Displaying 1 - 20 of 20
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In our lived lives, family comes in different shapes and sizes and constellations.It is in this variety—this diversity—that our lives are made fuller and our individual selves made more whole. It is in this variety, it is in this diversity, that we look back to the ancestors, recognizing no...Reading | By Karen G. Johnston | August 17, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Family, Generations, Integrity, Love, Memorial Services, Truth, WorshipWeb, Worship -
I don’t know exactly when it happened, but something began to change.Reading | By Tess Baumberger | March 13, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Aging, Caring, Change, Coming-of-Age, Direct Experience, Generations, Humanism, Life Transition, Secular, WorshipWeb, Worship -
We are part of the connective tissue that holds the legacy and future of our faith.Reading | By Elandria Williams | January 25, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Bridging, Coming-of-Age, Faith, Generations, Identity, Living Our Faith, Trauma -
White supremacy illuminates the exceptional instead of blaming the system.Reading | By Clint Smith | January 27, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, America, Anti-Oppression, Generations, History, Race/Ethnicity, Violence, WorshipWeb, Worship
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The soul of America has yet to be born.Reading | By Peggy Clarke | November 16, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), America, Democracy, Generations, History, Humanism, Indigenous Peoples Day, July 4th, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular -
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 WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Beginnings, Character, Children, Coming-of-Age, Direct Experience, Education, Freedom, Gender, Generations, Humanism, Secular, Self-Respect, WorshipWeb, Worship -
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 WorshipWebTagged as: Aging, Caring, Community, Compassion, Dignity, Disability, Economy, Education, Generations, Interdependence, Labor Day -
Each of us has gifts and wounds from those who fathered us. This is inevitable; even the best fathers in the world disappoint their children sometimes. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to grow up. But I know that some wounds are deeper than others. Some people’s hearts have been broken by their...Reading | By Myke Johnson | April 13, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Children, Family, Father's Day, Fathers, Generations, Growth, Healing, Humanism, Pain, Parents, Secular -
We gather at Thanksgiving, in some sense, to retell the creation myth of our country. In this myth is our very best and our very worst: a boldness; a care for the common good; a wish to say we before I. Yet from even before the first Thanksgiving feast, it’s a story of theft and violence, and a...Reading | By David Schwartz | November 15, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), America, Anti-Oppression, Freedom, Generations, History, Humanism, Indigenous American, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Thanksgiving -
People have always known that fire was special. Long, long ago, before people made matches or candles or even made houses, people knew that fire was special. There was the great fire in the sky, the sun, which made the earth warm and made night into day....Reading | By Elizabeth Harding | October 27, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Direct Experience, Fire Communion, Generations, Imagination, Nature, Secular, Spiritual Practice, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism -
One day, your church was born. Maybe it was a gathering of saints, called together for the common worship of a wrathful god, ceaselessly praying between bouts of decrying the evil of Christmas or dancing. Or maybe a few brave souls answered a notice in the newspaper, curiosity piqued by the...Reading | By Sean Neil-Barron | February 26, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), Building/Space Dedication, Business Meetings, Change, Child Dedication, Community, Creativity, Direct Experience, Generations, Installations, Leadership, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Purpose, Religion, Sacred, Unitarian Universalism, WorshipWeb -
In eighth grade, we were assigned a project: to make a poster about some part of our ancestry. I made mine about the story of the 1930 migration, from Germany to the United States, of my great-grandmother, her husband, and their three children. My great-grandmother, Emma Johanna Jacoba Kranenburg...Reading | By Matthew Johnson | December 7, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Acceptance, America, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Family, Generations, Immigration, Inclusion, Multiculturalism, Prophetic Words & Deeds -
We gather together this morning, Because others came before us. Some have left examples for us to follow, Others lessons for us to learn from, and the paradox is that many have left both pain and joy. We honor our ancestors this morning, not because they are perfect, But because, without them, we...Reading | By Chris Rothbauer | November 11, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Community, Generations, History, Limitations, Meaning, Pain, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Vulnerability -
Identity is one of those concepts I have tried desperately to push to the sidelines for most of mi vida. It was always too complicated, too painful, or too divisive....Reading | By Saul Ulloa | April 26, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Family, Generations, Identity, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity -
This short, personal essay from Raziq Brown speaks to failure, loss and personal growth.Reading | By Raziq Brown | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Aging, Direct Experience, Failure, Generations, Men, Unitarian Universalism, Youth/Teens
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My dad died 28 years ago. I still have some of his things: A red plaid Pendleton bath robe. (I look like Dad in that thing now.) An old Sears table saw bought used in 1950. I still use it, (but for rough cuts only). An old grinding wheel, noisy as sin, but sharpens mower blades in no time....Reading | By Ken Nye | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Children, Family, Father's Day, Fathers, Generations, History, Integrity, Parents
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Among the most accomplished and fabled tribes of Africa, no tribe was considered to have warriors more fearsome or more intelligent than the mighty Masai....Reading | By Patrick T O'Neill | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Child Dedication, Children, Children's / Religious Education Sunday, Children's Sabbath, Commitment, Community, Family, Fathers, Generations, International, Mothers, New Child, Relationships -
On Mother's Day, one expects to read about the wonder and glory of motherhood....Reading | By Jane Rzepka | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Children, Direct Experience, Generations, Mother's Day, Mothers, Parents, Relationships
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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 WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Generations, Responsibility
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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 WorshipWebTagged as: Children, Generations