Hello, Goodbye, Hello, GoodbyeThis is the last service MPUUC will share with Rev. Jim McKinley. It will also be the service where we welcome Rev. Greg Ward back from sabbatical. There is a poignancy in transition. It requires us to reflect and reconcile newly discovered experiences of love and truth with those which lessons built … Continue reading Hello, Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye
Wisdom to remember from a clay tablet a potter gifted Rev. Jim on which she’d inscribed three koans of life advice he’d been given and returned with from his month long journey to Panama. A tablet handed down with three guides for right relationship with life; sounds like a familiar ancient story that had ten, … Continue reading Three Suggestions for the New Year
In the pause of Christmas Eve, we bring light, and our light, to the light of the world. We recall holiday moments that heightened time and gifted notice and memory. We “create” Christmas spirit anew with stories, songs and candles. Join us and linger a while for homemade cookies and cider. 5PM service, no 10AM … Continue reading Christmas Eve “Carols and Candles”
While searching for gifts to give, take a moment to look no further than yourself. Take a holiday from the constant outside messaging of what you don’t have and the internal critique of who you are not. Pause and unwrap the gifts you are as this person, this people, this congregation. Let’s free up some … Continue reading The Gift(s) We Are
My daughter shared that insight in the middle of our raft trip of 24 days through the Grand Canyon in December, 2019. It was cold. I was suffering and the Canyon is the ultimate “no way out only through” experience. “Ya gotta own it, Dad,” where “own” is embrace and love and “it” is me, who … Continue reading You Gotta Own It
We often feel like our lives are being taken over by outside events and influences. The Sunday before Thanksgiving marks the onset of the likelyhood of added holiday season stress and alienation. With gratitude, appreciation and mindful reflection we can reoccupy ourselves and share in the fullness around us. The Zoom link and Order of … Continue reading Preoccupied
The accent is on “works”. The title is not a wish, but a statement. We’ll share an understanding of hope for right now, hope-in; hope that makes a real difference and brings true joy into every day whether in the face of climate change, illness, politics or the simple overwhelm of too much. Hope-in that … Continue reading Hope That Works
Rev. McKinley shares how our UU chalice works for him as profound symbol and spiritual compass. He uses it to ground and focus him amidst the confusions of the constructed world. It brings him back to our home in the cosmos and right place in life. Here is the link to the UU Summary Statement … Continue reading The Chalice of Our Being: a Spiritual Compass
I think of religion as a word of orientation. I don’t think of it as a boxed set of beliefs. And Unitarian Universalism is the religious tradition and community that best orients and informs my life journey and spiritual practice. I’ll introduce a simple organizing understanding I use to give it more form and help … Continue reading My Religious Perspective to Life and Love: A Big Picture Orientation
