Sunday, October 6th (10:45 a.m.) Rev. Kenton Stone – “When Every Day Is Extra” What I love most about Unitarian Universalism, about having gotten invited to be present with you these Sundays over the years, is that Unitarian Universalism creates a safe space for moments in which people with differences can come together to share their private, inner truths with one another. The death and dying classes I teach are rewarding because they reminds me that our mortality is the great human equalizer. As much as we like to draw lines of division among ourselves these days, the seventh UU principle “calls us to affirm and promote ‘respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.’” Surprisingly for me, as an Independent registered voter, the new autobiography of Democrat politician, John Kerry, describes an episode exactly like that. It is a safe moment in which he and a Republican Senate colleague overcome their differences to respect and affirm one another. Once you learn to do that, afterwards, as Kerry’s book title puts it, “every day is extra.”
Sunday, October 13th (10:45 a.m.) Rev. Dr. Terry Ellen – “Greta Thunberg’s Moral Clarity”
Her pure clearness has captivated and sometimes stunned the adult world about our present situation with climate. On this “Climate in the Pulpit” Sunday, shared with many other congregations, let’s consider this young woman and her message.
The collection this morning will go to the Allegany College of Maryland’s food pantry.
Sunday, Oct. 20th (10:45 a.m.) Rev. Rebekah Savage – “Flight to Freedom”
In the New and Old Testament of the Bible, freedom is both spiritual and physical: people find freedom in being united with God within and independence in living in the places that God has ordained. How do we rest in independence now both spiritual and physical as a people? How do we welcome the stranger in our midst, and live towards the once cherished ideal as a nation of immigrants? What does our faith demand of us now?
Sunday, October 27 (10:45 a.m.) J D Stillwater – “Fiddling While Rome Burns” When the entire planet is engulfed in flames (climate change, nuclear arms, fascism, extinction, mass migration), isn’t full-time activism the only reasonable activity? Isn’t everything else a kind of indulgence? What if activism just isn’t your thing? What if your talents and passions lie in something like fiddling? JD shares his own wrestlings with this quandary, and where they have led him.
