Unitarian Universalism
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Dear Jesus, I am writing to you as one of your very distant descendants in the life of faith—a minister in a religious tradition that, oddly enough, would not exist without you, and yet does not look very much like what most people today call “Christianity.” It’s called Unitarian Universalism. In some ways, I think…
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Every living spiritual tradition eventually runs into the same argument. Some people say, “Religion should be about changing the world.” Others say, “Religion should be about changing the self.” One group wants the church to be a social justice organization with hymns. Another wants it to be a place of inward growth, healing, reflection, and…
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Voice Still and Small Within: Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and the Work of Unfolding the Soul (Transcendentalism, Part 3)
How many of you went to kindergarten? How many of you have children or grandchildren who go now? Part of the story of my life is that I never went. I started Grade 1 when I was midway between four and five years old. Kindergarten to my parents seemed a distraction from the journey of…
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Not All Churches Are Alike: Learning About Sex
Beloveds, tell me. How did you learn about your sexuality? What is your story? Who were the people whose messages were most influential? What were the typical spaces in which sexuality was discussed or explored? What news sources, movies, magazines, or screens populated your imagination with images and ideas? Were these messages, images, and ideas…
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The Lifelong Quest: A Celebration of Unitarian Universalist Religious Education
A sermon dialogue between Rev. Anthony Makar and Director of Religious Education Meghan Ross 1. Personal Stories of Growing Up Director of Religious Education Meghan Ross Today, we begin with stories of growing up. As some of you may know, I grew up right here at West Shore. Somewhere, in a jumbled box of family…
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Someone asks, “What is Unitarian Universalism?” “What do Unitarian Universalists believe?” What do you do? People are going to ask. It’s inevitable, in this world in which folks are generally not familiar with what those two very long words strung together, “Unitarian Universalism,” mean. I think elevator speeches (brief statements between 30 seconds and 2…
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Sex therapist and educator Marty Klein, Ph. D., says that people ask him all the time about what “normal” looks like. His reply? “I say forget the number of times people have sex per month, or how often someone masturbates, or how long it takes to climax. Those averages tell you nothing. Knowing that you…
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I’m speaking out of some of my personal experiences as a Unitarian Universalist parish minister for twenty years (2003-2023) who is 56 years-old, white, straight, cis-gender, and who has complex PTSD. Ministry experiences can be so diverse. But I wonder: if you are a minister, do any of my experiences speak to yours? In sharing…
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Recently I came to learn that the number one sport in America is not baseball, not basketball or football, not even my beloved figure skating, but birding! That’s what the Audubon website claims, as it says, breathlessly, “Did you know that birding is the number one sport in America? According to the U. S. Fish…
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Khalil Gibran has said, “We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.” Abraham Maslow has said, “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.” The last time our denomination faced its limitations and stepped forward into growth was 38 years ago, in…
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