Faithful Freedoms, Responsible Choices
Monthly Theme: Pride
Rev. Lee Marie Sanchez
The stories of faith and the freedom to choose create a colorful and complex picture. The range of emotions and experiences they express help us to see why it is still extremely important to protect the rights of all women
regarding Reproductive Justice.
Rev. Lee Marie Sanchez is currently serving the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Laguna Beach as their Developmental Minister. She has been a religious professional for 24 years; she began as a DRE in Washington State, worked as a Hospital/Hospice Chaplain for 2 years and served as a Student/Consulting Minister for both the Anaheim UU Church and the Sepulveda UU Society. She has preached in more than 3 dozen UU congregations.
The Queer Art of Failure (Summer Hours Begin - One Service at 10 a.m.)
Monthly Theme: Pride
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur
Scholar Judith Halberstam writes, “The queer art of failure turns on the impossible, the improbable, the unlikely, and the unremarkable. It quietly loses, and in losing it imagines other goals for life, for love, for art, and for being.” Would it mean to reject our notions of success and embrace our failures in new ways? We will send off our LA Pride marchers with a “Blessing of the Bus” in worship at 10:15, so they can get to the LA Pride parade on time.
Celebration Sunday (Two services at 9 and 11 a.m.)
Monthly Theme: Pride
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur
Let’s end our church year with a bang and celebrate everything that makes our congregation and our faith inspiring and exciting. We’ll recognize our Sunday morning volunteers and thank them for their service to our church. The choir will sing for both services, and we’ll say farewell to our Director of Music, DeReau Farrar.
[Note: no audio recording is available for this service.]
Confessions of a Grasshopper
Monthly Theme: Covenant - What Binds Us
Rev. Silvio Nardoni
May Worship Theme: What Binds Us
There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them…
-- Jane Hirshfield
In our UU faith, we are bound together not by creed or dogma, but by covenant, the sacred promises we make with one another about who we are and how we want to be in community together. We often quote our Seven Principles, yet rarely repeat the concluding lines of the congregational covenant from which they come:
Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising one another our mutual trust and support.
Join Rev. Rebecca and our worship leaders for a month-long exploration of covenant, mutual trust and support, and what binds us to one another, to our living tradition, and to the wider world.
May 29 Sermon: Confessions of a Grasshopper
Silvio Nardoni is a former affiliate minister of this congregation. He continues to practice law in Glendale and counts that as part of his ministry. He lives in Silver Lake with his wife, Wanda, and an assortment of feathered and furry friends. His hobbies include watching movies and gardening, where he on occasion can see grasshoppers at their work.
Caught in the Web
Monthly Theme: Covenant - What Binds Us
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur
May Worship Theme: What Binds Us
There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them…
-- Jane Hirshfield
In our UU faith, we are bound together not by creed or dogma, but by covenant, the sacred promises we make with one another about who we are and how we want to be in community together. We often quote our Seven Principles, yet rarely repeat the concluding lines of the congregational covenant from which they come:
Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising one another our mutual trust and support.
Join Rev. Rebecca and our worship leaders for a month-long exploration of covenant, mutual trust and support, and what binds us to one another, to our living tradition, and to the wider world.
May 22 Sermon: Caught in the Web
What brings you to church and what keeps you here? Come explore what it means to be UU, and stay for our Annual Meeting, where voting members of our congregation will elect our Board of Directors, take action on congregational resolutions about the Black Lives Matter movement and Green Sanctuary status, and adopt a budget for the coming fiscal year. Our services will also feature a special guest from the UU Service Committee, speaking about how Unitarian Universalists are supporting Syrian children and families in the largest refugee movement in Europe since World War II.
Coming of Age (9 a.m.), Senior Sunday (11 a.m.)
Monthly Theme: Covenant - What Binds Us
Coming of Age Youth and High School Seniors
May Worship Theme: What Binds Us
There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them…
-- Jane Hirshfield
In our UU faith, we are bound together not by creed or dogma, but by covenant, the sacred promises we make with one another about who we are and how we want to be in community together. We often quote our Seven Principles, yet rarely repeat the concluding lines of the congregational covenant from which they come:
Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising one another our mutual trust and support.
Join Rev. Rebecca and our worship leaders for a month-long exploration of covenant, mutual trust and support, and what binds us to one another, to our living tradition, and to the wider world.
May 15 Sermon: Coming of Age (9 a.m.), Senior Sunday (11 a.m.)
Celebrate the culmination of our year-long Coming of Age program for two special and wonderful youth at 9am; stay for a worship service at 11am lovingly offered by our high school seniors, which will include a Bridging Ceremony to mark their transition into adulthood.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Monthly Theme: Covenant - What Binds Us
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur and Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
May Worship Theme: What Binds Us
There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them…
-- Jane Hirshfield
In our UU faith, we are bound together not by creed or dogma, but by covenant, the sacred promises we make with one another about who we are and how we want to be in community together. We often quote our Seven Principles, yet rarely repeat the concluding lines of the congregational covenant from which they come:
Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising one another our mutual trust and support.
Join Rev. Rebecca and our worship leaders for a month-long exploration of covenant, mutual trust and support, and what binds us to one another, to our living tradition, and to the wider world.
May 8 Sermon: Practice, Practice, Practice
As a promise-making people, we are also a promise-breaking people. How do we reweave the bonds of community when we have disappointed or hurt one another?
At our 11am service we will embody our faith’s theology of interdependence by hosting the choir of First Church Los Angeles, our closest neighboring UU congregation at 7th and Vermont. At both 9am and 11am, Rev. Bijur and Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels of First Church, who was called to ministry from this congregation and is a former member of our Board of Directors, will lead worship and preach together.
Note: Special guest Bruce Rankin, ED of the Westside Food Bank, will also join us for both services on May 8 to talk about our congregation's longtime partnership with WFB to end hunger on the Westside of Los Angeles, and to receive a gift of over $2,000 from the congregation. Thank you to those who increased their pledges last fall in order to give more money away to WFB, those who participated in our Supper Bowl Sunday fundraiser with our children and families, gave more in the plate during the month of February, and for all the gifts of food you bring each week for our neighbors in need.
Guidelines and Ground Rules
Monthly Theme: Covenant - What Binds Us
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur
May Worship Theme: What Binds Us
There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them…
-- Jane Hirshfield
In our UU faith, we are bound together not by creed or dogma, but by covenant, the sacred promises we make with one another about who we are and how we want to be in community together. We often quote our Seven Principles, yet rarely repeat the concluding lines of the congregational covenant from which they come:
Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising one another our mutual trust and support.
Join Rev. Rebecca and our worship leaders for a month-long exploration of covenant, mutual trust and support, and what binds us to one another, to our living tradition, and to the wider world.
May 1 Sermon: Guidelines and Ground Rules
What guidelines and ground rules can UUs follow to create brave spaces to speak about our diverse identities and experiences, across those very differences?
Earth Sunday
Monthly Theme: Transformation
Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur
April Worship Theme: Transformation
Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been,
I have great faith in a seed.
Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.
- Henry David Thoreau\
Join Rev. Rebecca, Green Living Committee leaders, and special guests for Seeds of Change, a five-week exploration of personal and social transformation through the lens of climate justice. The journey begins on March 20, when we mark World Water Day with a beach clean up with Heal the Bay, and concludes with Earth Sunday on April 24.
April 24 Sermon:
Earth Sunday
YRUU Service
Monthly Theme: Transformation
Members of our Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) group
April Worship Theme: Transformation
Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been,
I have great faith in a seed.
Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.
- Henry David Thoreau
Join Rev. Rebecca, Green Living Committee leaders, and special guests for Seeds of Change, a five-week exploration of personal and social transformation through the lens of climate justice. The journey begins on March 20, when we mark World Water Day with a beach clean up with Heal the Bay, and concludes with Earth Sunday on April 24.
April 17 Sermon:
Young Religious Unitarian Universalists Youth Group
