Our theme for the month of May is Nurturing Beauty. We will be posting about it and incorporating it into our services.
May we all spend this month nurturing the beauty within ourselves and all around us.
Here are some songs to get us started.
Our theme for the month of April is Awakening. We will be posting about it and incorporating it into our services.
May we awakened to a new dawn and be reminded of our faith. May we be awakened to risk so that we may create a new tomorrow.
Here are some songs to get us started.
Our theme for the month of March is Renewing Faith. We will be posting about it and incorporating it into our services.
May we all grow in our faith and help each other feel renewed during this time.
Here are some songs to get us started.
Our theme for the month of February is Widening the Circle. We will be posting about it and incorporating it into our services.
While we will be discussing and posting about many things concerning the monthly theme, I think we will start with the report from The Commission on Institutional Change. Widening the Circle of Concern began “At a gathering convened by Unitarian Universalist Association co-presidents Rev. Sofia Betancourt, Rev. William Sinkford, and Dr. Leon Spencer in Atlanta in 2017, Unitarian Universalist leaders of color were asked to share their insights into how the Association could continue moving forward in the midst of another racially charged moment.” Here is the full report both as text and audio. The UUA has also provided a study guide for the book should you be interested.
Here are two songs to think about this month:
Our theme for the month of January is Living with Intention. We will be posting about it and incorporating it into our services.
Here is a poem to get us started:
I Will Not Live an Unlived Life by Dawna Markova
I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
Here’s a song:
Our theme for the month of December is Opening to Joy. We will be posting about it and incorporating it into our services.
Here is a poem to get us started:
Joy is Hard by Rev. Joe Cherry (Permission secured by Soul Matters)
Joy is hard.
Joy requires us to feel safe enough,
to be safe enough, to open to vulnerability.
To feel joy, you must be brave.
Joy walks into a room after the space has been cleared
Cleared of shame,
Cleared of doubt
Cleared of self-recrimination.
Joy is hard.
Joy is hard
and joy is worth the hard work of preparation.
Preparing oneself and setting down all the defenses
all the shoulds and could’ves,
all the should not haves and might haves.
Joy is worth the work.
You are worth the work.
You can start small:
the simple pleasure of your favorite tea,
the grand freedom of a full belly laugh.
Invite Joy to be your companion.
Here is a song:
Good morning and welcome to West Fork Unitarian Universalists. I’m John and I feel blessed to serve this congregation as a lay leader. I’m glad to see all of you here today.
Thank you for joining us.
[If guests] I’d like to welcome our guests. Thank you for taking a chance and taking the time to walk through our doors and join us for worship.
Let us use the prelude for centering. We are about to enter sacred time. We are about to make this time and this place sacred by our presence and intention.
Please silence your phones… and as you do so, I invite us also to turn down the volume on our fears; to remove our masks; and to loosen the armor around our hearts.
Breathe.
Let go of the expectations placed on you by others—and those they taught you to place on yourself.
Drop the guilt and the shame, not to shirk accountability, but in honest expectation of the possibility of forgiveness.
Let go of the thing you said the other day. Let go of the thing you dread next week. Be here, in this moment. Breathe, here.
Prelude:
Opening Words: Call to Worship and Action by Sharon Wylie
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Our theme this November is Healing. We will be concentrating on healing through grace and surrender.
There are multiple spiritual practices that help us heal, but we will be focusing on the following
The practice of turning our pain into connection.
The practice of letting go of the life you wished for.
The practice of forgiving yourself for being imperfect.
The practice of moving beyond apology to repair.
According to the dictionary, liberation is 1) the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery, or oppression; release. and 2) freedom from limits on thought or behavior.
Here is a sermon from Rev. Chris Jimmerson at First UU Austin called Collective Liberation
Image Credit: Soul Matters Circle
West Fork Unitarian Universalists 