We are all dying, our lives always moving toward completion. We need to learn to live with death, and to understand that death is not the worst of all events. We need to fear not death, but life—empty lives, loveless lives lives that do not build upon the gifts that each of us has been given,...

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......

The womb of stars embraces us; remnants of their fiery furnaces pulse through our veins. We are of the stars, the dust of explosions cast across space. We are of the earth: we breathe and live in the breath of ancient plants and beasts....

Since the economy is in a kind of black hole, I was interested to read that researchers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have traced the building blocks of the universe back one more step and it leads to the massive black holes in space. We know that the Earth did not spring out of thin air...

Leader (L): When there was a need, you came forward. Congregation (C): And so we thank you. L: In the nighttime or daytime, on weekends and even in the coldest, darkest part of the year, you helped. C: And so we thank you....

Setting ourselves to the task of Greening our Congregation, together we promise these things: Most simply, we will each do our small part to care for the earth around us. We will start with one step forward toward the thriving world that we envision....

I grew up on my family farm in the southern part of Illinois. There was nothing about it that was a golden age. And I’m NOT nostalgic about the good old days. I don’t like carrying water from the well out back. I don’t like going to an outhouse at 4 a.m. in the snow. I don’t like the wasps...

On a deeper level, do we consider what we are eating and whether its origins are compatible with our personal values? Since the beginning of time, dietary practices have been incorporated into the religious practices of humanity....

I [do not] mean to present myself as some kind of bodhisattva of compassion. However, in my better moments—at least in my more conscious moments—while I’m eating, I do try to imagine the lives and even the deaths of the creatures who nourish me. I try to think of the freedom and exhilaration...

I remember back to the 50’s and 60’s when, once a week, my mother would don her shirtwaist, climb into the family car, and make her way to the A&P. How did she choose her groceries then? In our family, in New England and a long way from the fertile, productive valleys of California, proximity...

We mourn the lost lives—the eleven workers who died—and we know the heaviness that hangs over their families. We mourn the lost livelihoods. Many have had their lives changed: shrimpers, fishermen, those whose income depends on tourists, and those who work on oil rigs. They have been hit hard.

Leader: It is a miracle that no one is ever empty-handed; there is enormous power in having no possessions but the self to give and to receive what can be and become.

We covenant together to share hope with each other and with the world.

If you're new to Unitarian Universalism, one of the things you will learn is that we are extremely proud of our history. In truth, our history is full of great things but it also has its share of shameful moments and embarrassing episodes....

Somos una gente del arco iris. We are a rainbow people. The rainbow is an arc of light brilliantly displaying all the colors of the visible spectrum, all the colors that combine to make the astounding beauty of our world, all the colors that combine to reflect the astounding diversity of human...

Each week we take up an offering for the support of this congregation, and often, for the support of others who are working for a better world. To be honest, we need your support—especially in todays economy, when pledges are down and the future appears uncertain. But there is another truth here...

includes quotations by bell hooks In conversations about the initiative for greater diversity, our Unitarian Universalist Association-wide commitment to become more inclusive, one of the questions that inevitably arose was, ‘What do we want diversity for? What is our motivation?’... Perhaps it...

The human race is a vast rainbow bursting into view of white and black, red, yellow and brown. Yet for all blood is red, the sky is blue, the earth brown, the night dark. In size and shape we are a varied pattern of tall and short, slim and stout, elegant and plain....

For religion to be significant, it has to provide more than the comforts of community. It also has to provide opportunities for deepening, for what I call spiritual growth, and for the casting down of false images and stereotypes, which hurt us all. A good religion has to open us to the real...

Why should we intentionally work for diversity? The responses to this question vary widely. Of course, hard demographic realities suggest much. But for me, beyond any demographic or sociological justification, there is a theological imperative....