Sunday November 29, 2009

THE SPIRIT OF LIFE AND SOUL OF RELATIONSHIP
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Stephen Preece.

After a week’s leadership training with Dr. Thomas Moore (author of Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life), Rev. Jess will share reflections and lessons learned. Moore writes: “The key to seeing the world’s soul, and in the process wakening one’s own, is to get over the confusion by which we think that fact is real and imagination an illusion.”

Sunday November 22, 2009

ALIGNED IN FAITH, ARRAYED IN PRAYER
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Stephen Preece.

What might the practice of prayer mean to an atheist? A holy heathen reflects on a Unitarian ethic of pastoral response

Sunday November 15, 2009

LONGFELLOW’S LESSON
Jim Moir, Candidate for UU Ministry
Service Leader: Mag Horman
Music: The Sydney Street Trio (Tom Nagy, Stephen Preece, and Colin Read)

Samuel Longfellow wrote the lyrics for “O Life That Maketh All Things New” in the mid-19th century and this great hymn is still popular for Unitarian Universalist worship. Of course it is a celebratory hymn about life, but it is also a lesson in how people are able to unite in religious fellowship. The hymn highlights the interactions among sensation, experience, thought, and action. Jim Moir is studying for the Unitarian Universalist ministry. He lives in Warren Michigan and attends the Grosse Pointe Unitarian Church. His “day job” as a Youth Librarian allows him to discover literary treasures that find their way into his worship services.

Sunday November 8, 2009

WHITHER THE WEATHER?
Alisa McClurg and Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela
Music: Boyd McDonald.

On October 24, people in 181 countries took part in the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet's history. At over 5200 events around the world, people rallied to call for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis in anticipation of next month’s UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. How might we respond to the temperamental temperature of this important debate?

Sunday November 1, 2009

REQUIEM: TO EMBRACE REMEMBRANCE
Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela and Barb Lefcourt

All Hallows’, Day of the Dead, All Souls, Samhain … Cultures across the globe and across time have created rituals to honour the dead and remember the ancestors. Today we explore, through ritual and remembrance, a Unitarian definition of death-as-transition.