Chalice Lighting and Invocation – Rev Denis Merry Christmas, and welcome to East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church where we come from a variety of backgrounds and hold a huge array of beliefs. We are committed to a theologically progressive future, but we also respect the traditions of the past. Especially traditions that so deeply inform who we are…as individuals, as a congregation,…
Love. Revere. Discover. Connect.
Love. Revere. Discover. Connect.
Sermons from 2014
Centering thought for the cover:Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feetmoving forward.— Nelson Mendela Personal Reflection, “Mystery of Life,” – Nancy Bihary I met Charles, the natural healer, through a friend. I put his business card with my collection of business cards. Several years later, I had some health issues that weren’t being addressed, it…
Call to Worship and Chalice Lighting – Rev Denis Reverend Bill Schulz, former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association writes This is the Mission of Our Faith: To teach the fragile art of hospitality; To revere both the critical mind and the generous heart; To prove that diversity need not mean divisiveness; And to witness to all that we must hold the whole world in our…
Sounding of the Singing Bowl (Rev Denis) Prelude (Marj) Welcome and Announcements (Nancy Tozer) Opening Hymn #389 Gathered Here (Denis introduces) Gathered here in the mystery of the hour.Gathered here in one strong body.Gathered here in the struggle and the power.Spirit, draw near. Call to Worship and Chalice Lighting (Rev Denis) We are gathered here in one strong bodyAmidst the beauty of…
Reading by Akaya Windwood, “Don’t be Nice, Be Kind,” from an article in Yes magazine Niceness is often filled with falseness-it is a way to not tell the truth,or to obscure it. “Be nice!” is something many of us heard as children asa way of avoiding upsetting someone. While niceness might be a strategythat gets us through an immediate situation, it is…
Welcome again to our International Day of Peace service. The actual day declared by the United Nations was Friday, but since this is the closest Sunday, we commemorate it today, along with many other churches. The United Nations General Assembly invites us on this day to ponder peace in a focused way, and to recommit ourselves to it. I had just began…
Reading “Loaves and Fishes,” by Denis Letourneau Paul Once upon a time, in a desert land by a far away sea, there was a teacher named Yeshua. He was an ordinary man, of ordinary beginnings, born of a carpenter, and a teenage mother, but somehow, against all odds, he became well-known for his teaching. Maybe it was because as he reached adulthood,…
Reading From Bad Feminist: Essays, by Roxane Gay This morning’s reading is by Roxane Gay, a professor of English at Purdue University. It’s from her book of essays entitled Bad Feminist. I openly embrace the label of bad feminist. I do so because I am flawed and human. I am not terribly well versed in feminist history. I am not as well…
Sounding the Singing Bowl (Judy) Prelude La Cinquantaine, by Gabriel Marie Welcome and Announcements (Board Member) Opening Hymn #118 This Little Light of Mine This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shineThis little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shineThis little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shineLet it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Everywhere I…
Sounding the Singing Bowl (Nancy) Prelude (Choir) Welcome and Announcements (Board Member) Opening Hymn #188 “Come, Come, Whoever You Are” Come, Come whoever you are,Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.Ours is no caravan of despair.Come, yet again, come. Call to Worship (Denis)Mother Earth, Father Time,Energy of the ever-expanding Universe,That which holds all:You are here with us this morning,To celebrate your creative abundance, and…