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To give you an idea of what our previous services have looked like, here is the full list in reverse order: |
| December 31 "Past, Present, Future" Worship Associate: Mike Iritz Join us for a time of Community & Sharing. We will be gathering as a community to share a [mostly] POTLUCK BRUNCH. While nourishing our bodies, we will fills our spirits as well. UUP & our Guests will be welcome to speak about memories of the past year and hopes for the coming one. |
December 24
Christmas Eve Day: Join us for an intergenerational Christmas service with music (choir! brass trio!) and holiday cheer. |
December 17
Winter Solstice and Santa Lucia: Worship Associate: Tony BlakeMany western religious observances are rooted in ancient earth-centered recognitions of seasonal events often marked with celebrations. Ancient cultures, especially those from Northern latitudes, were acutely attuned to seasonal changes related to the longest or shortest days of the year. Winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and has been recognized for thousands of years through ceremonies that typically involve welcoming the light back into our existence. Long, ago, the Vikings of Sweden held festivals to mark the first day of winter, the exact middle of winter, and the last day of winter. This ceremony later became known as Santa Lucia. Come join us just prior to the Winter Solstice in a participatory intergenerational service full of song, ceremony, and a UUP community drum circle to celebrate the light coming back into our lives. |
| December 10 "The Level Gaze": Regular Guest Minister: Leland Bond-Upson My cousin has died. Her life inspires me to speak in praise of cheerful stoicism, of meeting life as an equal, of accepting both the welcome and the unwelcome without a fuss, of being at peace with what is. |
| December 3 Participatory "This I Believe"..About the Holiday Season: Worship Associate: Mike Iritz Please bring a short personal story or something that encompasses your beliefs about the "Spirit of the Season." Be it a Menorah, a Christmas tree ornament or possibly a tale about your experience during a particular Winter Solstice, come share (and listen) to what makes this season special for each of us--and for all of us. Note: Our mid-year Congregational Meeting will be held following the service. Also featuring a cookie exchange! |
| November 26 "Stone Soup and the Gifts of Thanksgiving": Worship Associates: Marlene Abel, DRE, and Diana Spaulding In the folktale "Stone Soup" the soup is a gift that the once stingy villagers give to each other and to the travelers; and the travelers present the gift of a life lesson to the villagers. On this special Sunday we gather to create our own communally-created "stone soup" and consider the gifts of the season. What are the gifts we give our families and each other during the holidays? How does it feel to be generous? And how can we create lasting traditions within our own families and communities that expand and deepen our experience of generosity as a spiritually fulfilling action? The congregation's youth will be explaining and distributing boxes for the UU Service Committee's Guest At Your Table fundraiser, and the entire service will be intergenerational. Please bring a small bag of chopped veggies, dry noodles, or other soup ingredient and plan to stay after the service for a light meal! |
| November 19 "The Blame Game and the Praise Malaise": Regular Guest Minister: Rev. Leland Bond-Upson Everything we think and do is conditioned by the past. But by praising and blaming, traditional morality and popular culture take a different--and mostly unhelpful--view. We can more effectively encourage ethical and humane behavior by examining the true nature of choice--and by mostly discarding judgments about what rewards or punishments people ‘deserve’. Worship Associate Elisabeth Hathaway. |
| November 12 "Heart Light--An Introduction to Subtle Energy Practices": Guest speaker: Gabriel Sakakeeny Every spiritual tradition has an esoteric component whether it be Christian, Hindu, Islamic, or Buddhist. One of the main purposes of these practices is to enable the individual or collective group to connect with the divine. Those who have achieved advanced states of awareness in such realms typically exhibit an aura of energy or enlightenment that is noticeable, even to those who are not experts in the spiritual form or practice. These energies and practices are now being made available around the world by a new generation of practitioners without the restrictive dogma or cultural trappings usually associated with such disciplines. Guest speaker Gabriel Sakakeeny will explore this realm with our congregation using both descriptive and experiential modes of communication. |
| November 5 "Liberally Religious and Proud of It": Guest Speaker: Jan Ogren How did liberal religion become so shy? Increasingly, when there are public debates concerning religion, the religion referred to is conservative, as though the liberal religious option does not exist. Let's journey back to see when this was not the case, and explore if pride can be more healthful than sinful. Jan Ogren is a licensed psychotherapist, writer and public speaker. She is a life-long UU and has spoken at many UU congregations. |
October 29
"Dia de Los Muertos": Worship Associate, Meredith GuestDeath is one of those topics about which we’d rather not think. It brings up life’s hardest emotions: grief, fear and even anger. No wonder we avoid it. Yet death is part of life and on Dia de los Muertos we embrace--with both tears and laughter--its reality. For this intergenerational service, we invite you to bring a photo or some object to place on the special altar in memory of a loved one (human or otherwise) who has passed into The Mystery. |
| October 22 "We the People": Regular Guest Minister Leland Bond-Upson "...in order to form a more perfect union..." As an important election nears, we do well to refresh our sense of civics and civility, of demonstrations of democracy, and the crucial duties required of us when we, the people--not kings or dictators--are sovereign. |
| October 15 "Restoring the Web": Worship Associate, Stacey Meinzen "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part" is a cornerstone of the UU faith. Unitarian Universalists tend to be nature-lovers and environmentalists, but what do we do as a collective body to live out this principle? Come hear about what we are doing to live out the 7th principle as a congregation and our plans for the "Green Sanctuary" project. |
| October 8 "Varieties of Unitarian Universalist Experiences": Guest speaker: Earl Cruser Guest Speaker and UUP Member, Earl Cruser, a former Presbyterian minister, made a left turn in life and joined the Unitarian ranks, for which we are much the richer. By combining his own spiritual views, along with the renowned wisdom of Unitarian Richard Gilbert, Earl will present his perspective on how Unitarian Universalism embraces diversity of perspective on an array of subjects important to us all. |
October 1 "A Sanctuary of Music": Worship Associate, Elisabeth Hathaway Music uplifts the spirit, and reaches the deeper inner resonances of our soul. Today's service offers us this gift: to listen, to hear, to sing, to resonate. Join Worship Associate Elisabeth Hathaway in a service to honor and meet music as sacred experience, including an extended listening time to music performed by Mimi Sabin, and our UUP choir Larking About offering an anthem. |
| September 24 "Accepting (a certain Someone) as Your Personal Savior": Regular Guest Minister: Leland Bond-Upson Coming from a religious liberal, these words may sound foreign, even shocking. And they do seem more apostate than apposite to our faith, akin to being asked to sing "Onward, Christian Soldiers." And yet, perhaps there is room in our big tent for such acceptance. Perhaps this traditional act of Christian faith is not even in conflict with our principles. In fact, perhaps some of us need salvation, and a savior. |
| September 17 "This I Do": UUP members Tony Blake and Michael Pool Two of our members share the way they live their lives. |
| September 10 "Water and Stones": An end of summer re-gathering of the entire UUP community. Bring the water and stones you have gathered on your summer travels, and let's tell each other about our experiences. |
| September 3 \"An Evergreen Tree of Diabolical Knowledge": Speaker: UUP member David Dodd Libraries are a foundation of democracy. Are they also sacred spaces? |
| August 27 "The Caring Congregation": Guest Speaker: Rev. Barbara Meyers Many people will not talk about mental illness, even when it affects their lives. The Rev. Barbara Meyers, author of "The Caring Congregation" curriculum, will discuss her personal experience with depression and how a faith community helped her--and can help others--to heal. |
| August 20 "The Waters of Walden": Guest Speaker: Jeremy Elliott Beneath the wakes of Walden Pond, one finds the sacred currents of early American Transcendentalism and Hindu thea/ology. This service will explore the historical connection of early Unitarian thought and Hindu spirituality. What wisdom did our religious foremothers, forefathers, and elders encounter in the great teaching of ancient India? Do their voices and the chorus of these great souls and seers still speak to us today? |
| August 13 "On Ritual": Guest Speaker: Meredith Guest Rituals can help frame our lives, give context, meaning and preserve memory. Even though some rituals (especially the religious variety) are laden with baggage, they can sometimes be reinterpreted, recreated or replaced with others that can be liberating and life affirming. Come prepared to share in a dialogue sermon rituals that hold meaning in your life and in the life of your family, community and culture. |
| August 6 "Indigenous Wisdom": Guest Speaker: Marty Falkenstien Guest Speaker Marty Falkenstien was a cultural interpretive park ranger at Point Reyes National Seashore and past director of education at the Marin Museum of the American Indian. She will help us step back in time and learn how the cosmology of the indigenous people allowed them to lead complex yet sustainable lives for thousands of years before European contact. See this reverent human culture through their baskets, buckskin, plant cordage, and bone and stone tools. |
| July 30 "This I Believe": Speaker: David Strange |
| July 23 "This Hour Is Sacred Because We Make It So": Worship Associate, Stacey Meinzen "This hour is sacred because we make it so." These are the opening words each week at our service. Come explore what makes something sacred for you personally and for us collectively as a spiritual community. We will address this issue through poetry and other artistic expressions, both visual and kinesthetic. |
| July 16 "A Capacity of the Heart": Speaker: Lynn Kelly, ministerial student A look at the roots of our Unitarian Universalist second principle, the practice of compassion. What changes could it bring to your life? |
| July 9 "Finding the Sacred in Nature": Many of us find our sense of the transcendent in the natural world. This participation service will elicit our expressions of that sense of wonder, as we share with one another special treasures and moments from our experiences in nature. |
| July 2 "Slowing Down": Guest Speaker: Matt Alspaugh, ministerial student Are you find yourself living at an unsustainable pace? Is the stress of the growing to-do list becoming overwhelming? As we enter into the slower days of summer, Matt will explore slowing down as spiritual practice, and suggest some techniques for slowing down, while still doing what is really important. |
| June 25 "Peace From Within": Guest Speaker: Michael Nagler One of the world's most widely respected peace activists and scholars, Dr. Michael Nagler is an author, winner of the American Book Award, and professor emeritus at UC Berkeley. |
| June 18 "This I Believe": Speaker: Meredith Guest UUP Member Meredith Guest will tell stories about what it means to be and to have a transgender parent that illustrate one of the beliefs she holds dearest. Unfortunately--or, perhaps, fortunately--her children, now 23 and 21, will not be present to refute, deny or correct any exaggerations, embellishments or downright lies. |
| June 11 "Teacher Recognition Sunday": Director of Religious Education, Marlene Abel Marlene will lead an intergenerational, interactive service with music, games, and stories that celebrate the past year in Religious Education. Religious Education teachers, children and youth will be honored with special gifts. |
| June 4 "What’s It Like To Be You?" Regular Guest Minister: Leland Bond-Upson This is the hungering question that underlies our fascination with celebrity and heroes. And, better, if we care to know, it can underlie our interest in the person next to us. As a curse, the impulse can cause us to short our own lives to live vicariously in distant others’. As a blessing, it can lead to a rare communion of souls. |
| May 28 "Avoiding the Quick Fix": Guest Speaker: Donna Sequeira How do we do the work of justice and peace in the world for the long haul? Join us as we look at what UU thea/ologians and our ancestors say about this question. |
| May 21 "The Challenge of Radical Hospitality": Worship Associates: Stacey Meinzen and Diana Spaulding The Benedictine order of monks practices radical hospitality as a religious tenet. What would it look like for Unitarian Universalists to do the same, or maybe just be downright welcoming? Don't we all yearn to affirm our human connections and live out our values? Our service will explore the reasons we might want to embrace radical hospitality in order to deepen and expand our religious community, and will offer the congregation a chance to participate in this conversation. |
| May 14 "Gee-Thanks, Mom": Regular Guest Minister Leland Bond-Upson As we used to say in the Sixties "parents are a heavy trip", even when they were pretty good parents. On this Mothers' Day, we're going to talk about--what else?--mothers and mothering and a wee bit o' smothering. An appreciation and lament, with jokes. |
| May 7 "Letting God Run Off Leash": Guest Speaker: Theresa Novak How we imagine God is important, whether we believe in God or not. Theresa Novak is a third-year student at Starr King School for the Ministry and member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marin. She will introduce an alternative conception of God that just might effect your life in a very positive way. |
| April 30 "This I Do": Two UUP members discuss how their spiritual values play out in their daily lives. |
| April 23 "Earth Day Celebration and Flower Communion": Worship Associate: Lara Abel Join us for a moving ritual, begun in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation as a defiant show of loving passive resistance and as an affirmation of religious diversity, and celebrated worldwide by Unitarian Universalists in memory of Norbert Capek, the Unitarian minister of Prague who began the tradition, and who lost his life in the service of his beliefs. |
| April 16 "Easter Is Come, and the Shadows Flee Away": Regular Guest Minister Leland Bond-Upson The title for our Easter service is a happy conjunction of pagan celebration, New Testament theology, and Old Testament poetry. Let us celebrate the end of the long wet winter, and recall all the ways we and our world are reborn. |
| April 9 "Marriage Matters": Guest speaker: Victoria Ingram The UUA has taken a strong position in advocating for marriage equity and many in our denomination are active in working for legislative change and societal shift on this important issue. As we've watched this issue debated in the public forum, we've heard lots of compelling arguments both for and against making changes in the "traditional" definition of marriage. Our speaker will explore this topic today, drawing on a variety of "traditions" to address the issues of marriage equity. |
| April 2 "Moving the World Through Reverent Daily Actions": Guest Speaker Trathen Heckman At this time when our senses are being quenched by Spring's ascent, Trathen Heckman will discuss a potent blend of Buddhist mindfulness and innovative ecological design artfully applied to the conscious daily acts at the heart of healthy lives and communities. |
| March 26 "Shift Happens": "Little drops of water, little grains of sand, make the mighty ocean, and the pleasant land." Likewise the repeated actions over time of human voices and hands add up to vast change in the human landscape. Join us for this service to inspire you to take simple actions for a more just, less suffering world. |
| March 19 "Lux Aeterna": Rima Snyder On the day before spring begins, celebrate the longer, milder days and the return of light. Light and color are an essential part of our lives and a source of spiritual renewal. What does the phrase "eternal light" mean and how can it inspire you? |
| March 12 "Must Be Present To Win": Leland Bond-Upson, Regular Guest Minister When the raffle has a big prize, or is more personal, or the prize-giver wants the event to be taken seriously, the requirement for eligibility is stated in these familiar words. Woody Allen has famously said "80% of life is showing up." The Congregation’s annual campaign for self-support begins today. Let’s win by being present: for the campaign, for each other, and for ourselves. |
| March 5 "The Devotion of Justice": Mitra Rahnema, Starr King Ministerial Student The beginning of Spring is often a time in which we celebrate our religious communities and recommit ourselves to a more just world. In the service today we will look at the work of making this daily commitment, and explore the depth of personal and spiritual growth the practice of social change calls us to develop |
| February 26 Intergenerational Service: Marlene Abel, UUP Director of Religious Education |
| February 19 "Embracing the Fulness of Life": Kelly Asprooth-Jackson, ministerial student We live in a world of which both grief and joy are each indelible parts. In our society, and often in our own lives, these two universal elements of living can be seen as opposites. But perhaps another view which allows celebration to exist side-by-side with lamentation, both equally real and equally a part of being human, could open up new avenues for undertanding our own feelings, and those of our neighbors and friends. |
| February 12 "Love As An Action and a Choice": Stacey Meinzen, Worship Associate On Valentine's Day, the commercial forces prefer to focus on the romantic aspects and the feelings of love, but perhaps the most meaningful expressions of love are through actions and choices. This and other facets of love will be explored in this participatory service. Bring any reading on love that you find relevant. |
| February 5 "Feeling Out Of Place, Feeling At Home": Leland Bond-Upson, Regular Guest Minister For me, the most powerful line in the Desiderata is "you are a child of the universe, . . . you have a right to be here." I’ve always found that part comforting, but surprising too, for reasons connected to my childhood. By the way, I moved out of my happy home of the past 10 years, so I’ll have some things to say about feeling literally out of place, and making a new place. |
| January 29 "Sustaining Faith" Rev. Fran Dew, Interim minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Rosa People turn to their faith traditions in troubled times. What is the sustaining message of Unitarian Universalism that not only helps us through the night but gives us the strength to continue to be courageous and strong in the face of adversity? |
| January 22 "This I Believe": UUP members David Dodd and Mike Iritz present their personal beliefs. Part of an ongoing series. |
| January 15 "Our Praying Hands": Shelley Page, ministerial student. |
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| January 8 "A Time to Rest": Guest speaker: Jan Ogren Is Time the friend that sets the natural rhythms of your days, or is it the foe to be fought because 'there is never enough time to get everything done'? Wayne Muller explores our relationship to Time in his book; Sabbath, Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest. I'll be sharing some of his ideas with you this Sunday as we take some time out of our busy days to reflect on Time. (Please note: originally scheduled speaker the Rev. Leland Bond-Upson will deliver his scheduled sermon at a later date.) |
| January 1 "New Year's Day Brunch: A Service, A Communion, A Toast": The happy coincidence of New Year's Day and a Sunday will give our community a way to worship, nourish ourselves, and celebrate in a combined brunch and service. We shall experience a different kind of sacred time together in the elementary enjoyment of sharing a meal together. Do plan to come with your wisdom and wishes to toast in the new year! We may even ask for reservations . . . |
UUP's services from 2005 are also available.
A list of sermons is available, delivered by some of UUP's guests.