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- | Chalice Lightings Text |
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- | Sermon Video |
This is a full list of sermons presented at UUCCSM since mid-1999. Links to sermon texts are included when made available by their authors. Audio recordings are also available for most sermons presented after September, 2007 by our staff ministers and others directly affiliated with our church (just click the speaker icon next to each sermon where it's available*). Audio from guest speakers is posted only when we have their permission to share it.
Hard copies of sermons by Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae are available in the church office. Contact office assistant Sibylla Nash at office@uusm.org if you have a request.
"Leaving Room for Hope: Sermons for Uncertain Times," a book of Minister Emerita Judith Meyer's sermons, is available here.
**Please Note: Video recordings are available for sermons with a small TV icon showing at the bottom of the sermon listing. Just click the icon to watch the service.**
The life, music and religious insights of The Genius have much to say to those seeking a fuller expression of the soul in their lives. Come prepared to sing and enjoy the music and spirit of a man whose artistry will never die. Music: Ray Charles tribute, featuring members of the congregation
When working with our Coming of Age group this year, I nominated this as my most favorite film ever. When the world he lives in begins to become increasingly familiar and smaller, Bill Murray's character must go through several stages of transformation in order to find the elusive happiness he says he desires.While the film portrays the growth of an individual, I find myself thinking of how it applies to whole communities. Music: TBA
This is a delightful German motion picture, filmed in a Japanese monastery. It is the funny and tender-hearted story of two brothers who leave behind family, country, and the familiar in search of enlightenment in the ancient ways of Zen Buddhism. It has much to teach anyone who engages in a spiritual practice on a regular or irregular basis. Music: Barbara Kleban, soprano
Caprice Young is the CEO of the newly formed California Charter Schools Association, a membership association working to increase student achievement by strengthening and expanding public charter schools throughout California. She served from 1999 to 2003 as a member and chair of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. As a youth she was a leader in the continental UU youth movement. Music: Louis Durra, jazz piano
The bold, pluralistic vision of contemporary UUism is badly in need of a new philosophical "foundation" to help it realize its potential. Here is a modest proposal for one. Max is a member of our congregation and this fall will be in the Philosophy of Religion and Theology doctoral program of Claremont Graduate University. Music: Andy Stewart, guitar/vocals
Erik Erikson, in "Identity and the Life Cycle" writes, "The last task of life is to know who you really are and what your place in the order of things is." Walt Whitman in his preface to "Leaves of Grass" tells us to "re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your soul..." In these quotes is hidden a sermon. Music: Jonathan Davis, oboe
Beatification requires, according to Catholic process, the accreditation of a "miracle" accomplished by the proposed saint on behalf of someone praying in their name. Elevation to sainthood requires a second verified miracle. To call some phenomenon a miracle means more than merely saying something is wonderful, or unusual. Thus, proclaiming the existence of true miracles has broad implications for a religious worldview, some inspiring, some disturbing. Ricky is a former member of our church and is now the consulting minister for the new congregation Unitarian Universalists of the Santa Clarita Valley. Music: Michelle McWilliams, soprano
A compilation of historic and current voices in word and song, portraying women who are not afraid to speak out about their love and care of humanity even when it is an unpopular thing to do within a society. Ellen Geer is the artistic director of the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Her sister, Melora Marshall, is a singer and songwriter. Music: Ellen Geer & Melora Marshall
Jim writes, "Yes, it was 50 years ago that the Supreme Court decided that segregation was no longer compatible with the Constitution. The decision spurred on the civil rights movement, and it forced my generation of white Americans to face our racism. Racism, of course, is no longer a problem in America...or is it? Don't white Americans still have some things to look at? Let's see..." Jim Conn, Urban Strategist with the United Methodist Church, was formerly minister of the Church in Ocean Park and mayor of Santa Monica. Music: Dayla McDonald, Peter Van Den Beemt and Wally Giffen
Environmentalism has given us new language, new meaning, even new faith, which we practice more than we realize. As summer begins, we survey this common ground. Music Michael Lamb, tenor
