What if Thanksgiving was more than a time of gathering and feasting and instead truly focused on gratitude? What if we used this holiday to honestly count our blessings and give thanks for our lives? This service will focus on offering gratitude and thanksgiving through music, story and ritual; ways that help us enrich this special holiday. To help us celebrate this occasion, we will partake in a special corn bread ritual.
In honor of Veteran’s Day this weekend we will listen to and explore the stories of veterans. Is the military system we have today in harmony with our UU values of striving for equality and peace? How are our veterans treated? How do Unitarian Universalists who serve our country make sense of their duty, while living with their UU values? Does an all-volunteer army go against our values? Please take a moment to hear some of our members sharing their experiences as veterans.
Stories are powerful. As Stewardship Consultant Kay Crider visits our congregation this weekend, we explore what it means to be shaped by our stories. As we look into the future and make decisions based on how and where we are now, what stories do we tell? What do we pay attention to and what stories do we wish to create? Join us as we begin our exploration of the theme of story. What stories are we telling as a congregation and as individuals?
Honoring our Ancestors – Sam Dickerson, Merlin Snider & Thelma Williams
“Our ancestors speak through us in whispers of strength.” ~ Anonymous. Day of the Dead and All Soul’s Day is a time to honor our ancestors, celebrating them through stories and song. Sam Dickerson, Merlin Snider and Thelma Williams, together with our young TrUUbadors, will lead this intergenerational service. We invite you to bring photos of your relatives and friends who are no longer with us, both from this community and your families, to place on our community altar of remembrance. Let us pull from their love and strength so that we may heal what troubles us, and move toward a more joyous future for all generations.
In the political moment through which we’re living, some of our most fundamental values are challenged daily and human rights are under attack in new and dangerous ways. We know we are called to speak out and act for justice, but how we show up in the struggles ahead is just as important. What does our faith have to teach us about this?
The Rev. Kathleen McTigue is the Director of the UU College of Social Justice. Prior to accepting this position in 2012, she served as a parish minister for 25 years, first in North Carolina and then New Haven, CT. She currently resides in Boston, MA. The UU College of Social Justice is a joint project of the UUA and UUSC and is based in Cambridge, MA. The mission of the College is to inspire and sustain faith-based action for justice on issues of local, national and global importance. To find out more please visit: uucsj.org
Survivors of life threatening illnesses or circumstances are given the opportunity at a second chance. Our healing, our renewed life is a gift that allows us to look at existence with fresh eyes. How does healing impact our lives, so we can take the lessons and grow? What does survival teach us about living? During the first service, we conducted our Child Dedication, where we celebrated the gift of new life in our beautiful CVUUF children.
After the horrific shooting in Las Vegas this week and the many tragic events happening around the country and in our own lives, we look at how we might find comfort and healing amidst all the heartbreak. Where do we find solace amidst life’s great brokenness? Join us to gather for a service focused on healing and loving kindness.
Each of us has times in our life when we feel under siege by challenges and hard times. Speaking about and to these experiences can be difficult. Yet, doing so is what brings us the care and support we need to find healing and return to a sense of wholeness. Join Lora Barnett, a Hospice Chaplain and aspiring UU Minister, as she explores the possibility of speaking our way to wholeness through the saving power of community. Lora has been serving as Acting Minister at the San Luis Obispo Fellowship this summer and before that served as the Intern Minister for the Live Oak congregation in Goleta.
Forgiveness can be the path to profound personal and collective transformation, but it must be considered carefully and done with intention. Honoring the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we look at the transformative practice of asking for and offering forgiveness.
CVUUF is an extraordinary congregation filled with gifts of member’s time, treasure and talent. This Sunday we explore what transforming our world together might look like through our commitment to the Fellowship and the community beyond. What difference can we make as thoughtful, progressive, radically welcoming Unitarian Universalists both within and beyond our walls?
