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Memorial Service - Jirina Kyas |
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Memorial Service - John Fels Join us in the sanctuary to celebrate the life of long-time church member John Fels, who died on Saturday, December 10. |
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Memorial Service - Judith Federick |
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Memorial Service for Frances Spencer |
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Memory and Hope
As religious scholar and theologian Walter Bruggemann counseled on September 12, 2001, in the wake of this act of terrorism, four things were required: that the people might grieve, that the people might be comforted, that the people might confront cosmic evil, and that the people might demand social analysis. Fifteen years later, have we yet done what is required of us to come to terms with September 11?
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Memory Informs Imagination and Vice Versa Last Sunday Vilma Ortiz helped us celebrate El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead), which made me think about memory. Our memories are never pure, but informed by our imagination and circumstances. |
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Men with Wings |
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Men's Group UU men celebrating what makes them men and what makes them special. Meets the first and third Thursday evenings of every month, with a different discussion topic each month. See our You are Invited page for the next event. Contact Phil Bonacich for more infomation. |
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Menaced by Faith While concerns about apocalyptic global terrorism arose around the New Year, I noticed that most of the threat came from religious devotees anticipating the apocalypse. These menacing influences have little to do with our approach to faith. Yet they threaten our world as well as everything we cherish in the name of religion, and we should be very concerned about that. |
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Mens' Conversations |
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Mental Health One Step at a Time Mental illness impacts one in four families in our community. At least one-third of the homeless population has a mental illness. Untreated, mental illness can lead to a life of isolation and stigma. Tod Lipka is CEO of Step Up on Second, a nationally recognized rehabilitation program that assists individuals with mental illness. Step Up?s programs in Santa Monica help people achieve greater integration into our community and find greater meaning and purpose. |
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Michael Dowd's 2017 Multimedia Presentation: "Faithful to the Future: Big Picture Inspiration for Chaotic Times"
Sunday, March 19th, 3-5PM, Sanctuary. Childcare provided.
This program, presented by Adult Religous Education and AAHS, and geared for adults and teens, builds on Rev. Dowd’s two TEDx talks and material in his bridge-building book, Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World, which was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists and by religious leaders across the spectrum.
We each have experienced times of trouble that threaten to overwhelm our individual lives. In such times, a vision of possibility is essential. The same holds for the punctuations in history when whole societies face troubles of an immense and uncharted variety. Truly, we here and now have arrived at such a time. Humans, unwittingly, have become a planetary force. We are changing, irreversibly, the very climate of our world. Henceforth, any actions we take as individuals and societies will be done in the new light of climate change. What vision will carry us forward through such times and inspire us to work together? How shall we frame the need to shed our business-as-usual outlook on life and take on a new vision of possibility that can unite us as a species in joyful self-sacrifice and service? What vision will charge us with a sense of heroic purpose that the future is, indeed, calling us to greatness?
Science and religion are not enemies; indeed, they must work together if humanity is to survive the 21st century. Given our impact on Earth’s climate, the seas, and other species, humanity is about to experience what could be called The Great Reckoning. The good news is that this will also be The Great Homecoming: the prodigal species coming home to Reality. This presentation will focus on 6 points of agreement held in common by tens of millions of religious and non-religious people across the globe — and how to stay deeply inspired in the face of changing climate and other large-scale challenges.
Rev. Michael Dowd is bestselling eco-theologian and pro-science prophetic voice whose work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on television nationally. Michael and his science writer / evolutionary educator wife, Connie Barlow, have spoken to more than 2,000 groups throughout North America since 2002, including some 500 UU churches. Their work has been featured on the cover of the UU WORLD twice, in 1997 and again in 2006.
Michael has delivered two TEDx talks and a program at the United Nations. He has also conducted an acclaimed online conversation series: “The Future Is Calling Us to Greatness. Dowd’s great joy is sharing a science-based message of inspiration about our sacred responsibility to future generations. He last appeared at UUSM in March 2014, and we’re excited to have him back.
Contact James Witker for more information.
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