At this contemplative evening service, we will remember those dear to us who have died in the past year—with music interspersed with moments of silence and candle lighting. For inclusion of your loved one’s name, please email Music Director Dr. Zanaida Robles at music@uusm.org by noon on Wednesday, November 2.

 

Inspired by Mexican, indigenous, and homegrown traditions surrounding Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos, our services will include building an ofrenda and blessing the memories of those we love who have passed away.

 

Please bring a framed photo of a loved one who has died to add to our ofrenda memorial altar on Sunday, October 30. You may drop off pictures at the church during office hours or on Sunday before the services. If you would like your photo returned, please label the back with your name and contact information.

 

[NOTE:  No audio recording is available for this service.]

 

Join us for a special Sunday in which we celebrate the 90th Birthday of our Minister Emeritus, Rev. Ernie Pipes, with distinguished guest Rev. Bill Schulz. Bill gave the inaugural Ernest D Pipes Lecture in 1991 and joins us now 25 years later with more wisdom to share both on Sunday morning and as he delivers the Pipes Lecture at 3pm on 10/23. Rev. Judith Meyer will also join us on Sunday morning via a recorded video tribute to Ernie.

 

Bill Schulz, recently retired from full-time ministry and from the presidency of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, will reflect on the how each stage of our life journeys require of us different religious disciplines.  Bill is a senior fellow in human rights at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and an affiliated minister at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago.

Church member and UCLA Oncology Chaplain Michael Eselun will explore our relationship to strangers. We are often told from a young age, “Don’t talk to strangers,” only to find that sometimes such encounters might be “perfect.”

 

Michael Eselun, a certified chaplain, serves as the chaplain for the Simms-Mann/UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology.   He is also a co-founder and chair of a non- profit, volunteer anti-homophobia speakers bureau called GLIDE, Gays and Lesbians Initiating Dialogue for Equality. Over the last 20-plus years, Michael and his fellow speakers have spoken to an audience of over 200,000 students, teachers, and other various groups and agencies in the LA area about homophobia.  He has a TED talk available on-line via You Tube, called “It’s Magic” and you can find out more about him at www.michaeleselun.com.