Skip to main content

Sermon Archive

Live Nude Sermon! -- Rev. Craig Moro

Date

Really? No, of course not!  I’ll be dressed as usual in my sport coat and T-shirt with a button on the lapel.  But there are huge industries devoted to exposing our personal details to public view, right there in the grocery store checkout line.  Let’s hear Bette Midler, Leonard Pitts, and the Prophet Muhammad weigh in on this common—but toxic— phenomenon.

 

**Please make sure you are signed up to receive our weekly Service Announcement Emails (see our News Page). Depending on the state of things, we may offer our first opportunity for an In-Person Worship Experience for this service and updates about this will appear in those emails. **

 

Join our Virtual Service Sunday at 10:30

Click Here to link to the Zoom Service

Meeting ID: 275 194 110

Phone In: (669) 900-6833

 

"Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace" -- Wy'east Member, Lynette Yetter

Date

Wy'east Member and writer Lynette Yetter will share excerpts from her 2010 novel Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace, a fictionalized version of how her spiritual quest to find the ideal society of which the panpipes sing led her to play panpipes in Peru and Bolivia with indigenous people in ceremonies and rituals, chew the sacred coca leaf, and encounter U.S.-supported human rights abuses that led to a life or death decision.

Link to Multnomah County Library: https://multcolib.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S152C1059378

Lynette Yetter is a permanent resident of Bolivia, and a lesbian panpipe-playing practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism. She found her soulmate in Portland while doing a book tour for Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace. In Portland, Lynette became a certified Spiritual Director (Urban Spirituality Center). She also recently completed a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) degree at Reed College. Her life-after-Reed contains a new journey taking comedy classes; she currently zooms with Second City. Creative projects Lynette intends to complete in 2022 include: a DIY movie based on her book Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace, and a bilingual book of her translations of (mostly) previously-untranslated selected poetry and prose by Bolivia's most celebrated writer, educator and social critic, Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), (forthcoming from Fuente Fountain Books). Lynette savors spiritual community and is thrilled to be a member of Wy'east UU. You can learn more about Lynette's music, movies, books and art to touch your soul and make you think at www.LynetteYetter.com.

Listen to the sermon

 

 

 

Big Scary Lady - Rev. Craig Moro

Date

Back in 629 A.D., the Prophet Muhammad had a chance to avenge the brutal killing of one of his uncles—a killing that had been arranged by another of his relatives, a woman named Hind.  How did he choose to respond?  Come this morning to hear a strange and compelling story of forgiveness.

Listen to the sermon

 

 

Imbolc: The Ancient Irish Celebration of Early Spring and the Goddess Brigid - Mariah Springstead

Date

Imbolc is celebrated each year on February 1-2 to honor the lengthening of days and the promise of the coming spring. It is interwoven with the Goddess Brigid. Wy'east member, Mariah Springstead will explore how and why this ancient festival has endured and what it has to teach us now in the present day.

Mariah Springstead has been a UU since 2017 and joined Wy'east in 2021. She has been studying paganism and specifically The Goddess Brigid since 2012.

Listen to the Sermon

 

Preserving Democracy Through Justice & Kindness - Joe Rastatter from Portland Jobs with Justice

Date

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yg760Y_1TV3gxMBZJX8G0i4bD4utOOOd/view?usp=sharingThis service is the third in our Social Justice Speaker series for the 2021-22 church year focused on Examining Economic Inequality 

Joe Rastatter from Portland Jobs with Justice will join us to share a bit of his life story, including his hopes and frustrations. He believes people need to be connected, in relationships with each other and through organizations. His 25-year involvement in Jobs with Justice and its Faith Labor Committee has been and continues to be vital to his spirit.

Joe describes himself this way:

“I am a fan and follower of the Rebel Jesus, trying to live my Catholic tradition like Dorothy Day or Cesar Chavez. I have worked as a lay, faith-based community organizer and peace activist for the entirety of my adult life. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, I enjoyed being a Jesuit Volunteer, and working in staff positions with the United Farmworkers, at the Campus Ministry at the University of Washington, and with the Archdiocese of Seattle.

“In Portland in the 90’s, I was the director of the St. Francis Dining Hall and a founding member of the Jobs with Justice Faith Labor Committee.  I’ve also served as an organizer and shop steward for unions representing stadium workers in Seattle and Portland. Working as a ballpark vendor has been a successful side hustle for me since high school.”

This service will include a special collection for Jobs with Justice - https://jwjpdx.org/

 

Listen to the Sermon

Margin Notes - Rev. Craig Moro

Date

Poet, teacher, and farmer Wendell Berry writes that, “If change is to come...it will have to come from the margins.” Let’s explore the power and possibility that can emerge from marginal persons, places, and situations—and ponder how the edge might fold itself right into the center.

Listen to the Sermon

Building a Better World: Developing Community across Borders and Boundaries - Maia Williams

Date

Maia Williams, a Program Officer at Mercy Corps will share with us her thoughts on the importance of inclusive and resilient communities – at home and abroad, and will highlight our shared role and power to develop and support community-building at the local and global levels. 

Maia is a Program Officer for Strategy and Learning at Mercy Corps – a Portland-based humanitarian and development organization whose mission is to support the creation of secure, productive and just communities across the world. Her work focuses on developing strategy at the country, regional and agency levels in order to support a global team of humanitarians working alongside communities in more than 40 countries. In addition to a deep passion for strategic response and leadership, Maia is most passionate about economic development, gender and racial equity, and inclusion work. 

Listen to the Sermon

 

“Spit” On the Hook - Rev. Craig Moro

Date

Thai Buddhist teacher Buddhadasa Bhikku asks us:

“If you were to get everything that you could possibly desire, to the point that you owned the whole world, would your hunger cease? Or would you hunger for a second universe? Would you want a third?”

Join Rev. Moro this morning as we contemplate the human phenomenon of craving, and how we might manage it more skillfully as we enter a brand new year.

Listen to the Sermon

 

From Darkness to Light - Mt. Hood Cluster Collaboration

Date

As the year winds down, four Mt. Hood Cluster UU congregations (Eastrose in Gresham, Mid-Columbia in Hood River, Community UU in Pasco and Wy’east in Portland) gather in a collaborative service to reflect upon the gifts of darkness and turn our gaze towards the coming light in the year ahead. Join us.

Please note that the Mid-Columbia UU Fellowship in Hood River will be hosting this service, so the Zoom link is different from the one we use for Wy’east-hosted worship. That link will be available here when it is published.

 

Join our Virtual Service Sunday at 10:30

Here is the special link to join this service: https://zoom.us/j/767376780 

 

Christmas Eve Gathering at 5pm

Date

On Christmas Eve, we will “gather for renewal and fellowship” as called for by our mission. We’ll do so virtually again, alongside our covenant to be cared for and to care for others. We will share stories, light candles, and close with the traditional Silent Night. In community together, though separated by screens, we will grieve what we are missing and lift up our hopes shining through the darkness. You're invited to bring a candle to light from your home worship space. This gathering will be facilitated by Wy’east members and friends.

 

Join our Virtual Service Sunday at 10:30

Click Here to link to the Zoom Service

Meeting ID: 275 194 110

Phone In: (669) 900-6833