How does singing African American Spirituals help us understand the systemic oppression built into this country and the convoluted path that African Americans had to navigate to find their way to freedom? The Zoom link and Order of Service will be provided at mpuuc.org/zoom.
200 Years ago, New England Unitarians – who were yet to marvel before the miracle of air conditioning, would close their churches and all migrate to the Cape where it was cooler. This was because most early Unitarian ministers were also university professors who didn’t teach classes in the summer. This is the history behind … Continue reading Flower Communion
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained neuro anatomist. In 1996 she experienced a severe hemorrhage (AVM) in the left hemisphere of her brain causing her to lose the ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. She put what she learned from that experience in her book, My Stroke of … Continue reading A Stroke of Insight
In the summer of 2010, when SB1070 – the controversial anti-immigration (‘Show me your papers’) law, UUs descended upon the city of Phoenix to challenge Sherriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration sweeps. What we learned in two days helps make sense of decades of racism in policing, detention and immigration systems. At a time when these issues … Continue reading A 36 Hour Crash Course on Immigration Oppression
Look everywhere around you at this moment and you will see – everywhere – things are in a precarious place of absolute destruction and change. Things we thought would be everlasting – like laws that protect the vulnerable and guarantees of human rights – are suddenly being questioned if not eliminated. We are in great … Continue reading The Essential, Ordinary Wisdom of Resurrection
Bryon Stevenson and other activists working to end oppression say that the most effective way to address any particular type of oppression – whether it is racial prejudice or bias against LGBTQIA persons, or immigrants – is through proximity. In other words, when we actually spend time with them. When we know their story, it … Continue reading Action Sunday
MPUUC recently took a courageous and caring first step into being an advocate for every person living without permanent housing in Fremont. Building on that, this service attempts to explore what our response to the housing crisis in this country would be if we treated the issue NOT from a perspective paternalism where we see … Continue reading When We Walk By
Historian, writer and theologian, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, points out that the pain of the world has become hard to bear. “One has to have strong cojones and ovarios to withstand much of what passes for ‘good’ today.” Abject disregard and corruption of principled ideals has become the new normal. But, ‘take heart,’ she says. “We … Continue reading We Were Made for Times Like These
We are all given a particular tool essential to enlightenment which all too often goes unnamed when counting our blessings. Scientists have called it an acnestis. Engineers, psychologists, architects and even lawyers will attest to its cursed properties and it’s tendencies to torment an individual. But the theologian will quickly point out the often overlooked … Continue reading Blessed by an Acnestis
When Hate and Hurt come to town, it is rarely a good idea to fight fire with fire. For this year’s Love Hero Award, we are very proud to celebrate a group of spiritual leaders who are committed to diverse expressions of love to change the world for good. TCIC understands that we need not … Continue reading Love Hero
