I was once advised that asking someone “why” — as in “why did you do that?” or “why do you think that way?” — tends to make people feel defensive. It’s better, then, to ask, “Can you help me to understand … ?” Most people, after all, respond positively to...
Considering Covenants We continue this year our practice of asking ourselves each month a question as a way of shaping our faith exploration. That question is, “What does it mean to be a community of … ?” Each month we’ll look at a different way we could describe what it...
With the start of a new school year we feel a new start in the life of the congregation as well. People who’ve been away for the summer, or whose lives have just been too full with the demands and opportunities of summer, are “coming home.” Our children’s and youth’s...
It’s Been a Hot Summer Karen Ransom, Board President I received an email from our Director of Administration and Finance on July 28th entitled “Office AC is…well…kaput!” The high temperature that day was 96°. The average high temperature from that day until August 24th when the air finally came back...
The Joys and Sorrows of Joys and Sorrows By Rev. Alex McGee Worship is an opportunity to gather in love and for reflection. The sharing of Joys and Sorrows is a widely debated topic among UU groups: whether this sharing enhances or detracts from the worshipful gathering? Our goal is...
Can We Ever Make it Right? By Johanna Woodchild As a white teenager in Oxford, Mississippi in the 1950’s, I was very much aware of the racial prejudice of white folks against black people. My parents, who were not native southerners, had told my 3 siblings and me that all...
In this article, drawn from her July 10 sermon, Rev. Alex shares about her decision in May to candidate at the UU congregation in Charleston, West Virginia, and her subsequent decision not to move. The poet Robert Frost wrote a poem called The Road Less Taken about a traveler who...
The church’s fiscal year begins in July, but the energy of new beginnings is felt most fully in the fall. So welcome to a new year! People often wonder where they can go with a question, comment, concern, or bit of praise. Where can you go, who can you talk...
The Membership Committee of the congregation I serve is wrestling with the question of how to explain Unitarian Universalist spirituality to newcomers (and old-timers). Since I’m unable to attend their retreat this Saturday (since I’ll be at our Board’s retreat!), I wrote something up for them to consider. Here’s what...
This month’s theme question: What does it mean to be a people of peace? At 08:15 on August 6th, 1945, above the city of Hiroshima, Japan, the bomb doors on the Enola Gay opened, dropping the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon. Three days later, at...