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Sermons

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.**

Tolling of the Bells (One service only, at 10 a.m.)
Monthly Theme: Creativity
Rev. Greg Ward
Service of Remembrance for those persons / people who've passed in the last year: Tom Petty, Don Rickles, Fats Domino, Roger Moore, Hugh Hefner, Chuck Berry, Mary Tyler Moore.  We will also commemorate victims in the shootings in Las Vegas, Texas and the Amtrack derailment victims as well as victims of war, those who die in prison, etc.
 
PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE ONE SERVICE ONLY, AT 10 A.M.

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All RE Sunday (Note: one service only, at 10 a.m., followed by the Annual Congregational Meeting)
Monthly Theme: Creativity
Kathleen Hogue (and the many people who make RE happen)
 
PLEASE NOTE THERE WILL BE ONE SERVICE ONLY AT 10 A.M. -
FOLLOWED BY THE ANNUAL CONGREGATIONAL MEETING
 

Celebrating Religious Education & Our Bridging Ceremony

 
We will celebrate Lifespan Religious Exploration Sunday with a special focus on love, acceptance and our UU Principles. The service will include the Bridging of our high school seniors, and recognition of all of the volunteers who make our lifespan RE programs possible.
 
Our theme will be “Love and Multi-Generational Community.” Come support and celebrate our volunteers and our bridging youth! It is sure to be a fun service and takes place before our Annual Meeting.
 
Then after the service, join us for lunch hosted by the LRE Committee to support our RE Assistant Fund.
 
 
                                     
 
 
Please note: Audio is unavailable for this service.
Heart and Soul: A Contemplative Worship Service @ 5 p.m. - "What Does It Mean to be a Community of Creativity?"
Monthly Theme: Creativity
Kikanza Nuri-Robins, Karen Hsu Patterson & Joyce Holmen
Heart & Soul is a monthly contemplative worship service series that occurs on the second Sunday of each month. It is a shorter, more intimate service, with singing and instrumental music, statements, and questions, silence, and sharing. Readings, poems, quotes, and music are drawn from a variety of sources, including the UU Soul Matters Sharing Circle, our hymnals, and popular/folk music. 
 
Plase note: at this point, audio recordings of Heart & Soul services are unavailable
Love You Forever
Monthly Theme: Creativity
Rev. Greg Ward and Amy Brunell

For 50 years I lived my life with a mother who was not built, nor performed, to the factory specs I would have asked for.  For 45 of those years, I tried to turn her into what I wanted.  For the last five years, I learned to love the mother I had.  This sermon is a dialogue I wrote with my mother which describes the kind of relationship we had and the lessons we learned.

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Lost in Translation
Monthly Theme: Creativity
Rev. Greg Ward
Have you ever been 'called' to something important but missed the 'call' because you didn't understand what was being asked? What was at stake? Being able to hear, understand and interpret what the world is asking of us is of critical importance if we are to figure out how to become integral and necessary to the future. 

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Earth Day
Monthly Theme: Emergence
Alison Kendall and James Witker
 

Alison Kendall, Green Living Committee Chair and James Witker, Faith in Action Co-chair present an Earth Day awareness-generating service which explores what you can do personally and organizationally to address the threat of climate change to future generations and all living systems. 

During this awareness-generating service on what has been happening with climate justice, we explore our response to those who say, "it's beyond the point of hope," and understand how the choices that we make matter a great deal. The trick is to summon the great spiritual awakening: that our choices have great impact on people who live in the future and in other places, but we are still accountable to them.

 

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Coming of Age/Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) Service
Monthly Theme: Emergence
Kathleen Hogue
 
Please Note: YRUU is at 9am and Coming of Age is at 11am
 
At the 9am service: The YRUU High School group will present a service about their recent four day trip to the UU United Nations Office (UU-UNO) Spring Seminar in New York City. This year's theme is When Crisis Calls: Advancing Just Migration For All, focusing on the plight of the refugee and migrant populations. UU-UNO is excited to be partnering with the UU College of Social Justice on this event! With a deep passion for and commitment to international human rights, youth and adults from all over North America gather annually for this seminar to dig deeply into issues with global impact.
 
 
At the 11am service: Our youth are growing up so fast! At the 11am Coming of Age services, our youth will be sharing their statements of personal belief – or credos -  and reflections of their time spent together over the last year. As they transition from their time of childhood and venture more out into the adult world, we hope you can join us to witness this special occasion.
 
 

 

      Please note: Audio is unavailable for this service.

 

 

Toward Becoming Angels of Our Better Nature (Ending War)
Monthly Theme: Emergence
Rev. Greg Ward
Sometimes something around us (or within us) enters into some conflict.  It's in these moments that our soul can feel torn - so attached to all it's been... yet, unable to deny that it is being called toward something new.  There is an understandable loyalty to what has been - including that which we enlisted to protect us; and a humbling new possibility that helps us to know that we don't yet know everything we need to know.  Some lessons have much to teach us about the price we pay for entertaining our woundedness instead of the angels of our better nature.
 
 
Once something great becomes divided and enters a period of struggle, yearning to reclaim some of what it lost in the struggle, it is important to look to both the distant and recent past. Some lessons have much to teach us about the price we pay for entertaining our discontentment instead of the angels of our better nature.

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Heart and Soul: A Contemplative Worship Service - "What Does It Mean to be a Community of Emergence?"
Monthly Theme: Emergence
Homily by Catie Grasso
 
Heart & Soul is a monthly contemplative worship service series that occurs on the second Sunday of each month. It is a shorter, more intimate service, with singing and instrumental music, statements, and questions, silence, and sharing. Readings, poems, quotes, and music are drawn from a variety of sources, including the UU Soul Matters Sharing Circle, our hymnals, and popular/folk music. 
 
At this point, audio of Heart & Soul services are unavailable
 
 
 
Can You Hear Me Now? Learning to Listen on the Road to Repair
Monthly Theme: Emergence
Margot Page
When our body and brain perceives danger we are unable to take in information. Are we communicating in a way that others can hear and take in our information? How we communicate makes the difference. When we blow it and make mistakes, how can we repair it? Learning and owning your feelings are the first step in repairing any relationship. The steps to repair relationships and how our church community can utilize these steps in our ongoing repair process.

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