Displaying 981 – 1000 of 1206

Changing a filter will refresh results (and remaining options) immediately. Searching by keyword requires use of the "Search" button.

  • To outgrow the past but not extinguish it; To be progressive but not raw, Free but not mad, critical but not sterile, expectant but not deluded; To be scientific but not to live on formulas that cut us off from life; To hear amidst clamor the pure, deep tones of the spirit; To seek the wisdom tha...
    Poetry | By William Laurence Sullivan | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Aging, Change, Character, Growth, Meaning, Peace, Secular, Wisdom
  • Leader 1: It takes a Unitarian Universalist Village to raise a Unitarian Universalist Child. We will read what we believe important for our children to learn, to know, and to experience. We invite you to respond by saying “It takes a village to raise a child.” Leader 2: It is important for our...
    Litany | By Tess Baumberger | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Caring, Child Dedication, Children, Children's / Religious Education Sunday, Children's Sabbath, Community, Generations, Growth, New Child, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism
  • A cold grey sky, a cold grey sea And a cold grey mist that is chilling me; A light that burns on the harbor bar With the dull dim glow of a distant star....
    Poetry | By Lewis H. Latimer | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Earth, Earth-Centered, Home, Letting Go, Mystery
  • Who cast a spell over my world? Who opened the doors, stirred the crowd of possibilities, put gold dust in my dreams causing my life to turn? O Fate, O Love, O Spirit, O God: is it true that all good things must end? Or have you set me on a path of meaning Not luck Of clarity Not magic And this...
    Poetry | By Angela Herrera | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Change, Direct Experience, God, Grace, Letting Go, Meaning, Unitarian Universalism, Wonder
  • This body is not what it was I got shin splints from running today Ten years ago all I’d get was smelly feet My back aches just from sitting these days In my youth, all my pain came from climbing trees This body is not what it was Not some alien thing thrust upon me So clumsy, always in the way I...
    Poetry | By Kayla Parker | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Aging, Body, Change, Direct Experience
  • (adapted from the original) I say that it touches us that our blood is sea water and our tears are salt, that the seed of our bodies is scarcely different from the same cells in a seaweed, and that the stuff of our bones is like the coral. I say that the tide rolls in on us, whether we like it or...
    Poetry | By Marni Harmony | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Awe, Body, Change, Nature, Reverence
  • Once upon a time I was Now I am Some day I will become Once there was And now there is Soon there will be And some day there surely shall be Once upon a time we were Now we are And some day (Hallelujah!) we shall surely become Amen Amen...
    Poetry | By Margaret Williams Braxton | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Change, Character, Direct Experience, Growth, Reverence
  • My high school years were speckled with trust walks. In my ­Unitarian Universalist youth group at the First UU Congre­gation of Ann Arbor, each year, the incoming freshmen were given blindfolds and a partner. They were led out into the dark, with only hands on their shoulders to guide them. When...
    Reading | By Rianna Johnson-Levy | March 9, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Autumnal Equinox, Beauty, Change, Death, Direct Experience, Growth, Letting Go, Trust, Unitarian Universalism, Youth/Teens
  • The question is not, “What happens when we die?” Nobody really knows. The real question is, “What happens when we stop living?” The stoicism we face on a daily basis is a symptom of a larger illness called a dually-dulled life. Our lives can be hypnotized by the monotonous commutes,...
    Reading | By Nathan C. Walker | February 24, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), Belief, Calling, Challenge, Change, Character, Direct Experience, Easter, Gratitude, Homecoming / Ingathering, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Respect, Trust, Unitarian Universalism, Worth, Yom Kippur
  • Turn and look at your neighbor. Not only can you probably see them. You can experience being in the same space with them today. If you were called as a court witness, you could speak to the truth that they exist. Today, we will bear witness to the death of Michael Brown....
    Litany | By Julián Jamaica Soto | February 19, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Justice, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Remembrance Day, Solidarity, Unitarian Universalism
  • For those of us who follow the Christian tradition, now is the season of advent, a time of waiting. And whether or not we are Christian I believe that Unitarian Universalists and progressives of any or no faith have something to learn from this Christian season of advent this year. Because we are...
    Reading | By Annie Gonzalez Milliken | February 19, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Activism, Advent, Anti-Oppression, Change, Christianity, Direct Experience, Empathy, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism
  • As a Unitarian Universalist minister, it is sometimes my role to answer correspondence that comes to our congregation from members of the community. Last night, I received this brief note in my inbox: Good Evening: I am very upset at the signage that is outside of your church stating that “Black...
    Reading | By Daniel S. Schatz | February 19, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, Anti-Oppression, Healing, Race/Ethnicity, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism, Violence
  • [In the] spirit of love, harmony, and remembrance, we stand too often divided, too often set apart from one another in heedless ways. We seek to be compassionate but our vision may be clouded or distracted. We too often go forward, day by day, and look without seeing....
    Litany | By Dennis McCarty | February 18, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Healing, Love, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Seven Principles, Suffering, Unitarian Universalism, Violence, Wholeness
  • Christmas and Hanukah once upon a time were about struggle, hope, and freedom. Both stories are exile stories pointing out how even a glimmer of light can provide a lasting hope for the triumph of all that is good. While we haven’t altogether lost these themes in our modern interpretations, we...
    Reading | By Daniel Chesney Kanter | February 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christmas Eve / Christmas, Hanukkah, Interdependence, Meaning, Wealth
  • Do not think we are finished— oh no we will never be finished never just done until the light of justice is lit behind every eye. Do not think we will be silent— no there will not be silence until the world has sung the names of the dead with full throats and still we will sing on. Do not think...
    Reading | By Audette Fulbright Fulson | February 2, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Activism, Anti-Oppression, Brokenness, Courage, Direct Experience, Justice, Oppression, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity
  • This is adapted from a litany by Gail Forsyth-Vail, who suggests the following to maximize the reading's power: Identify seventeen people who will come forward to represent the generations of African Americans in the British colonies and in the United States. As you name the first generation,...
    Reading | By James (Jay) C Leach | January 29, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, History, Humanism, Juneteenth, Justice, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity
  • This reading requires seventeen people who are able to come forward and represent the generations of African Americans in the British colonies and in the United States. As you name the first generation, indicate to a person that they should stand. Each time you call a new generation, you indicate...
    Reading | By Gail Forsyth-Vail | January 29, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, History, Humanism, Juneteenth, Justice, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity
  • “The Miseducation of Justice-Making” excerpted from Nathan C. Walker (2014) Exorcising Preaching: Crafting Intellectually Honest Worship. St. Louis: Chalice Press. What does justice-making look like, feel like, when we receive hostile communication? Are we hostile in return? Or is something else...
    Reading | By Nathan C. Walker | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Courage, Direct Experience, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Strength, Teamwork, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
  • “Beyond the Zero-Sum Game” excerpted from Nathan C. Walker (2014) Exorcising Preaching: Crafting Intellectually Honest Worship. St. Louis: Chalice Press. For centuries, insiders have been democratizing their religions. Incremental moments of institutional reform have led to a new era of...
    Reading | By Nathan C. Walker | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Courage, Covenant, Direct Experience, Power, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Responsibility, Teamwork, Unitarian Universalism
  • “This Ain’t No Country Club” excerpted from Nathan C. Walker (2014) Exorcising Preaching: Crafting Intellectually Honest Worship. St. Louis: Chalice Press. There is no time to be spinning around ourselves saying, “We’re so small. We’re a minority religion.” As if “minority” is...
    Reading | By Nathan C. Walker | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Courage, Meaning, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Purpose, Searching, Unity