Displaying 1 - 15 of 15

  • 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
  • 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
  • Religion is as much about faith in humanity as it is about faith in deity. And many of us will find that, over and over, our faith in humanity gets tested. We are immersed in a culture that's deeply corrupted by selfishness, greed, and oppression-borne privilege and fear....
    Reading | By Sarah Gibb Millspaugh | September 12, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Acceptance, Compassion, Faith, Healing, Humanism, Integrity, Living Our Faith, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness
  • This reading is an excerpt of the sermon delivered by Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd on Sunday morning at General Assembly 2016. For as long as two or more have gathered in the name of the spirit, those two or more have fought some fake fights. You remember, perhaps, the classic wedding reading from...
    Reading | By Nancy McDonald Ladd | October 19, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anger, Christianity, Community, Compromise, Conflict, Conscience, Purpose, Relationships, Secular, Self-Respect, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism, Unity, Wholeness
  • When we talk about a liberal theology and ethic of sexuality, we need to start in our vulnerable, needy bodies, in real life, in the struggle to navigate our embodied neediness with others in an embrace of the still-possible mutual wholeness and transformation. Any theology of sex that doesn’t...
    Reading | By Gretchen Haley | February 22, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Body, Coming Out, Gender / Sex Change, Healing, Intimacy, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Multiculturalism, Sexuality, Wholeness
  • We who are Unitarian Universalist not only affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person; we also affirm the inherent wholeness of every being -- despite apparent brokenness. No one reading these words is a stranger to pain, or the knowledge that things break, or break down: promises,...
    Reading | By Erika Hewitt | April 30, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Body, Brokenness, Direct Experience, Healing, Hope, Humanism, Wholeness, Worth
  • The history and legacy of Unitarian Universalism are shaped as much by Emerson, Fahs, and Channing as it is by the ancestors in our congregations. We come to it through different avenues: the Internet, an invitation, reading the Transcendentalists, or as babies or ­little kids. I came as a fourth...
    Reading | By Elandria Williams | April 26, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Community, Direct Experience, Faith, Identity, Living Our Faith, Love, Violence, Wholeness
  • Sitting on the ground, with the huge universe of sky and space all around, may we let our eyes be open to the miracle of life in every person whom we see. May our hearts and minds not be numb or unaware or unconcerned. The vibrancy of life is all around. The power of love and nurture is ours to...
    Reading | By Linda Olson Peebles | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Children, Stewardship, Wholeness
  • Each week we take up an offering for the support of this congregation, and often, for the support of others who are working for a better world. To be honest, we need your support—especially in todays economy, when pledges are down and the future appears uncertain. But there is another truth here...
    Reading | By Thomas Rhodes | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Generosity, Privilege, Stewardship, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness
  • About The Author: The author self-identifies as Afircan American and psychology professional. Frequently I am asked, ‘Why should the UUA [Unitarian Universalist Association] spend money, time, and resources on racial and cultural diversity?’ I sometimes feel burdened with the expectation that I...
    Reading | By Anonymous | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), All Saints Day, Anti-Oppression, Diversity, Identity, Justice Sunday, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Responsibility, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness, Multiculturalism
  • includes quotations by bell hooks In conversations about the initiative for greater diversity, our Unitarian Universalist Association-wide commitment to become more inclusive, one of the questions that inevitably arose was, ‘What do we want diversity for? What is our motivation?’... Perhaps it...
    Reading | By Tracey Robinson-Harris | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Anti-Oppression, Diversity, Multiculturalism, Transcendence, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness, Multiculturalism
  • The human race is a vast rainbow bursting into view of white and black, red, yellow and brown. Yet for all blood is red, the sky is blue, the earth brown, the night dark. In size and shape we are a varied pattern of tall and short, slim and stout, elegant and plain....
    Reading | By Richard S. Gilbert | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Body, Diversity, Inclusion, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness
  • Why should we intentionally work for diversity? The responses to this question vary widely. Of course, hard demographic realities suggest much. But for me, beyond any demographic or sociological justification, there is a theological imperative....
    Reading | By Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 6th Principle (World Community), Anti-Oppression, Diversity, Growth, Hospitality, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness, Multiculturalism
  • 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
  • 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