Mothers' Day
UUCSC & UU Santa Monica — Joint Choirs at Our Place!
 

Buddha's birthday—hanmaturi.

Joint Choirs at Santa Monica UU.

Our ministerial candidate's second Sunday in the pulpit.

Our ministerial candidate's first Sunday in the pulpit.

From a poem by May Sarton.

     We too often go too quickly from Good Friday, "Why have you forsaken me?"  to the joy of Easter morning.  Jesus' followers were still in confusion and depression for weeks after his death.  Only in retrospect was there any Easter morning joy that his spirit with still alive in their midst.

     With poetry and the music of flutes, we will explore the deep crisis of that first Good Friday.

A service of religious hUUmor.

   Spring is here!  A celebration of our own Nowruz (Persian New Year). Let’s grow a culture of courtesy and compassion.  What would such a covenant look like?

Well-received guest speaker and oncology chaplain, Michael Eselun, will explore through personal reflections the tension between our rational self that yearns for answers, and the spiritual self that can be moved by wonder.

A Bedtime Purim Play, by Ron Solomon

From a poem by John Ciardi, author of How Does a Poem Mean?

A celebration of the relationship between science and religion/spirituality.

What the ancient Buddhist texts say about Loving-Kindness – “One sleeps easily, wakes easily, dreams no evil dreams. One is dear to human beings, dear to non-human beings. The devas (spirits) protect one. Neither fire, poison, nor weapons can touch one. One's mind gains concentration quickly. One's complexion is bright. One dies unconfused and is headed for heaven."

Our Mayan guide in the Yucatan laughed.

A collaborative sermon by Rev. Mike and the congregation.

5pm: Nativity Pageant - All are welcome. There is no rehearsal and all ages may participate.

9pm: Candlelight Service - There will be carrolling followed by wassail and the sharing of goodies.

Petitioning the favor of the universe and assuring that there is life before death.

A more peripatetic style of sermonizing in sharing with the congregation. It has been said that a miracle is when what should happen happens on cue. If so, my life is cluttered with miracles. How’s yours?

A personal exploration of ethical eating from an avid carnivore.

This is Association Sunday, and our offering today will go to creating and sustaining excellence in ministry, continuing education, emergency assistance, things like that.

The Director of the UUA Transitions Office and our leader of yesterday’s workshop on the habits of mind that confine us to the familiar and restrict our openness.

Autumn and the Day of the Dead remind us of endings—in the year, and in our lives. Drawing on the work of William Bridges about transitions in our lives, and drawing on Buddhist practices of lovingkindness, we’ll then focus on creating new beginnings for ourselves and our church community.

No, he wasn’t a Buddhist, but his teaching method was Eastern, not Western. He was more like a Roshi than a moralist.

After a surprising silence that a number of scholars have conjectured was a near-death experience, Shakespeare roared back with five magnificent tragedies. Those tragedies explore the nature of evil and of good in the human heart, and the transformative power of forgiveness to heal what has been broken and set the soul-compass aright.

Today's service will focus on National Coming Out Day. Jon Bassinger-Flores and Liz Owen will share the pulpit with Rev. Mike Young, each talking about the importance of coming out of the closet...as a member of the LGBT community, as a straight ally, and as a welcoming church. For more information about this service and our Welcoming Congregation program, you can download this pdf press release.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, is celebrated as a time for reflection on the past year. Who has a call on your ethical behavior?

Whether an honest mistake by an ancient translator or a power play by the early church, the word “faith” has been convoluted into an instrument of repression rather than the positive, joyous concept it was meant to be.  So how bad is everything?  As bad as we decide it is.

Marshall McLuhan said we were externalizing our nervous system. The Arab Spring may be the first crackle of those virtual neurons. We really are all in this together.

A final Kaddish* for Ground Zero.
* The Hebrew mourners’ prayer said daily for eleven months... ONLY!
A Gathering of the Waters.

I am Union, and I am management. We are the economy. Money is imaginary. When we lose faith with one another, both go down the tubes.

Or maybe I should call it "Listen Louder!" When it comes to religion and spirituality it's easy get caught sounding like we believed in magic words. Shazam!

When Pittsburgh-born, classically trained singer Jason Poole found himself knee-deep in the mud of taro patch on the remote island of Moloka’i, he knew his life would be forever changed. Listening to his heart say, “YES!” has lead him a down a path he never anticipated—with rewards he never could have imagined. And yes... ukuleles will be strummed at this service! (www.accidentalhawaiiancrooner.com).

The core of our tradition is not what is believed, but the experience—individual and relational. The question is, What do you behave AS IF you believed?

Social Justice is at the core of our faith tradition and our belief system as Unitarian Universalists. But to what extent do we carry this value? And what are our social responsibilities as UU’s? Please join us to explore social justice as our “creed” and to ponder the possibilities of a worldwide religious community striving to do good. It will be a service of inspiring thoughts, wonderful music, and good company.

A UUCSC member, Marc will discuss the need for conversion in our lives and in our church. Retelling various stories of personal change, he hopes to show that good news can be found in the most unlikely places.

Our new Interim Minister will give us a quick taste of who he is and what he will be doing with us. Come meet Rev. Mike and his wife, Nancy.

Can money and spirituality mix comfortably? Trish Lester — a UU from Santa Clarita and successful entrepreneur, saver and investor — will talk about our values and the “almighty dollar.” A singer/songwriter, too (you heard her at our “Women on the Move” concert last November), Trish will also share some special music.

This church is our spiritual home and beloved community, and the same is true for many 12-step groups that meet here. "Moorpark," as they call our church, is their sanctuary too, and today they will share their recovery journey with us.

At the request of the Worship Committee, Reid will lead us in a participatory worship service where we will be introduced to "new" songs "hidden" in our hymnals, Singing the Living Tradition and Songs for the Journey.

Grace Mekrut, Carissa Edwards-Mendez, Siena Foster-Soltis, Faith Jorden, and Clara Pierone will lead today's service. For more than a year these girls have worked together on the "Religion in Life" project, comparing our Unitarian Universalist principles with the values expressed in the Girl Scout Law. They will share their toughts on the Golden Rule and will each receive an award for the effort they have put into a really challenging project!

Our annual recognition and appreciation Sunday will give us an opportunity to thank our UUCSC community members for sharing their gifts this past church year. Installation of new church officers will take place as well as the awarding of the UUCSC Service Award. A congregational meeting to approve the 2011/2012 budget will take place after the coffee hour.

I've been thinking about the occasion of my last sermon as your minister, and in typical UU fashion, I still have more questions than answers. But it will include, at least, some reflections on the journey that we have shared with one another over the past twelve years.

In our fragmented lives, one of the central purposes of religion is to bring things back together, providing a unified way of understanding the world and our lives within it. I'll offer some personal reflections on how this has worked out for me.

Our Mayan guide in the Yucatan laughed.