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AffirmationsBenedictionsBlessingsChalice LightingsClosingsInvocationsLitaniesMeditationsOpeningsPoetryPrayersReadingsResponsive ReadingsRitualsStories
Pushing Forward

Pushing Forward

If we believe in the promise of our faith, we must continue pushing forward.

E Elandria Williams
Honoring Our Ancestors

Honoring Our Ancestors

We are part of the connective tissue that holds the legacy and future of our faith.

E Elandria Williams
Searching for Home

Searching for Home

We all want to feel at home, somewhere, somehow....

C Christian Schmidt
Exploring the Mystery

Exploring the Mystery

Your spiritual quest begins now.

K Kate Landis
You Are Loved

You Are Loved

You are loved beyond your wildest imaginings by the spirit of creation.

K Kate Landis
Prodigal Sons

Prodigal Sons

Can we enfold other people in the way we long to be enfolded?

K Kate Landis
No-Questions-Asked Love

No-Questions-Asked Love

I didn’t know the human heart could hold so much love before I met this congregation.

K Kate Landis
Surviving Together

Surviving Together

The only way we survive this modern agony is together.

K Kate Landis
Can I Love This Too?

Can I Love This Too?

Can I love all of me, even the peevish parts?

K Kate Landis
God of Compassion

God of Compassion

I choose to believe in the God who makes me kinder.

K Kate Landis
Depression: the Family Curse

Depression: the Family Curse

Our family secret is soul-sucking depression.

K Kate Landis
Embodied, Connected Pleasure

Embodied, Connected Pleasure

Pleasure is one of the ways we know when we are free.

A Adrienne Maree Brown
The Importance of Presence

The Importance of Presence

Once, during my ministerial internship, a woman I’ll call Clara came up to me during the hustle and bustle before the Sunday service. I knew that Clara struggled with anxiety; now, in great distress, she told me how anxious she was and that she didn’t know what to do. She was frantic, and I...

B Barbara F. Meyers
Human Kindness Helps Heal

Human Kindness Helps Heal

People of faith are experts in human kindness.

B Barbara F. Meyers
Spiritual Practice as Coping Mechanism

Spiritual Practice as Coping Mechanism

People find hope in the faith that they're held by something larger than themselves.

B Barbara F. Meyers
Mental Illness as a Spiritual Problem

Mental Illness as a Spiritual Problem

Mental illness is a spiritual problem as well as a psychiatric one.

B Barbara F. Meyers
"No-casserole Diseases"

"No-casserole Diseases"

Mental illnesses are sometimes called “no-casserole diseases.” People don’t bring casseroles to homes where someone is hospitalized for mental problems.

B Barbara F. Meyers
White Fear of Black Freedom

White Fear of Black Freedom

There’s never been a time in the United States history when black rebellions did not spark existential fear among white people.

M Michelle Alexander and Leslie Alexander
Surviving through Reciprocity

Surviving through Reciprocity

In a world of scarcity, interconnection and mutual aid become critical for survival.

R Robin Wall Kimmerer
Cultures of Reciprocity

Cultures of Reciprocity

Cultures of gratitude must also be cultures of reciprocity.

R Robin Wall Kimmerer
A Map of Balance and Harmony

A Map of Balance and Harmony

Respect one another, support one another, bring your gift to the world and receive the gifts of others, and there will be enough for all.

R Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Power to Choose

The Power to Choose

The power to choose is the power of life in the midst of brokenness.

R Rebecca Ann Parker
The Origins of the Anti-Choice Movement

The Origins of the Anti-Choice Movement

How white evangelicals became the most powerful voting bloc in the U.S. and the fuel of the American white supremacy engine.

G Glennon Doyle
The Unseen Skeleton

The Unseen Skeleton

We in the developed world are like homeowners who inherited a house on a piece of land that is beautiful on the outside, but whose soil is unstable loam and rock, heaving and contracting over generations, cracks patched but the deeper ruptures waved away for decades, centuries even....

I Isabel Wilkerson
Water

Water

Water sustains, gives, and yields to / Life.

M Melissa Jeter
Take What You Need and Leave the Rest Behind

Take What You Need and Leave the Rest Behind

Taking what we need and leaving the rest behind isn’t only a one time thing. We can do it anytime.

J Jen Crow
Love Can Keep Us Company

Love Can Keep Us Company

Love cannot fix everything, but it can keep us company.

J Jen Crow
When Covenant Breaks

When Covenant Breaks

When covenant / breaks, we need to come home / to trust.

F Frances Koziar
Whiteness and "Power Over"

Whiteness and "Power Over"

I learned the hard way that there is a deep difference between the Jesus that Black folks worship and the Jesus that white Christians worship.

A Austin Channing Brown
Christmas Eve: O Holy Night

Christmas Eve: O Holy Night

It’s as if something was born from nothing.

A Anya Sammler-Michael
Blue Christmas: This, Too, Belongs

Blue Christmas: This, Too, Belongs

Grief is welcome, a sacred part of the mourning.

K Kari Kopnick
Disability and American Ideals

Disability and American Ideals

When disability is understood as dependency, disability is posited in direct contrast to American ideals of independence and autonomy.

K Kim Nielsen
Disability Can Be Contextual

Disability Can Be Contextual

Disability is often elusive and changing.

K Kim Nielsen
A Culture of Care

A Culture of Care

Safety is not tied to our capacity to watch our neighbors, but rather based on our capacity to truly look out for one another.

Only Together Can We Create Safety

Only Together Can We Create Safety

We can’t run from ourselves. The answer to safety is always closer rather than farther away.

Z Zach Norris
Winter As Crucible

Winter As Crucible

The changes that take place in winter are a kind of alchemy, an enchantment performed by ordinary creatures to survive.

K Katherine May
Deflection and Distortion

Deflection and Distortion

Slavery is made to sound as if it happened in a prehistoric age instead of only a few generations ago.

C Clint Smith
The Insidiousness of White Supremacy

The Insidiousness of White Supremacy

White supremacy illuminates the exceptional instead of blaming the system.

C Clint Smith
Witness and Pride

Witness and Pride

Witness pairs grief and rage with remembrance. Pride pairs joy with a determination to be visible.

E Eli Clare
Consent Is an Active "Yes"

Consent Is an Active "Yes"

We are full, sovereign human beings.

J Jaclyn Friedman
A Failure

A Failure

This short, personal essay from Raziq Brown speaks to failure, loss and personal growth.

R Raziq Brown
Wild Emancipation for All of Us

Wild Emancipation for All of Us

When I was small and just learning how to do life in my body, I didn’t hesitate, didn’t hold back, didn’t worry how it would look, didn’t look for cues or ask for a line. My imagination ruled... I was entirely free to be, driven by the innovation my body inspired. This is the wild...

R Rebekah Taussig
Crushing Systems

Crushing Systems

Shame seems to be a bestselling product pumped out of all these crushing systems.

R Rebekah Taussig
Dear Divine Spirit

Dear Divine Spirit

I believe in your grace and protection and cannot imagine them slipping through the cracks.

V Vanessa Williams
The Prophecy of the Disabled Body

The Prophecy of the Disabled Body

The following is an excerpt from the Theological Statement that opens the May 2018 Report of the UUMA Ableism Task Force. The members of that Task Force were Rev. Josh Pawelek and Rev. Barbara F. Meyers, co-chairs; Rev. Mark Belletini; Rev. Erika Hewitt; Rev. Evan Keely; and Rev. Theresa I. Soto.

Doing the Work That Needs to Be Done

Doing the Work That Needs to Be Done

The 8th Principle is about actively dismantling racism.

S Shannon Lang
Don't Argue with Salvation

Don't Argue with Salvation

Don’t argue with salvation when it arrives on your shores.

A Alex Jensen
Do You Believe in Justice and Equality?

Do You Believe in Justice and Equality?

To see how we fight still after entire lifetimes of struggle—and then to tell us to be more polite is just plain cruel.

I Ijeoma Oluo
Bringing Conflict to the Table

Bringing Conflict to the Table

Conflict resolution is in fact one of the greatest things that you can accomplish in your life and in your relationship. [W]hen I view people as not bringing conflict up, I think it’s being unfaithful to the relationship. I think it’s an abdication of your role in the relationship, and you are...

A Amanda Doyle
The Story of Norbert Čapek's Flower Ceremony

The Story of Norbert Čapek's Flower Ceremony

Čapek turned to the beauty of the countryside; to the beauty of flowers.

T Teresa Schwartz and David Schwartz