For my non-Unitarian Universalist friends (whom I still love anyway!), the faith tradition I serve is currently embroiled in what I’m calling a struggle for the soul of our faith. I don’t think that that’s hyperbole. I think at question is no less that whether we are truly the people...
On Current Events in the UUA, and the Recognition of White Supremacy Before beginning the annual IMPACT service on April 9th, 2017, I spoke briefly to the current events and conversation(s) going on within our wider Association. This post from the Youth and Young Adult Ministry’s blog Blue Boat, “Reflections on White...
Show your UU pride and help support our youth programming! The YRUU (Young Religious Unitarian Universalist) Youth Group is selling custom designed TJMC t-shirts. On sale now for a limited time. Orders can be placed in the Social Hall after services or by emailing redirector@uucharlottesville.org. Include style, size and quantity desired....
Here are the questions asked during the “question box” sermon, Questions in Search of Answers, on March 26, 2017. For those who weren’t there, at the beginning of each service people wrote questions on index cards, and when the time came for the reflection, the cards were gathered together and...
Janice Walker “Quilts as Art” I make art for the challenge of seeing what I can do next with my palette of commercially printed fabrics. The originally designed works are sewn using a layering process similar to quilting, but made to hang on the wall like fine art. After the initial design is constructed, I add additional color and...
This month’s theme is “transformation,” and as I sat to write I found myself curious about the difference between change and transformation. The word change means, “to make or become different,” and it comes from the Old French changier, which means essentially the same thing. Transformation is defined as, “a...
You haven’t heard much this year about IMPACT — the Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together. IMPACT is an example of what’s known as a CBCO — congregation-based community organizing — and we have been actively involved since its founding. We’ve had members serve on their Board, participate in...
Unitarian Universalist minister James Reeb answered Dr. Martin Luther King’s call to Selma after the violent shutdown of voting rights protests. While there, Reeb was assaulted by white segregationists and died of head injuries two days later on March 11, 1965. In April, four men were indicted in Dallas County,...
With the first waves of the Baby Boomer tsunami lapping at our shores, the time is right for us to begin thinking about how to avoid the over-medicalization of death and aging, so our society doesn’t become bankrupt. The popularity of Atul Gawande’s book “Being Mortal”, and Susan Jacoby’s “Never...
The theme for this month is risk, and it seems like that could be the theme for every month, doesn’t it? Life is full of risks. There are physical risks, of course. We also face psycho-social risks, emotional risks, political risks, career risks … Even institutions live with, and in,...