COURAGE October 8, 2017 Somewhere in the back of my mind I had the romantic illusion that my ancestors had been driven from Ireland by famine. But when Lynn and I traveled there in 2010 I discovered that the dates were vague. Rather than starving refugees in the bottoms of leaky boats, it appears my […]
COURAGE Rev. Karyn Packard October 8th, 2017 Courage… What conditions demand it? Where does it come from? What is courage…really? When I think about courage, what immediately comes to mind are those stories of soldiers throwing themselves over the bodies of their comrades to save them from being shot… valor in combat. I think of […]
Courage! a homily by The Rev. Kevin Tarsa Reflections by Kristin Famula, Acting DRE delivered October 1, 2017 Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains Grass Valley, CA With this service, we enter our month-long exploration of the theme of courage. We’ve begun our work to identify our mission, we transition today from our Acting Director […]
Seeing Beyond Hate a sermon by The Rev. Kevin Tarsa delivered September 24, 2017 Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains Grass Valley, CA In reaction to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, with its violence and its participants’ Nazi and anti-Jewish chants of “blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us,” our national and […]
Brave Space and the Buddy Bench © preached* for the Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains in Grass Valley, CA by the Rev. Kathryn A. Bert September 17, 2017 I wish I could say all the things I could say… my favorite line from our hymnal I think. Perhaps because it’s my job to […]
Welcoming our Full Selves A Full Community Service September 10, 2017 Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains, Grass Valley, CA Opening Words – The Rev. Kevin Tarsa When I first visited a Unitarian Universalist congregation 30 years ago I wasn’t sure what to expect and I wasn’t sure that the people would accept me […]
Help and Hope Anticipation vs. Expectation July 16th, 2017 Rev. Karyn Packard Let me tell you about a little friend of mind. Douglas was six when he came to Kapiolani Women’s and Children’s hospital in Honolulu for his first brain surgery. His parents lived on a pig farm on the Big Island of Hawaii. They […]
Opening Words Faith of the larger liberty – Faith for the people everywhere, whatever their oppression – This majestic old hymn tune, #287 in our hymnal, has had many lyrics set to it over the years, and these words were written by Vincent Silliman, a UU minister, in 1944. One way to think of the […]
Note: Rather than a traditional sermon, this service offered a feast of pieces calling us to awareness and gratitude. Here are links to most of those pieces. Gathering Song #21 For the Beauty of the Earth Opening Words What Song? by Victoria Safford http://archive.uuworld.org/2003/03/calltoworship.html Opening Hymn #1010 Oh, We Give Thanks Story Thankful Dogs by […]
“What’s Y/Our Story” by Rev. Kevin Tarsa Delivered November 6, 2016 Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains Grass Valley, CA Message That hymn (#297 The Star of Truth) is one of my favorites. I appreciate its celebration of uncertainty, of a story continually being written. I appreciate also its naming that each of us sees […]
