By Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. There must be always remaining in every life some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful and—by an inherent prerogative, throwing all the rest of...

By Naomi Shihab Nye, from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (Far Corner Books, Portland, OR, 1995). Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth....

From The Shaking of the Foundations by Paul Tillich. Sometimes . . . it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later....

Race-based identity groups, or caucuses, provide a chance for people to talk in a structured format with others from their own ethnic/racial group, an opportunity that is rare, even for those who regularly participate in multicultural dialogues. This kind of within-group talk more often than not...

Read the following sentences aloud in pairs, pausing briefly between the two items in each pair, and pausing again after each pair is read. This is my best friend, Mandy. This is my best white friend, Mandy. I love green beans. I love green beans made by that white company Dole Foods....

Excerpted from Meditations of the Heart by Howard Thurman. Copyright (C) 1953, 1981 by Anne Thurman. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts. It is very easy to pretend to understand what one does not understand....

Originally written anonymously by a gay high school student and adapted for this exercise. Mattering My father asked if I am gay I asked, Does it matter? He said, No not really I said, Yes. He said get out of my life. I guess it mattered. My friend asked why I talk about race so much?...

There has been a lot of press lately about Generation Y—often referred to as the Millennials—since they started to come of age around the year 2000. It’s a generation that doesn’t fit the old stereotype of rebellious youth that began with the Baby Boomers; articulated in the movie Rebel...

I've seen a disconnect between generations in our congregations when it comes to leadership. Baby Boomers, who populate the majority of our leadership positions, ask me how they can recruit more younger people for their volunteer positions. Younger Generation Xers and Millennials have a lot of...

The world around us is changing at an exponential rate, so it is often difficult to respond to the new reality. What is true for individuals is even more true for institutions, including our “living tradition” Unitarian Universalist congregations. I’m not saying this to scold or to shame, but...

What is the future of Unitarian Universalist congregations? Are we slowly declining, as hinted at in the article UUA membership and attendance declined in 2011 in the UU World? Or are we at the cusp of societal changes where we can be A Religion for Our Time? I believe that Unitarian Universalism...

Excerpted from I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, Copyright (C) 2000 Dawna Markova with permission from, Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC, #1-800-423-7087. I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me...

Main Street High School has a dilemma. A student wears a tee shirt that some people think is inappropriate, but some do not. The dilemma will be solved by a tug-of-war. [Bring out the rope.] A youth wears a tee shirt to school that says, "Gay? Fine by me." [Pick a volunteer to be the tee shirt...

1. from The Tao de Ching, Chapter 22, translated by J.H. MacDonald If you want to become whole, first let yourself become broken. If you want to become straight, first let yourself become twisted. If you want to become full, first let yourself become empty. If you want to become new, first let...

1. Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men. http://thinkexist.com/quotation/wisdom-compassion-and_courage_are_the_t… (Confucianism) 2. I have observed that religious practice is not a precondition either of ethical conduct or of happiness itself.

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." — Native American Proverb "Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach." — Clarissa Pinkola Estes, author and...

When a congregation wants to add a new program, what are some helpful strategies?

From the Unitarian Universalist Association archives.

From the Unitarian Universalist Association archives.

Adapted from Workshop 12 of the Tapestry of Faith curriculum Building the World We Dream About by Dr. Mark A. Hicks....