In his last speech to striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that it was fine to talk about fine robes and crowns in heaven, but we also need to talk about shoes, coats and dresses for working people in this world. What are some of the pressing justice issues of today, and what in this world can we do?
 

The disease of heterosexism has prevented justice from being done in the case of marriage equality. Families are hurt each day we delay. What are we called to do, as Unitarian Universalists, to set things right?

For ancient people, the threshold was a place of power, the particular location where the gods might enter into this world and change everything. Janus is a god of the threshold, looking back to the past and forward to the future at the same time. Being on the threshold, in transition to new stages of life can be tricky and intense, yet it can also be a time and place of tremendous power and new life.

The story of Hanukkah is in part the story of a heroic and successful battle, but at the heart of the celebration is the ideal of the rededication of the temple after destruction and loss. After difficult times in your life, where have you found light? What have you understood within its illumination?

Sermon: Rev.  Deborah Cayer

We’ve entered the bumpy season of Too Many Relatives and Guests, Too Often. The poet Rumi advises that we welcome them all, but did he ever know your brother-in-law? Rev. Cayer will share some thoughts this morning on the ritual practice of getting beyond mere toleration. Along a completely different line, we’ll also welcome ERUUF’s newest members during this service.

Sometimes life offers us lovely surprises, at others, not so
much. When the unexpected happens and there are no
other choices, how can we best cope? Is there something
more active we might do to find the gift within the
unasked for moment?

Rev. Robin Venturia

This morning we’ll welcome some of the tiniest members of this faith community, read the names of members who have died during the previous year, and call the names of all our loved ones who have gone before us. If you would like to include your child in the morning’s dedication ceremony, see Holly McKinney, Acting DRE. All are invited to bring a picture of or memento from a loved one who has died for a special remembrance table.

Unitarian Universalism is a covenantal religious tradition; what binds UUs together is not shared belief, but rather, shared commitments and promises. A rational, orderly faith? Sometimes…but then, what’s love got to do with it?