Descriptions of Sunday Services
FLOWER COMMUNION: WEEDING BETWEEN THE LINES
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Stephen Preece and the Spirit of Life Choir
Voltaire proclaims in Candide: “We must cultivate our garden.” But what about those of us who are botanically-impaired? I have a tale to tell. Today we celebrate our annual Flower Communion celebrating diversity. Please bring a cut flower for the year’s closing ritual.
The Congregational Picnic follows the service.
ICARUS FLIES AND FAILS
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Stephen Preece
Is our very human and well-meant urge to give advice actually a virtue or a vice? How do we balance the voices of others against our own counsel? We will also celebrate a special Father’s Day ritual where you are invited to share in one sentence the best advice you have received from a father figure in your life.
THE ANIMALS UU LOVE
The UU Whatevers Youth Group
Music: Stephen Preece
Join the youth group this Sunday for a pet service where we honour the animal companions in our lives, and seek to better understand the bond of trust and love between them and ourselves. Please bring your pet, or a photo or memento to share with the congregation, and any equipment you need to safely accommodate your pet during the service, such as cage, leash, water bowl, etc.
THE PLAY’S THE THING
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela and the Theological Thespians
A few years ago, someone asked me why she should bother to attend church instead of a Shakespearean play. As a thespian-turned-theologian, I crafted this service in reply. When theologian Aidan Kavanagh wrote “The act changes the actor,” he was addressing the liturgical, not the theatrical. Yet, theatre and religion are historically linked. Where is the boundary between performance and ritual, between manipulation and motivation, between pulpit and podium?
SPIRITED LEADERSHIP
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela & Delegates
Music: Colin Read and Special Guests
In lieu of the usual Annual Conference and Meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council, we instead held a symposium on the theme of Spiritual Leadership where I was asked to serve as a “Spirit Weaver.” Today our elected delegates and called minister reflect on leadership as a spiritual practice.
ACTS OF KINDNESS AND COMPASSION: STORIES TO INSPIRE YOU
Mavis Kerr & Friends
Music: Stephen Preece.
Four congregation members will share their stories of specific acts of kindness or lessons in compassion. These tales will be woven into a service that will make a case for compassion and hopefully leave you with faith that "what we do matters" (as Rev. Jess so often tells us)
MOTHER’S DAY: FLOWERS AND OTHER IMPRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Stephen Preece
Wendell Berry writes, “When despair for the world grows in me . . . I come into the peace of wild things.” As a Unitarian Universalist, I find prayer manifest in the paradox that surrounds me: parakeets in a Chicago winter, herons in suburbia, and the improbability of sunflowers. Come explore the abundance of grace that sustains our souls in difficult times.
Souper Sunday – stay for a soup lunch after the service.
THE ARCHETYPE OF RENEWAL
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela and Peggy Hagen
Music: Stephen Preece
Underlying the "onward and upward" model of the flying man-arrow of modern technology is Nature's model of repeating cycles. Seasonal rituals, and inner psychological ones, are based on the concept that life is vouchsafed in a series of leases, both of which have to be renewed periodically. Nature uses cosmic laws to replenish life and vitality. But what of our process?
STAIRCASE TO ENLIGHTENMENT
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Stephen Preece and the WLU Student Chamber Music Group
The invitation to our weekly meditation group is “Don’t just do something, sit there.” But what is meditation, and why bother to learn to do nothing for awhile?
HOW I SAVED MY SOLE IN SELMA
Rev. Fred Capuccino
Music: Sydney Street Trio
During the spring of 1965, the campaign to register Negro voters was in full swing in the U.S. South. When Unitarian activist James Reeb was murdered for his activism, colleagues across the continent flew to Alabama to take a stand. Come hear Rev. Fred’s powerful testimony of this historic time. Rev. Fred Capuccino is the co-founder Child Haven International.
REFLECTIONS ON LIGHT: TO SEE BY CONTRAST
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Boyd McDonald
Ida Fisher was this year’s winning bidder for the Dream Auction sermon. “What’s wrong with being beyond?” she asked me. The answer takes us from light into shadow, through the lessons of the Kabbalah, and our Unitarian affirmations of Earth-based traditions.
A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Stephen Preece
Ascension, resurrection, atonement, and killing death . . . how might a Unitarian Universalist translate the complex lexicon of Easter?
THE BLESSINGS OF SILLINESS
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela & The Spirit of Life Choir
Stories culled from the Holy Fool traditions shed unexpected light on the serious nature of fun in honour of April Fool’s Day.
Note that the Souper Sunday scheduled for April 1 has been cancelled.
SHOW
Tricia Sieman
Service Leader: Carol Burrows.
Music: Boyd MacDonald.
In June 2010, 30 tenants moved into a 5-story apartment building in Waterloo. This streets-to-home initiative was the result of six years of planning by a compassionate community concerned at the number of people using the "Out of the Cold" program in Kitchener and Waterloo. Today, 30 people have permanent homes and live with dignity in a caring community. Come hear how a small group of people made a huge difference and how we can help.
50 YEARS OF UU-UNO
Tui Torrie
Service Leader: Janis Collins.
Music: Sydney Street Trio.
April 2012 marks our 50th anniversary of the UU United Nations Office as our voice in the United Nations. As an NGO, what have we accomplished, what are current issues, and where do we go from here? Do we bring our principles into actionable influence on the world stage ... or is our involvement merely another ‘feel-good’ exercise in political correctness?
THE POWER OF SONG
Rev. Wendy Luella Perkins & Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
“Songs are funny things. They can slip across borders. Proliferate in prisons. Penetrate hard shells. I always believed that the right song at the right moment could change history.”—Pete Seeger.
The Rev. Wendy Luella Perkins was first introduced to Unitarian Universalism in 1989 when she was a graduate student at University of Waterloo. She is very grateful for those early and formative years with our congregation (back when it was at the corner of Moore and Allen). In 1999 she was ordained into UU ministry. She lives in Kingston Ontario and her ministry is based in the community focusing on music, community engagement and food and farm advocacy.
Find out more at www.wendyluellaperkins.com.
RIGHTING THE WRECKAGE
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Stephen Preece.
Poet Adrienne Rich writes, “I came to explore the wreck. / The words are purposes./ The words are maps. / I came to see the damage that was done and the treasures that prevail.” In the face of devastation, Unitarian Universalism calls for a hopeful response from a creative community. From the depths of life’s challenges, redemption beckons.
SING YOUR SONG, LIFT YOUR SPIRIT
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela and the Spirit of Life Choir
Music: Stephen Preece
As a “UUvangelist,” I am always wondering how to describe Unitarianism to outsiders. When we tell our congregation’s history, we model the values we stand for in the wider community.
The service is followed by our Annual General Meeting. This year we vote on a budget, a new board member, and a possible new name for the congregation.
BETWEEN SOLITUDE AND ISOLATION
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Boyd McDonald
Being alone and being lonely are not the same thing. While others celebrate “Family Day” weekend, how do those in a ‘family of one’ cope?
THIS ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela and friends
Music: Stephen Preece
Allan, Brenda, Carol and Michele respond to the question posed by Unitarian Universalist poet Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Stay after the service for a delicious bowl of spicy chili