Summer is quickly winding down almost as soon as it got started. I can’t believe we are almost halfway through August already. I wanted to let you know about six Adult Religious Exploration events that we have been planning this summer for the start of our new church year next month, and one “save the … Continue reading Looking Forward . . .
The fast forward of commerce is always startling to me, though I know it shouldn’t be any longer. As we lurch into some fine summer weather, the back to school sales are well underway. My local Value Village has been displaying Christmas decorations for weeks already, and in the heat of August, clothes built for … Continue reading Hart to Hearts: Bits and Bobs* for the Middle of Summer
Greetings, On Sunday, July 10th, the RE Committee and I met, as we do monthly. We chose to postpone business as usual for a moment and start our time together with a personal check-in. It had been a devastating week with the deaths of Alton Sterling on Tuesday, Philando Castile on Wednesday, and the five … Continue reading Raising Race Conscious Children
Our Soul Matters overarching concept for our 2016-2017 themes will be: “A Community of…” UU religious community is a precious gift. Within it, we find values and questions that are rarely encountered elsewhere in our lives. Values and questions that push us, ground us, and remind us who we most deeply are. This program year our … Continue reading Our Soul Matters Themes for 2016-2017
That’s what I’ve been telling people, preaching about. The message is in invitation to stay awake and pay attention to the dynamics of white supremacy and racism that are all around us all the time. Those of us who are white can easily lose track and slip back into that little bubble of privilege that … Continue reading Stay Woke
It is the end of our church program year and we are in a time of Revelry. Our Chalice Circles are drawing to a close after another successful year and we are celebrating with potlucks as we say goodbye to our fellow group members. We reveled in the experience of being heard and being able … Continue reading What does it mean to be a people of Revelry?
Greetings, It feels good to be wrapping up my first year with Tahoma UU Congregation! It seems that I now recognize more people in the congregation than not, know most families, can call nearly all the children and youth by name, and have a grasp on what elements, rituals, and traditions are an important part … Continue reading Religious Exploration, Looking Back and Looking Forward!
In our service on May 22, we missed out on this reading: Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to … Continue reading Excerpt from Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton
Our congregation is beginning to build a relationship with the Vashon Island Unitarian Fellowship. When asked why we might want to do such a thing, here’s how I responded: The first reason for wanting to step into this adventure is actually an old one that takes us back to the very beginnings of Unitarianism in … Continue reading Why Make Ourselves Multi-Site?
On Thursday morning, Affiliate Minister Tandi Rogers and I headed up to the First United Methodist Church in Renton to attend a very special event: the launch of Washington Won’t Discriminate. A group called “Just Want Privacy” is attempting to overturn equal rights for trans* people that have been in force without any issues for 10 … Continue reading Affirming Trans* Lives
