable, to get outside...
    Reading | By Chris Rothbauer | January 9, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Anti-Oppression, Coming Out, Direct Experience, Diversity, Identity, Inclusion, Integrity, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Living Our Faith, National Coming Out Day, Oppression, Pride Sunday, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Solidarity
  • Do not be afraid of the darkness. Dark is the rich fertile earth that cradles the seed, nourishing growth. Dark is the soft night that cradles us to rest. Only in darkness can stars shine across the vastness of space. Only in darkness is the moon's dance so clear....
    Reading | By Stephanie Noble | November 19, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Balance, Beauty, Earth, Earth-Centered, Nature, Secular, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • I once saw a little sign, carved in wood, that read, “There is only the hard way.” Many of us have been harmed by theology that told us that suffering was a sacrifice that would bring us closer to God. Many of us were told that our suffering would redeem us, even when we knew that actual...
    Reading | By Elizabeth Nguyen | November 14, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Activism, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Humanism, Integrity, Interdependence, Justice, Living Our Faith, Privilege, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Redemption, Sacrifice, Secular, Seven Principles, Solidarity, Unitarian Universalism
  • Although the German word Giftschrank sounds like a quirky holiday tradition, the term is really a combination of the words poison and cabinet....
    Reading | By Erika Hewitt, Becky Brooks | September 25, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), Direct Experience, Freedom, Humanism, Interdependence, Limitations, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Responsibility, Secular
  • The work of forgiveness is so challenging—the actual work of it. The naming, grieving, empathizing, releasing. It’s like a death. A death of what we wanted, what we expected, what we’d hoped for, what we deserved and didn’t receive….We don’t get to control other people or outcomes. I am...
    Reading | By Jen Hatmaker | September 25, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Direct Experience, Forgiveness, Growth, Letting Go, Relationships
  • In her 1975 theological treatise Suffering, German liberation theologian Dorothee Söelle* examines the ways that suffering can knit humans beings closer together, and can draw us more fully into the process of loving. She uses the term apatheia, “the inability to suffer,” to describe the...
    Reading | By Erika Hewitt | September 9, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Brokenness, Community, Connections, Individualism, Politics, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Self-Care, Self-Respect
  • The wellspring of decency is loving this life in which people die, people suffer, there are limits, and we make mistakes. The wellspring, then, of moral action is not utopia, not a counterfactual vision, not a declaration that the world could and should be otherwise....
    Reading | By Sharon D. Welch | August 31, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Activism, Balance, Character, Commitment, Direct Experience, Ethics, Gratitude, Hope, Integrity, Justice, Purpose, Seven Principles
  • A common "issue" in anti-racism work is the use of the term culture of white supremacy or white supremacy culture, which many people view as charged, controversial, or even deeply offensive. Sometimes there are even challenges/dismissals from people in positions of power/authority about it....
    Reading | By Carolina Krawarik-Graham | August 15, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Humanism, Identity, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Secular
  • Non-Indigenous people who seek to reconnect with the earth must be wary of the dangerous problem of spiritual theft. On the one hand, we have much to learn from Native peoples about this land and about what it means to honor our relationship to the land. We must take our lead from those who have...
    Reading | By Myke Johnson | July 25, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Earth, Earth-Centered, Indigenous American, Race/Ethnicity, Responsibility, Seven Principles, Spiritual Practice
  • In our water ritual, we bring water from the places we live or the places we may have visited and pour it in one container. All of the water mixes together, and every drop has some of the molecules of water from every place....
    Reading | By Myke Johnson | June 25, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Connections, Direct Experience, Earth, Interdependence, Nature, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion
  • It is time to throw out our exceptional identity and humble ourselves... We have always done good in the world—it is in our DNA. The question is, are we ready to do better for our own people? Because the world includes every person in our faith—many of whom have been micro-aggressioned right out...
    Reading | By Marta I. Valentín | June 25, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Humility, Identity, Inclusion, Living Our Faith, Multiculturalism, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism
  • This recipe has been tweaked over time, so adjust as necessary. Sometimes it yields more servings than anticipated. Sometimes it needs a bit more of this ingredient or that. It comes from generations who have gone before me, and I've added my own flavor along the way. A Recipe for Resilience One...
    Reading | By Margaret Weis | May 27, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Balance, Challenge, Courage, Despair, Grace, Health, Hope, Imagination, Journey, Self-Care
  • We live on a fragile island of life, in a universe of possibilities. For many millennia, humans have been on a journey to find answers, answers to questions about naturalism and transcendence, about who we are and why we are, and of course, who else might be out there. Is it really just us?...
    Reading | By Jill Tarter | May 23, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Earth, Earth-Centered, Imagination, Nature, Wonder
  • When some people think of Easter, they think of a bunny rabbit. Others would point to other fertility symbols and signs of Spring, springing forth out of the ordinary, the plain, the seemingly dead: butterflies, flowers, and the like. Christians might think of the empty cross, or of a cross with...
    Reading | By Lisa Fischbeck | April 11, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Beauty, Christianity, Easter, Mystery
  • What images comes to mind when I say, “Labor Day”? Chances are you think of the holiday weekend and celebrations with your loved ones, the Federal Holiday, Unions and the cause of a working wage and benefits, maybe the history of the struggle of working people to have a fair share of the profits...
    Reading | By Jennifer Willet | February 5, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Aging, Caring, Community, Compassion, Dignity, Disability, Economy, Education, Generations, Interdependence, Labor Day
  • Everything is about to change. And it already has. It will be. It was. It is. The dawn you eagerly await to end the long, cold darkness is already full sun far off in the east. Yet even after light’s return spring is months away. Thirty long years pass after His birth before the Messiah comes.
    Reading | By Mandie McGlynn | January 7, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Beginnings, Change, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Contemplation, Ending, Faith, Growth, Hope, Journey, Justice, Life Transition, Paganism, Patience, Winter Solstice / Yule, WorshipWeb
  • The innkeeper isn’t part of most Nativity sets. No one sings carols about innkeepers. There don’t seem to be any paintings that include them. But we can imagine the scene: Bethlehem is crowded with people coming home for the census. It’s late at night when the innkeeper responds to a knock on...
    Reading | By Anne Dilenschneider | January 2, 2019 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Abundance, Anti-Oppression, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Compassion, Discernment, Empathy, Hospitality, Inclusion, Judaism, Kindness, Living Our Faith, Responsibility, WorshipWeb
  • In 1617, a few years before English settlers landed, an epidemic began to spread through the area that became southern New England. It likely came from British fishermen, who had been fishing off the coast for decades. By 1620, ninety to ninety-six percent of the population had died. It decimated...
    Reading | By Myke Johnson | November 4, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Anti-Oppression, History, Indigenous American, Race/Ethnicity, Thanksgiving
  • Every October and November in the United States, we find ourselves in a season of false and misleading stories about European settlers and Native Americans. First there’s the story that Columbus discovered America in 1492. Then there’s the story about the Pilgrims and the Indians at the first...
    Reading | By Myke Johnson | November 4, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Anti-Oppression, History, Indigenous American, Race/Ethnicity, Thanksgiving
  • Love leads us to observe in a much deeper way than any other emotion.
    Reading | By Adrienne Maree Brown | November 1, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Love, Purpose, Relationships
  • I like to think that after many years of living together, our family has developed a certain sense of equilibrium, a certain ease with each other. From time to time, of course, differences arise and sometimes, and, occasionally, an act of outright rebellion....
    Reading | By Carl Scovel | September 4, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, Power
  • Recently, I ordered 4-foot-tall rainbow bunnies for my church. Just after I hit “order,” I wondered if we really needed them. Later that day, one of my parishioners sent me a picture taken in front of a local church: on the lawn was an enormous banner with a picture of the Holy Family, and the...
    Reading | By Jonathan Chapman | April 25, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Christianity, God, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Love, Pride Sunday, Unitarian Universalism
  • Hallelujah! is a dangerous word, especially in the mouths of the creatively maladjusted.* Hallelujah! is a dangerous word, for it comes always with an exclamation point. Hallelujah!...
    Reading | By Marcia McFee | March 4, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Commitment, Connections, Direct Experience, Joy, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
  • Our communities of memory and promise are founded upon covenants because we all need a defense against the impulse of immediate feelings that challenge our best intentions. It is necessary to be reminded from time to time of what you said you were going to do, and what you really want, over and...
    Reading | By Kendyl L. R. Gibbons | February 21, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Building/Space Dedication, Business Meetings, Commitment, Community, Connections, Covenant, Homecoming / Ingathering, Installations, Integrity, Interdependence, Living Our Faith, Ordinations, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
  • As a child, growing up Catholic, my sense was that we should give away forgiveness like candy at Halloween: freely and readily, to anyone who comes asking. As an adult Unitarian Universalist, however, I have realized that forgiveness is a lot more complicated and challenging than that image would...
    Reading | By Gretchen Haley | October 27, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Direct Experience, Forgiveness, Humanism, Love, Relationships, Secular, Vulnerability
  • Diverse. Multicultural. Inclusive. Welcoming. If I made a list of every single Unitarian Universalist congregation I have served, visited or worshipped at, they would have a few things in common—including the use of these words. Perhaps on the front of the Order of Service?...
    Reading | By Carol Thomas Cissel | October 15, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Health, Listening, Multiculturalism, Pain, Personal Stories, Race/Ethnicity, Reconciliation, Unitarian Universalism
  • Joy Unspeakable is not silent, it moans, hums, and bends to the rhythm of a dancing universe…. For our free African ancestors, joy unspeakable is drum talk… For enslaved Africans during the Middle Passage, joy unspeakable is the surprise of living one more day… For Africans in bondage in the...
    Reading | By Kimberly Quinn Johnson  | October 15, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Arts & Music, Community, Direct Experience, Joy, Living Our Faith, Multiculturalism, Personal Stories, Race/Ethnicity, Spiritual Practice, Unitarian Universalism