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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.**

March 12, 2017 - 5:00pm
Heart and Soul: A Contemplative Worship Service - 5 p.m.
Monthly Theme: Risk
Kikanza Nuri-Robins, Joyce Holmen, and Karen Hsu Patterson

In consultation with our minister, we are continuing the 5 p.m. Heart and Soul services, now led by Kikanza Nuri-Robins, Joyce Holmen, and Karen Hsu Patterson. With singing and instrumental music, statements and questions, silence and sharing, we’ll explore the theme of "What does it mean to be a community of identity?"

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

March 12, 2017
"Arrival": Data Driven Religion (Note: Daylight Savings Time Begins Today!)
Monthly Theme: Risk
Rev. Silvio Nardoni
The recent sci-fi movie “Arrival” involves 12 alien space ships docked in various places around the globe. Deciphering what is their intention and learning to decode their language involves the use of principles that have a central role in liberal religion.
 

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March 5, 2017
What Can Be Fair in Farewell?
Monthly Theme: Risk
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur
This is the second in a worship series about compassionate leave-taking.
 

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February 26, 2017
Hearing the Call of Wild Geese
Monthly Theme: Identity
Rev. Anne Hines

How do we learn to accept and forgive ourselves — to give thanks for who we are, rather than lamenting our so-called failings? The topic for this service is grounded in Mary Oliver’s poem, “Wild Geese.”

The Rev. Hines retired last summer (for the second time!) after more than 30 years of parish ministry, all within our Pacific Southwest District. In 2015, Emerson UU Church in Canoga Park bestowed on her the honor of Minister Emerita. She now serves as one of the UUA Pacific Western Region's Ministerial Transition Coaches. She enjoys playing piano and spending time with her family; and since the recent presidential election, is feeling called once again to political activism.

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February 19, 2017
All In The Family
Monthly Theme: Identity
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur

This is the second in a series of services on transition, leave-taking, and saying goodbye when a ministry comes to an end.

[Note:  audio recording for this service is only partial.]

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February 12, 2017
Blessing of the Animals
Monthly Theme: Identity
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur and Kathleen Hogue
Join Rev. Rebecca and Kathleen Hogue for this all-ages and all-creatures celebration of the animals in our lives. If your gentle pet is comfortable meeting lots of new people, please bring them along. We are also glad to display photos of pets that would not enjoy the service, and/or memorial pictures of animal companions who have died.

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February 5, 2017 - 5:00pm
Heart and Soul: A Contemplative Worship Service - 5 p.m.
Monthly Theme: Identity
Kikanza Nuri-Robins, Joyce Holmen, and Karen Hsu Patterson
In consultation with our minister, we are continuing the 5 p.m. Heart and Soul services, now led by Kikanza Nuri-Robins, Joyce Holmen, and Karen Hsu Patterson. With singing and instrumental music, statements and questions, silence and sharing, we’ll explore the theme of "What does it mean to be a community of identity?"
February 5, 2017
Where is the "Good" in Goodbye?
Monthly Theme: Identity
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur
From winter into the spring, Rev. Rebecca will lead a series of worship services on the work of transition, leave-taking, and saying goodbye when a ministry comes to an end. This is first of the series.

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January 29, 2017
Longing and Belonging
Monthly Theme: Prophecy
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur

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

January 22, 2017 - 3:00pm
"Religious Education is All We Do" - Ceremony of Welcome for our DRE, Kathleen Hogue - 3 p.m.
Rev. Diane Dowgiert
Please Join This Ceremony of Welcome for our Director of Religious Education, Kathleen Hogue.  We will share our hopes and dreams of our shared ministry together. A light dinner reception will follow the service. Please put this date on your calendar, and help us welcome Kathleen into our church family.
 
If our UU congregation is where we come to learn how to live our liberal religious values and principles, then everything we do together is religious education. The great Universalist educator, Angus McLean, believed that how we teach is more important than what we teach. Or as McLean would say, the method is the message. How we are together in community and how we embody our covenants – this is religious education.
 
More on Reverend Diane Dowgiert
Rev. Diane Dowgiert serves as Interim Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greensboro, North Carolina. She also served as Minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, Arizona for ten years and the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, Ohio for five years. Diane is a graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry. With a background in social work, Diane has a passion for responding to the needs of the local community, bringing Unitarian Universalist principles and values to social justice issues. Outside of church, she enjoys hiking
and quilting. She has been married to her husband AJ for 42 years. Their family includes two adult sons, one wonderful daughter-in- law, one grand dog, and two adorable cats.
 
[Note: No audio recording is available for this service.]