Not gold, nor myrrh, nor even frankincense would I have for you this season, but simple gifts, the ones that are hardest to find, the ones that are perfect, even for those who have everything (if such there be). I would (if I could) have for you the gift of courage, the strength to face the...

Introduction One year for the November Service Auction, [a member] asked and I agreed to have a sermon topic listed among the many items available for bidding....

O God of life, help us make this church a refuge from the world, a place where the rules are different....

Eternal God, Mother and Father, Spirit of life, we gather grateful for the companionship of hearts and minds seeking to speak the truth in love. We gather grateful for our heritage, for the women and men before us whose prophetic words and deeds make possible our dreams and our insight. We gather...

Let there be a quiet time among us. Spirit of life, in us and around us, here is our chance—once again—to live like we wish the world would live. May we find within ourselves the courage to be who we are. May we know when it is time to listen and when it is time to speak. May we trust ourselves...

At one point in her novel Fly Away Home, American writer Marge Piercy has a mother say of her daughters: “The girls had been raised Unitarian (Universalist), which seemed a nice, sensible compromise between having no religion at all and having to lie about what we believed. Enough religion to be...

Living your Unitarian Universalism (UUism) means... If a grieving neighbor needs some companionship, you brew the pot of coffee and sit down to listen. Living your UUism means......

"It was still dark that morning in 1942 when the Gestapo rousted from bed the Jews of Bobawa, a Polish village. In the confusion, twelve-year-old Samuel Oliner slipped away and hid on a roof, still in his pajamas. The next afternoon, when he dared to look around, the ghetto was silent....

"You want to do what?" her friend said. "But you can’t, you can’t, what difference could you make. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard!" "But if someone doesn’t do something, how many more people will be killed, maimed or starve to death because of the war?" Emily answered. "But two...

Introduction As we continue to seek out the stories of hope in our world in the new year, there are also some things we would very much like to put behind us from the old year. The ushers have given you scraps of paper on which to inscribe those things from which we would seek to unburden ourselves.

We all have two religions: the religion we talk about and the religion we live. It is our task to make the difference between the two as small as possible.

Someone told me once that Einstein thought time is a variable. That is to say that time is not a constant. Are you following this? I think Einstein was right. When I was a child, a year was a YEAR! Now a year is a week....

Let us turn inward now Feel the rhythm of the breath. In and out, In and out, Find the peace of just being with the flow of the breath. Letting go of yesterday and tomorrow. Feel the restorative power of the peace of this moment....

That which is worthy of doing, create with your hands. That which is worthy of repeating, speak with a clear voice. That which is worthy of remembering, hold in your hearts. And that which is worthy of living, go and live it now.

Remembering our spiritual, courageous ancestors who forsook oppression with security to gain freedom with opportunity, may we go forth to master ourselves by accepting duty with responsibility, by showing balance in our judgments and by having breadth of vision in our deliberations. May we be...

Much of ministry is a benediction— A speaking well of each other and the world— A speaking well of what we value: honesty love forgiveness trust A speaking well of our efforts— A speaking well of our dreams. This is how we celebrate life: Through speaking well of it, Living the benediction,...

Let us sing the magic of imagination by which we know one another and learn the lives of eras gone by. Let us sing the magic of creation by which we build the world of our soul and teach its wisdom to others, young and old. Let us sing the magic of our lives together, holding and shaping by the...

Between the dawn and dusk of our being, let us be brave and loving. In our little passage through the light let us sustain and forward the human venture— in gentleness, in service, and in thought. Amen.