Sermon Archive
Hansel, Gretel, You, and Me
This classic folktale allows us to explore trust between human generations, and to challenge those who would drive a wedge of fear between us. Something to think about on the day after Halloween. Something to think about when Election Day comes on Tuesday!
By Rev. Moro
Improv For Life
Bring on the joy! Wy’east member Ruth Jenkins invites all to this fun service to learn how to use games and skills from the world of improvisational theatre to connect, communicate and work together with resilience. This is NOT about performance. It is focused on listening, accepting, and supporting one another. We will be playing games from applied improv that have been adapted for Zoom.
Join our virtual service Sunday at 10:30am.
Click here to link to the Zoom service.
Meeting ID: 275 194 110
Phone in: (669) 900-6833
A Mile in Their Moccasins
“Don’t judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their moccasins.” You’ve probably heard that expression before, and may have assumed that these are words of Native American wisdom. They’re not, but they have something to teach us about how and why our current season of protest on behalf of racial justice has continued for so long.
By Rev. Moro
Indigenous People's Day
The second Monday in October is recognized at the federal level in this country as Columbus Day in honor of the “Discovery of America” by Christopher Columbus. However many municipalities (including Portland) and a number of states have replaced this holiday with an observance of Indigenous People’s Day. In honor of that and inspired by our Social Justice Focus for this church year, in today’s service a group of Wy’east Members and Friends will share their reflections on the first chapter of a proposed “Everybody Reads” book titled An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (For Young People) which “shatters our understanding of the United States as a land ‘discovered’ in the ‘New World.’”
Everywhere, Home, Everyone, Kin
Home deliveries of goods, meals, and services are booming again during the current pandemic. Many of us remember door-to-door vendors from the years of our childhood, or have experienced them on trips abroad. This morning I’ll share some of what I learned from watching such vendors at work in Chennai, India, home to generations of vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s family.
By Rev. Moro
Restoring Balance Through a Re-turn to Native Values
It isn't hard to look around and note that the world feels off kilter -- climate change, roaring fires, and social uprisings demanding change. Dr. Deana Dartt brings her work in decolonization and life experience to Wy'east to invite us to consider returning to native values as a means for restoring balance in the world.
Dr. Deana Dartt is a member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and the founding director of Live Oak Native Consulting. She has held curatorial positions at the Burke Museum of Natural and Cultural History and the Portland Art Museum as well as teaching appointments at the University of Oregon, University of Washington and the Northwest Indian College. Her scholarly and professional work strives to address the incongruities between public understanding, representation and true acknowledgement of Native peoples, their cultures, histories and contemporary lives. This is first in our series of Social Justice Speakers for this church year focused on Indigenous Peoples.
Inside a Summer "Outing"
Outing, doxxing, “cancellation culture”: It’s one thing to read news stories about these practices, set at a comfortable distance from home. It’s another thing entirely when it happens closer by. This morning I’ll share how I tried to deal with such an incident over this past summer.
By Rev. Moro
Join our virtual service Sunday at 10:30am.
Click here to link to the Zoom service.
Meeting ID: 275 194 110
Phone in: (669) 900-6833
Water Communion & Ingathering Service
The second Sunday in September marks our annual Ingathering Service and Water Communion. As we begin our church year, we expect to be meeting virtually for at least the next 6 months. Our annual water communion presents an opportunity for us to examine and reimagine how we create sacred space together virtually and in our homes. Be on the lookout for an invitation to participate in a water communion ritual in advance of this service.
Listen to Portland Rain, a song by Robin Henderson.
Up and Down
One of the most comical scenes in all of religious literature is found in the book of Exodus, just as people are moving from one phase of life to a new one. Cecil B. DeMille never filmed it, but let’s not miss it ourselves! The goofy things that happen in trying times can also bring insight, and also a new division of religious “labor”.
By Rev. Moro
UUA General Assembly 2020: Delegate Feedback & Report
Wy’east UU sent two delegates to the first ever all-virtual UUA General Assembly in June. In this service those delegates, Linda Macpherson and Lana Quackenbush, will share some of their experience of the Assembly, their takeaways, as well as the important business decisions that were made.