Sunday Worship, General Assembly 2021

Program Description

Recognizing the importance of shared ministry and the many innovative approaches to worship created by congregations during the pandemic, UUA President, Rev. Dr. Susan Frederick Gray, selected the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis to serve as worship leaders for this year's GA Sunday Morning Service.

An image of the sanctuary of the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis

First Universalist has been a model of shared ministry and what it means to put the work of dismantling white supremacy and building anti-racist, anti-oppressive practices at the center of their ministry. They have been on the front lines in support of the Movement for Black Lives in Minneapolis, bringing spiritual care and moral leadership in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police and the important uprisings for justice that followed. Children and families are a vital part of their ministry, and they have been using creative approaches to engage all ages in worship during the pandemic. Their leadership exemplifies some of the best practices for the creativity, spiritual depth, and moral leadership that is possible when we embrace the work of shared ministry rooted in love and justice.

Until Love Wins

Today’s challenging times require a nimble and resilient spirituality. We need a demanding, inspiring faith and a love strong enough that it will not let us go. Join us as we draw the circle wide, gather our strength, and promise to stay in the struggle and joy until love wins.

List of Presenters

Musicians Franco Holder, Aimee K. Bryant, and Dr. Randal Buikema; and religious professionals Lauren Wyeth, Julica Hermann de la Fuente, and Revs. Arif Mamdani, Karen Hutt, and Jen Crow will lead the service.

Order of Service

Collection

The service includes a collection to benefit MICAH: Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope. MICAH does community organizing in several key areas, including civic engagement, environment, criminal justice and prison reform, education, jobs and economic development, and transportation. They have a long history of visionary Black leadership, true multi-faith collaboration, and synergistic partnership with frontline communities and organizations. Several Milwaukee-area UU congregations have long-time, deep relationships with MICAH, and have actively participated in MICAH’s organizing and campaigns.

Streaming the Sunday Service

If health and safety protocols permit, congregations and groups are encouraged to conduct watch parties for GA events open to the public.

Streaming After GA Is Over

Can we stream this next week, or any future Sunday? Yes.

Can we post it on on our congregational website? It's recommended congregations direct users to the UUA's site which includes links the ASL version, the order of service and transcripts. You can embed the UUA's video, but please provide a link back to the UUA where users can access these additional resources. This ensures everyone has access to any corrections made to these files.

Congregations who downloaded the Sunday Service should not keep the file or post it on YouTube, Facebook or other social sites and cloud services.

If we streamed it to YouTube, can we leave it on our YouTube channel? No. We request congregations take it down and direct users to the version on UUA.org.

Can we post it to Facebook? Congregations can post a link to the Sunday Worship Service on UUA.org. Downloaded copies should not be posted to FaceBook.