Please join with me in the spirit of meditation and prayer.We have returned again to the time of Atonement, the time to look back over our lives this past year and face the realities of when we have fallen short of the aims set forth in "Moments of high resolve."We have the opportunity, if we cho...

On this both joyous and solemn day we have reason to celebrate; we have reason to be grateful; we have reason to be proud. We gather in the shadow of a world unsure of itself, of plans for peace lost in the plague of ambition, of a planet under threat. And yet, we have cause to be hopeful. Our...

We give thanks for this day and for these people and all the people who have enriched our lives. We give thanks for the gift of life with all of its pain and its joy, its struggles and its triumphs....

We gather to be together,We gather to celebrate and to support our beloved communityWe gather to commune in body as well as in spirit.Let us share both the food and the fellowship we find here tonight.

Out of wood and stone, out of dream and sacrifice, the people build a home. Out of the work of their hands and hearts and minds, the people fashion a symbol and a reality. May this house be truly a place of meeting: meeting in warmth and joy and openness; meeting in courage and love and trust....

"For a time, I rest in the grace of the world and am free." —Wendell Berry In this time of meditation, may you rest in the grace of the world and be free. In weakness, may you sense the strength of the eternal hills, and rest in the grace of the world. In failure, may you be upheld like the...

May we open ourselves ever more fully to that Eternal Mystery which lures us onward toward life and creativity. May we find the courage to live our faith, to speak our truth, and to strive together for a world where freedom abounds and justice truly does roll down like water. May we know the...

May the walls of this house be strong in the face of storms: Whether of winds or of words, whether of thunder or of tyranny. May the windows of this house be clear to the world's light: Whether of dawns or of daring, whether of sunsets or of stillness....

Who can be certain where the self stops and the universe begins? When we breathe, it is the air from the passing wind that fills our lungs. To our nostrils drifts the fragrance of the woodland flower. When we taste, it is of the earth's flavors and its saltiness. When we eat, it is of the field's...

When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart, I remember many things too easily forgotten: the purity of early love; the maturity of unselfish love that seeks nothing but another's good; the idealism that has persisted through all the tempest of life.

When I was a child, the day after Thanksgiving was steeped in ritual. Every year my family would travel to Chicago for the holiday festivities. Our tour was always the same: We'd tromp up and down Michigan Ave., admiring store windows with animated mechanical dolls that served as actors for the...

O Deep Mystery of our lives -- voice in our hearts and light in our minds -- in the joyful freedom of our fellowship, we are here together as adventurers called forth in spirit, men and women moving, yearning, questing, pushing the limits of our lives outwards to what is more loving and just, mor...

Let us join in a moment dedicated to that quiet power within us. It is within that we find the will to face the world; it is within that we find the love to embrace the world; it is within that we find our personal identity and know the world. Yet, within us is also a great void....

Prayer - Wayne Arnason O God, whom we know as love, we gather here this morning as seekers and finders, creators and destroyers, givers and receivers of love....

We join together now in a time of meditation or prayer, spoken at first and then for a time in the peace that silence brings.

Blessed be the flower that triumphs at last Over the snows, over the centuries, over the heavy feet of cattle and of soldiers treading down the fragile places of the earth....

Spirit who is all things to us; Presence in which we live and move and breathe and have our being: What a gift to be here together, sharing our food, our spirit, ourselves! We ask no blessing upon this food, nor upon ourselves, because the blessing is always here, if we but pay attention....

Spirit of life, You've been a father and mother to us all We enter into this time of silence and reflection With mixed emotions. This is mother's day—a day set aside to honor, celebrate, and in some cases, simply to reflect on those women who gave us birth. Some of us come to this day with joy,...

Spirit of Life, We pause to give thanks for many gifts of life that are ours, gifts we find expressed and enhanced in the community of this church. We are grateful for our family and friends and all they mean to us....