Worship Overview

Worship Service

Our Sunday service begins at 10:00am at Cole Hall, on the campus of First United Methodist Church of Fremont, 2950 Washington Blvd., Fremont, CA. (Click here for a map and directions.)

We are having hybrid services with worship leaders and congregants in Cole Hall and online with Zoom video conferencing software. We will provide three ways to attend the service — via Zoom, sitting inside Cole Hall, or sitting on the patio outside Cole Hall with loudspeakers and a view of the worship leaders and stage.

After the service, we invite you to join us for conversation.

Click here for more information about our Sunday services.

Children’s Religious Education

We are having a children’s chapel monthly

The Flaming Chalice

The flaming chalice is the most widely used symbol of Unitarian Universalism and the official logo of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and many member churches and societies., such as our Mission Peak congregation. We light our chalice near the beginning of our service each week using the following words:

We light this chalice…To remind ourselves to treat all people kindly, because we are all one family;

To take good care of the Earth, because it is our home;

To live lives full of goodness and love, because that is how we will become the best people we can be.

The symbol had its origins in a logo designed by Austrian refugee Hans Deutsch for the Unitarian Service Committee during World War II. Deutsch took his inspiration from the chalices of oil burned on ancient Greek and Roman altars. A lit chalice in the window became an underground symbol in occupied Europe during World War II to for safe houses assisting Unitarians, Jews, and other people escape Nazi persecution. Deutsch had fled to Portugal, where he met the Reverend Charles Joy, executive director of the Unitarian Service Committee. The Service Committee was new, founded in Boston to assist Eastern Europeans, among them Unitarians as well as Jews, who needed to escape Nazi persecution. From his Lisbon headquarters, Joy oversaw a secret network of couriers and agents. Perhaps 850 lives were saved, although the total is unknown.

After 1941, the flaming chalice symbol spread throughout Unitarianism in America and the rest of the world. This spread continued after Unitarians in North America merged with Universalists to form the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1961.

Joys and Concerns

The sharing of joys and concerns is an important part of our community. At the entrance to Cole Hall is a table with a book, set up for anyone who wishes to write a brief note of what is on their mind this day. These are read aloud by the minister during the service, followed by an invitation for anyone who would like to place a stone in the sand garden set up on a table before the pulpit. These joys and concerns are not expressed verbally. At the conclusion, our minister places one more stone or lights one more candle for intentions which may not even be in the room but are hidden in our hearts. There follows a prayer and meditation.

Sermon and Service Recordings

Rev. Greg Ward, our Mission Peak Minister.

Past sermons can be found at Service and Sermon Recordings. Upcoming sermon topics are at Upcoming Services. Here are links to the latest Sermon and Service Recordings:

▶️ Hildegard of Bingen May 28, 2023

Join us with guest preacher, Rev. Ruth Rinehart, Interim Minister at Starr King UU Church in Hayward. What does astonishing 12th century German nun, Hildegard of Bingen, have to say to Unitarian Universalists today?

▶️ The First Thing to Know about the 2nd May 21, 2023

The right to bear arms has a history even longer – and clearer – than our country’s history. It has been cited by proponents as a non-negotiable right belonging to early colonists who had to protect themselves in the wilderness. It was a central issue in the war of independence to remain sovereign from foreign interests; and it was central to the intense negotiations behind passing the rights guaranteed in our Constitution. But Carol Anderson’s book, The 2nd, points out that there is a common factor connecting our safety, our sovereign interests and our rights. Her book clearly explains that she is neither for or against the 2nd. But she is adamant about the first thing everyone needs to know about the 2nd.

▶️ I’ll Love You Forever May 14, 2023

Our relationship with our mothers is one of both tenderness and tension. Rare indeed is the individual who had every need of mothering met by the mother they were given. It is part of our rite of passage to be born into absolute dependence, struggle with differentiation to achieve independence and then, if we’re lucky, to build a meaningful interdependence. This is a sermon written by Rev. Greg and his mother in the last few years of her life as they tried to make sense of the love they shared.

The Five Hearts Mosaic

Five mosaic hearts rise above the chancel at the center of Cole Hall where the Mission Peak congregation holds services. These were made by Don Ramie and Patricia Osage in May of 2015, using pieces of broken items parishioners were invited to bring from home for the purpose. The symbolism of what is broken being made whole is intended.