Theme: Help, Generosity and Gratitude Personal Reflection Jared Hammond Flashback to a very cold, snowy day in December. New Year’s Eve, 1993. I was three years old and for the next twenty-seven days, I would still be an only child. We were at the top of a sledding hill in Firestone Park, which the city of Columbiana, Ohio calls the “recreational cornerstone…
Monthly Theme: Help, Generosity and Gratitude Time for All Ages (Rev Denis) Harriet Lerner, an author and child psychiatrist? tells the story of going to Coney Island as a child and desperately wanting to ride the exciting rides like the cyclone, but being scared to death. She watched children her age come of the rides excited, clearly having had fun. Envious. Finally,…
Story Justin Simons“The Priest and the Levite” Jerusalem was a city of temples, sacred ground, about 2,500 feet above sea level. Jericho was 18 miles north and 800 feet below sea level. It was a city in the desert, an oasis with natural springs. It was an early version of a resort, so a lot of people went back and forth between…
Centering Thought: A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, resilience and beauty of the commonwealth of life. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. – Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac Story for All Ages “The Excrutiatingly Scrupulous Twins,” Robin McBride from A Lamp In Every Corner, by Janeen K. Grohsmeyer This is a story adapted from “The…
Centering Thought: “Only by moving in the direction you least trust can you be saved.” Reading (Rev Denis)From Kayak Morning, by Roger Rosenblatt Opposites attract me. In kayaking, taking the opposite way can save your life. When you feel you are about to capsize, you instinctively clutch the gunwales of the boat. You think that the kayak offers stability on an unstable…
(With guest musician Sue Cotter) Sermon “Freedom from Outrage” Rev. Denis Letourneau Paul This was going to be a sermon about hell, a pithy, tongue-in-cheek sermon, in the spirit of April Fools Day, at the end of our stewardship campaign, suggesting that if we Unitarian Universalists officially brought into our Seven Principles the idea of hell, we’d all be better off. What…
Sermon (Rev. Denis) When I first read the Journal of Best Practices, I recognized in David Finch’s description of himself some of the people I’ve had in my life, people I’ve loved and respected. In fact, as I read the book, the four years I spent living with three other adult men in a big shared house in the center of San…
Prayer With gratitude and grace we come forward to answer the call of our faith, we move happily together into the unknown, we open ourselves to growth, we seek fortitude to begin the change to our corner of the world, to transform the world through love. Following the examples of our greatest presidents of these United States,Accompanied by the leaders of our faith in the worth and…
Call to Worship – Rev Denis Letourneau Paul Let us settle into our seats for a momentTo take a deep breath and look around at each other.See each other in this circle..…welcome the newcomerthe newcomer who may be here in order to seek company and perhaps even guidance through a difficult time in lifethe newcomer who may be here to share a…
I hate chewing gum. I find chewing something, just for the sake of chewing, to be…. Well, never mind. Let’s just say I don’t get it. Let’s just say that the whole concept of chewing gum is so foreign to me that during periods of my life when I’ve been … less evolved, I’ve said some unkind things about the people who…