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Displaying 301 - 338 of 338

  • When the world’s violence shatters the joy of a moment We pause and reach out for the hands that remain We open our hearts with love. When despair rises as a monster from the deep and drags down one of our own, our answer is that We open our hearts with love....
    Reading | By Naomi King | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Compassion, Healing, Love, Suffering
  • "When we seek wisdom," says one Native American spiritual leader, "we go up on the hill and talk to the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka. Four days and four nights, without food and water. And we listen. And God speaks." Roy Phillips, minister of the Unitarian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, writes about...
    Reading | By John A. Buehrens | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christianity, Contemplation, Searching, Solitude
  • How to discuss the truth that some men love men, and some women, women, and some, both, with the children in the church school and church home? Nonchalantly. Without drum-rolls. Without tip-toe preparations. Without calculating and predicting to the nth degree. With candor. With open ears. With...
    Reading | By Mark Belletini | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Anti-Oppression, Gender, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Love, Pride Sunday
  • Regardless of our differences, there are a host of affirmations that we embrace as the basis for our faith. Whatever we think the holy may be, Creation itself is holy. We make no distinctions between the natural and the supernatural, the secular and the sacred. We simply cherish the earth and all...
    Reading | By William F. Schulz | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Earth, Environment
  • Unitarian Universalists are proud of themselves for doing nothing to seek converts to their faith. A person’s religion is a private inward thing, it is said, and we should in no way seek to influence another person to choose our way in religion. The underlying principle here is respect for the...
    Reading | By Roy Phillips | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Commitment, Identity, Unitarian Universalism
  • How can we begin to understand what hope and healing mean in the face of a deadly illness with no known cure? We have many sources of hope and healing in our lives—singing, praying, thinking, communicating, acting, giving, and remembering. Dr. Richard Cabot tells the story of a young theological...
    Reading | By Jay E Abernathy, Jr | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Body, Healing, Illness, Suffering
  • We pause this hour to honor the spirit and to accept ourselves as fragile humans, equally full of nobility and strength. We gather, weary of life’s trials, yet cheered by infinite possibilities for love’s grace. We meet with smiles and glad voices for old friends and new—every stranger a gift...
    Reading | By Bruce Southworth | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Grace, Gratitude
  • We believe there is a place at God’s table for each and every child of earth Hey, ain’t that good news! We believe the giver of life has been given many names and loves the givers of all of them Hey, ain’t that good news! We are more interested in getting heaven into people now than getting...
    Reading | By John Corrado | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Belief, Good, Identity, Revelation, Unitarian Universalism
  • I am a man and I am a woman; I am a boy and I am a girl. And I am a Unitarian Universalist I am young and I am old and I am middle-aged. And I am a Unitarian Universalist...
    Reading | By John Corrado | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Diversity, Humanism, Multiculturalism, Unitarian Universalism, Multiculturalism
  • Since the economy is in a kind of black hole, I was interested to read that researchers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have traced the building blocks of the universe back one more step and it leads to the massive black holes in space. We know that the Earth did not spring out of thin air...
    Reading | By Burton D. Carley | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Joy, Purpose
  • We come to this time and this place: To rediscover the wondrous gift of free religious community; To renew the faith in the holiness, goodness, and beauty of life; To reaffirm the way of the open mind and full heart; To rekindle the flame of memory and hope; and To rekindle the vision of an earth...
    Reading | By David C Pohl | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Beauty, Faith, Good, Hope, Vision
  • We are all dying, our lives always moving toward completion. We need to learn to live with death, and to understand that death is not the worst of all events. We need to fear not death, but life—empty lives, loveless lives lives that do not build upon the gifts that each of us has been given,...
    Reading | By Mark D. Morrison-Reed | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Death, Love, Meaning
  • Living your Unitarian Universalism (UUism) means... If a grieving neighbor needs some companionship, you brew the pot of coffee and sit down to listen. Living your UUism means......
    Reading | By Anonymous | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Identity, Integrity, Interdependence, Living Our Faith, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Unitarian Universalism
  • The womb of stars embraces us; remnants of their fiery furnaces pulse through our veins. We are of the stars, the dust of explosions cast across space. We are of the earth: we breathe and live in the breath of ancient plants and beasts....
    Reading | By Joy Atkinson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Birth, Earth, Earth-Centered
  • On a deeper level, do we consider what we are eating and whether its origins are compatible with our personal values? Since the beginning of time, dietary practices have been incorporated into the religious practices of humanity....
    Reading | By Gerri Kennedy | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Body, Ethics, Food Justice, Nature, Prophetic Words & Deeds
  • I grew up on my family farm in the southern part of Illinois. There was nothing about it that was a golden age. And I’m NOT nostalgic about the good old days. I don’t like carrying water from the well out back. I don’t like going to an outhouse at 4 a.m. in the snow. I don’t like the wasps...
    Reading | By David Breeden | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Food, Food Justice, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Respect, Responsibility, Unitarian Universalism
  • I remember back to the 50’s and 60’s when, once a week, my mother would don her shirtwaist, climb into the family car, and make her way to the A&P. How did she choose her groceries then? In our family, in New England and a long way from the fertile, productive valleys of California, proximity...
    Reading | By Vicky Talbert | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Earth, Food, Food Justice, Interdependence, Unitarian Universalism
  • We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. There are some things in our social system to which all of us ought to be maladjusted....
    Reading | By Martin Luther King, Jr. | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Interdependence, Juneteenth, Justice Sunday, Love, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Multiculturalism, Peace, Power
  • The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish truth....
    Reading | By Martin Luther King, Jr. | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Christianity, Commitment, Dignity, Justice, Justice Sunday, Love, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism, Violence
  • The more we try to say precisely what is in our hearts, the more we find that we are speaking for multitudes of strangers the world over. The deeper we get down to our own fundamentals, the more deeply we represent those of other people. Like all human beings, I live on borrowed time....
    Reading | By Jack Mendelsohn | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Death, Meaning, Mystery, Purpose, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness
  • To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk exposing our true self. To place our ideals—our dreams—before the crowd is to risk loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk despair. To try is to...
    Reading | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Balance, Failure, Hope, Love, Secular, Trust, Vision, Vulnerability
  • I [do not] mean to present myself as some kind of bodhisattva of compassion. However, in my better moments—at least in my more conscious moments—while I’m eating, I do try to imagine the lives and even the deaths of the creatures who nourish me. I try to think of the freedom and exhilaration...
    Reading | By Lillian Nye | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Activism, Animals, Body, Earth Day, Ethics, Food, Food Justice, Nature, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism, Work
  • So reads the doormat of conditional welcome: Here will pass the en-abled, blessed be their less complicated bodies. They will be able to hustle up a flight of stairs, decipher the PA, endure fluorescent lights, and follow long, thick, complicated words....
    Reading | By Julia Watts Belser | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Body, Limitations, Multiculturalism, Self-Respect, Wholeness, Multiculturalism
  • What you risk telling your story: You will bore them. Your voice will break, your ink spill and stain your coat. No one will understand, their eyes become fences. You will park yourself forever on the outside, your differentness once and for all revealed, dangerous. The names you give to yourself...
    Reading | By Laura Hershey | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Conscience, Direct Experience, Identity, Power, Privilege, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Truth, Vulnerability
  • In moonlit shadows, At the edge of night-darkened oak trees I see it. Across sunny pathways, In the buzzing of insects, amongst the flowering forest greenery, I hear it. From the touch of ones loved, The embraces of those gone before me, I feel it....
    Reading | By Chris Jimmerson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Body, Direct Experience, Gratitude, Imagination, Nature, Reverence
  • For years now, my conservative friends have asked me, “Do you really want to live in a welfare state?” I’ve thought about it and I’ve decided: Yes, I do. I want to live in a welfare state! If we define “welfare” in the original meaning of the word, “the condition of being or getting...
    Reading | By Paul Stephan Dodenhoff | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Compassion, Politics, Responsibility, Unity, Anti-Oppression
  • For those who came before us, may our gratitude be long and lasting. For those who come after us, may we be the strong stewards of our commitments. May each of us know the immortality of the larger frame revealed through community....
    Reading | By Leslie Takahashi | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Connections, Generations, Responsibility
  • Happy Winter Solstice! Today is the morning after the longest night and shortest day of the year. Today is the beginning of the Waxing Half of the year, from now until the Summer Solstice the day will lengthen and night will shorten....
    Reading | By Elizabeth Dale | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Ending, Forgiveness, Letting Go, Searching
  • As we gather here together May we be attentive one to another. May we listen carefully, may we freely speak. May we be respectful of one another. May we be serious, yet not somber. May we be light of heart And full of good cheer. As we gather here together May we work toward common goals....
    Reading | By Betty Jo Middleton | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Caring, Respect, Unity
  • I. THE CYNIC I was the town cynic whose life was choked out By a hidden disease of the heart That I knew was there in my chest But never told. And I carried it around with me And quoted verses to the people I met About the vanity and absurdity of it all And made them weep. If only they could have...
    Reading | By Joshua Leach | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Arrogance, Death, Failure, Searching, Suffering
  • Every year, the same conundrum: How do we find our way into Easter when, for us, the most important part about Jesus of Nazareth is his teachings, rather than his death? Like many traditional holidays, it must have some meaning to us beyond its commercial trappings. But what is that meaning,...
    Reading | By Ellen Cooper | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christianity, Death, Easter, Transformation
  • From "The Young People in the Church," September 20, 1902 What is our idea of a church? Are we simply a mutual admiration society, meeting from Sunday to Sunday to congratulate ourselves that we are not so bigoted as other people, and sigh because they are not emancipated?...
    Reading | By Marion Shutter | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Prophetic Words & Deeds, Purpose, Unitarian Universalism, Vision
  • I believe in One God: That is, the heaven we make on earth. And in all the prophets and saviors, the begotten children of all people, Born under every banner and tribe, nation and state, parcel and plot, Whose suffering, struggles, and wisdom free me from injustice, And lift me up so that I, too,...
    Reading | By Eliot Brian Chenowith | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Faith, Redemption, Reverence
  • They need to light a candle, and have a quiet moment to enjoy its mystery. They need to sing a song, to hear their own voice and other voices joined together, and to feel the feelings that are stirred by music....
    Reading | By Lowell Brook | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Children, Generations
  • We give thanks for the needs of our community that remind us of our common humanity. We give thanks for the needs of humanity that help us grow into the compassion of the Buddha, the love of Jesus, and the charity of Mohammed....
    Reading | By Claudia A Ramisch | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Gratitude
  • Because there have been times when shame has crushed our ability to be wholehearted We let go of who we ought to be and embrace who we are. Because we have not always had the courage to be imperfect We let go of who we ought to be and embrace who we are....
    Reading | By Dawn Skjei Cooley | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Shame, Vulnerability
  • Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, "Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. "Our sons shall not be...
    Reading | By Julia Ward Howe | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Children, Mother's Day, Parents, Peace
  • Am I a guest here. Here in this House. Are you? Are we guests here. Here in this House. And, whose House do we inhabit? In the small world of our lives the borders between us: easements, fences, gates, hedges—serve to delineate, to separate us. To remind us of where my property begins and ends.
    Reading | By Alicia R. Forde | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, History, Immigration, Indigenous Peoples Day, International, Responsibility, Secular, Anti-Oppression, Immigration