According to recent surveys of religion in America, a continued decline of church membership in future decades seems inevitable. What does that mean for those of us who enjoy the important social benefits that belonging to a religious community provides? How do we manage the tension between hope and realism when it comes to the future of our faith? Let us explore what we, as Unitarian Universalists, can do for religion today...and tomorrow.

• Realistic Hope and Hopeful Realism Transcript (PDF)
• Realistic Hope and Hopeful Realism (Vimeo) (with embedded cations (MP4)

Opening

Opening Words: A Place of Belonging and Caring, by Kimberlee Anne Tomczak Carlson

Reading

Community Means Strength, by Starhawk*

Closing

Closing Words: May You Be Filled, by Eric Williams

or

You Are Not Alone, by Rev Wayne B. Arnason

Take courage friends.
The way is often hard, the path is never clear, And the stakes are very high.
Take courage.
For deep down, there is another truth:
You are not alone.

Hymns

Singing the Living Tradition

• 123 - Spirit of Life
• 354 - We Laugh, We Cry
• 402 - From You I Receive

Singing the Journey

• 1008 - When Our Heart Is in a Holy Place
• 1017 - Building a New Way
• 1020 - Woyaya

Worship Web: What We Need Is Here, by Amy McCreath

There Is a Love, by Elizabeth H. Norton and Rebecca Parker

In These Hard Times, by Linda Hirschhorn

* I read Starhawk's Community Means Strength in the body of the sermon. If you want to use it as a separate reading, it's worth repeating!