Today, we are charged to remember. To know that as we live together in community, we are also in community with the silently singing lives in the vast congregation of the earth as well... Let us remember, and then act.

Disturbance opens the terrain for transformative encounters… Humanists, not used to thinking with disturbance, connect the term with damage. But disturbance, as used by ecologists, is not always bad—and not always human.

All organisms make ecological living places, altering earth, air, and water... In the process, each organism changes everyone’s world.

Arm's length: What was once a defensive or suspicious expression has now become a gesture of care, an indication of love and protection.

Tip if you are video recording this story: you can have a clip of an adult stretching out their arm in one direction, then another clip of a different adult stretching out their arm in the other direction, so that when you edit it, it looks like they are stretching towards each other. It would be...

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...

In my chapel, redwing blackbird unravels her liquid song in the cattails.

There are so many spiritual lessons from the natural world and—in a season filled with Ingatherings and Water Communions—this is one for me: oxbow lakes as a beautiful combination of resiliency, strength, and flexibility.

Love our Earth. Take action to consume less, use less energy, respect water; And be cooperative, collaborative and creative community – like the moss and the mushrooms. Our children’s lives depend on us.

Today I’m going to tell a story about a girl who was searching for a porpoise. Now, as you probably know, a porpoise is a sea mammal in the dolphin family. Porpoises are smaller and shyer than dolphins. They are more difficult to find, but porpoises are very important. Minister (or other Worship...

This is the story of a young girl named Amelia. Amelia was fascinated by tales of people with super powers, like Wonder Woman, or magic like Harry Potter. She yearned to have powers like that so she could help people. Like the boy she often saw sitting all alone at lunch, looking very sad....

Those of us who call ourselves religious Humanists have a strong reverence for life. Many of us experience a deep sense of awe before the mystery of life and death, those powers greater than ourselves. We share a respect for science and reason, and we are willing to live with ambiguity to live...

EARTH, clay from which we are made and to which we will return. Soil, rich and aromatic, crumbling in my fingers, dark under my nails. This, cleansing dirt, the natural filter for aquifers, holds life....

I am frequently astonished by monarch butterflies. Delicate beyond belief, they fly thousands of miles each year from all parts of the continent to settle in the forests of South America. To my delight, their migratory route takes them along a bridge near my home. A few days ago, I was driving on...

On this green bank, by this soft stream, We place with joy a votive stone, That memory may their deeds redeem, When, like our sires, our sons are gone. —Ralph Waldo Emerson A green heron stands motionless on the bank of Emerson’s soft stream. In its beak it holds a fish, just the right size for...

What if when I light the chalice, you hear an invitation to welcome gratitude for the earth? This week, as I got ready to light the chalice, my family talked about blessings from this planet. Here is my list: [list 3-7 things] And now, with this flame of hope shedding light in your heart: what is...

May we honor and hold gently our past. May we live fully our present. May we hope toward and build our future, Living our mission [insert congregation's mission statement]: "To be a spiritual community To welcome all To nurture one another To work for justice And to care for the earth." May these...

How many of you like to go hiking? I have a number of walks nearby that I like. Hunger Mountain, Snake Mountain and others. Or if we don’t want to drive, my wife and I just go down to our local park where in just a few steps you can forget you’re in the city. Sometimes we bring our dog Smokey...

From beyond the playful summer clouds, beyond the earth's thin blue line, from beyond the bright moon and meteor showers, we hear the call to look and listen carefully, to turn away from a world that buys and sells happiness, to fully experience the luring whisper of your heart's truth. Why not...

A tale of salvation, ecology, and sharing. Characters Narrator Noelle Voice in a dream Noelle’s sisters Jane, Rain, and Elaine Friendly farmer(s) Ship builder(s) Numerous animals: dogs, cats, mice, cows, horses, frogs, etc. Act 1 (Noelle at center stage, sitting, covered in blanket and appearing...

Wondrous Gift of Life, thanks for this day and this gathering in our beautiful diversity and devoted generosity! We revel in our blessings for and from this holy life! Washed and refreshed in such grace, we celebrate the joys of this life....

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...

Every once in a while in my life, I have a human conversation that so stuns or startles me that it proves impossible to ever forget. It wasn’t long ago that I had such a troubling and transforming interaction, and I want to tell you about it. But first, I have to set the stage. Twenty years ago,...

Recorded music (e.g., Mozart's Requiem; Arvo Pårt's Lamentate) will be playing as the background. Spoken introduction as people prepare to walk in silence: Let us open our minds and hearts to the power of healing that is in us and in the world around us....

Spirit of Life, hold us in our pain and comfort us in our grief. Our grief feels boundless; our rage eats at us. We feel pain for all the wild creatures of the Gulf and the wetlands....

Ode to Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a hole. There’s a hole. There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There is oil from the hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s crude oil from the hole in the bottom of...

Order of Service Welcome Chalice Lighting : "In our time of grief:" (#454, SLT) Opening Song: “We are a Gentle Angry People” vs. 1,2,6 (#170, SLT) Prayer: "A Prayer of Sorrow" (#478, SLT) Reflection A Silent Witnessing Song: “Comfort Me” (#1002, STJ) Sharing The Congregation Song: “Blue...

Earth’s blood, product of ancient deaths, source and flowing stream for civilizations, protector of many human lives, still spurts but barely abated into Gulf waters, host to countless lives of every kind, geo-bio-hazard threatening all lives of every kind for many miles and for months or years t...

Setting ourselves to the task of Greening our Congregation, together we promise these things: Most simply, we will each do our small part to care for the earth around us. We will start with one step forward toward the thriving world that we envision....

I pledge allegiance to the earth on which I stand, and to the environment of which I am a part, one planet in a Process, with soil, water and air like one body, indivisible, with resources to be cherished and protected by all.

We give thanks for the earth and its creatures and are grateful from A to Z: For alligators, apricots, acorns and apple trees; For bumblebees, bananas, blueberries and beagles; Coconuts, crawdads, cornfields and coffee; Daisies, elephants, and flying fish; For groundhog, glaciers and grasslands;...

I pledge allegiance to the earth and all life: the fields and streams, the mountains and seas, the forests and deserts, the air and soil, all species and reserves, habitats and environments; one world, one creation, one home, indivisible for all, affected by pollution anywhere, depleted by any...

It’s really complicated honey. I’m only now understanding it myself. We weren’t really thinking about it like you and your friends do. It’s not that we didn’t care about how it would impact you; we weren’t really thinking about you at all. Oh that’s sounds terrible, I’ll say. I...

There I was, at the "Big Question:" What is my relationship to the creatures on this earth, and to the earth itself? Are they, is it, here for me, or am I a part of it? How far does the interdependent web extend, and do I really believe that all of us are intimately connected with all of existence?