Help us feel at home with ourselves and with one another so there is no need to pretend.

And still, we are grateful.

For all that we’ve learned; for all that we’ve lost; for the healing we need.

If this year is a "lost" year, then I am bound to live a lost life.

May we know that the infinite web of life and love holds us all and holds all the stories.

May we know that our interconnectedness is a miracle, and may it be a refuge for us.

Committing to right relationship means being willing to revise our practices when we learn that previously accepted habits might be harmful.

May I have the wisdom to be curious when I find myself grumbling about “them.”

Let it be said by generations to come that when the pain of our separation was revealed, we moved closer to the promised land of our beloved community.

I am afraid and exhausted from the constant fear. I don’t know who to trust for information about the virus.

I experience the creative impulse as living just under the surface of the daily grind: tugging; imploring, When do we all get to sing together again?

This year, the Advent season seems particularly seized by a spirit of the expected, the longing.

The wilderness alongside every moment, sprawling in each direction, holds more than the silence that theologians imagine of God.

We seek blessed assurance through pandemic chaos, relentless loss, and unimaginable stress.

It's okay to be feel weary of resiliency and wholeness and learning and growth.

We light this chalice to kindle a flame of warmth as a reminder of the connection that draws us in to a community that opens us up.

Tip if you are video recording this story: you can have a clip of an adult stretching out their arm in one direction, then another clip of a different adult stretching out their arm in the other direction, so that when you edit it, it looks like they are stretching towards each other. It would be...

In these days of so much uncertainty, may we choose honesty over comfort, love over complacency, and truth over convenience.

You are sacred, and that energy runs through your hands, through the hands of all Unitarian Universalists. You are part of that interdependent network.

This is a prayer for working parents zooming another meeting with a little face joining in; for new parents, waiting for new life without support; for the single parents, doing all this alone.

Come. Gather. Not into a common space— sharing a physical closeness we long for, precluded by wise choice. But come, gather into this common time and a common space. We need to be together. We yearn for connection....

Spirit of Life, Spirit of Love, we come today carrying our grief, our memories, and our love. We gather around screens and devices, reaching out with our minds and hearts to join in this most ancient of human customs: honoring one whom we loved who has died....

I miss the way things were, and I know they’ll never really be the same.

We light this chalice, symbol of our purpose to bring more love and justice into the world. We light this chalice, knowing our congregation as a church dispersed across communities, not bound by walls but connected through the web of life.

“Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.” ―Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Raise your hand if you believe you’re not doing enough right now. Do you feel like...

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is real for all of us, whether we are touched by it directly or indirectly. Some of us know people who have the virus, and its impact is getting closer as we learn of second cousins and friends of friends who have died of COVID-19....

I take care of myself first, because I am deserving of exquisite care. I take care of myself to maintain the capacity to help others. I move and stretch my body every day. I spend time in nature, attuning my senses to the earth's wisdom. I ration my daily exposure to the news....

Feel that? Each breath, every inhale, exhale We are living, breathing, connected. We are the whole, complete, beautiful selves that we were born to be. Feel that? In your bones, in your muscles In your heart and your blood That is the extraordinary you. The you who was born for this time, this...

Somewhere in the world, there was a child and their grandparent sheltering in place, just like you are now - and they were really fed up, perhaps a bit like you are sometimes. The novelty of being at home all the time and doing whatever they wanted had worn off for the child and they felt...

Sung to the tune of “Gather the Spirit” ©1990 Jim Scott (#347, Singing the Living Tradition) Gather in spirit, shelter in place. Let’s do what we can to flatten the curve. Wash your hands often, don’t touch your face. This virus is something no one deserves. chorus: Gather on Skype, gather...

A new disease, without any cure, is pushing us apart. And, yet, we cannot escape one another. We need one another. Whether I acknowledge it or not, the guarantee of safety does not exist.

Spirit of love and life, these are trying times, and sometimes we are at wits' end trying to figure out what to do. We have all this extra time, and we are busier than we have ever been....

Jesus had no political power. He lived his whole life in the shadow of the Roman empire, and that empire killed him. Yet Jesus healed the sick, he listened, he moved among the ordinary people, in the lowly places.

We’re staying home. Love has never asked this of us before. We’re staying home, this is our gift to humanity. Let us wish each other well. For those staying home alone, I offer you this blessing. May you grow a deeper understanding of your own worth. Dear one, leaven the aloneness with gentle...

Across the distance, the light from within me shines, sending love to all Across the distance, your light is fuel that warms me and helps to keep my own light burning Together, we keep the flame of community burning bright...

We leave this gathered community, But we don’t leave our connection, Our concerns, our care for each other. Our service to each other, to the world, and to our faith continues. Until we are together again, friends, Be strong, be well, be true, be loving.

Spirit of life and love, We gather together in different ways this morning, From computer screens, from telephones, from car radios, We gather, reaching out across the wires, waving from a safe distance, To come together in religious community....

Of course there are people behaving badly during this pandemic, using it as an excuse to practice prejudice, to hoard, to blame; using it to divide and weaken us, cashing in on surface tensions for their own terrible benefit. The news daily shows these heavy things....

In ancient times, they said Dayenu It would have been enough to have been spared after the plagues. It would have been enough to have been freed of slavery, It would have been enough to have had food in the desert, Now we question, when will it be enough again? Dayenu Will it be enough to stay home?

I’m confident in our human ability to together muscle our way into renewing our world.

Here I am, God, here I am. Here I am with the dishes in the sink, the dust on the shelves, the skin on my hands which is drying out and starting to crack. My appetite has gone, without any other bodies to remind my body of itself. I can pray for salvation but my bones know this is all there is....

We light this flame For the art of sacred unknowing. Humbled by all that we cannot fathom in this time, We come into the presence of what we do know, Perhaps the only thing we can ever know: That Love is now and forever The only answer to everything And everyone In every moment.

In a time of uncertainty, when everything around us is changing constantly— each day new developments, rising numbers, changing guidelines; when the world we live in suddenly seems upside-down and topsy-turvy: We light our chalice to remind ourselves of our grounding in our faith....

Sometimes circumstances call for special material—and the current pandemic is one such circumstance. We're grateful to the people here who have written and shared worship resources for worship in the time of Covid-19. New!...

Yesterday, there were fewer cars at the Arrivals dock at the Portland airport than there were dogs being walked on my block. Yesterday, a friend reported a clandestine meeting—a walk with her elderly mother—careful to keep a six-foot distance as they strolled together in the sunshine. Yesterday,...

“Game” is no longer the proper metaphor to guide my thoughts and actions. We are—all of us—in liminal space, at a threshold confronting immediacy, shrouded in fog.

Never has it been more true than now: We extinguish this flame, But the sparks within us remain alight. From each of us, in our supposed solitude, The signals buzz and hum, sparkling through space one to another, Connecting us invisibly But palpably. We are one. And from every window, Our light...

We're grateful to Linda Hirschhorn for sharing her song, created in March 2020 and inspired a Bertolt Brecht quote: "In the dark times will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing about the dark times.” Linda invites your feedback...

Note: Rev. Margaret Weis invites you to replace "church" with "congregation" or "Fellowship" if that feels most appropriate for your community. The church is not a place; it is a people. The church is not only a steeple above the treeline, streets, and cars....

We who gather here In this tender and anxious and confusing time We have been awash in a sea of information And misinformation and disinformation and this information that we seek is simply so that we May make wise decisions about how we respond And learn how we hold one another when we can’t hol...