Sermon Archive
"Love: Feeling or Action?” - Rev. Monica Dobbins, Assistant Minister First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City
Love is one of the load-bearing pillars of our faith and lives at the center of the seven values articulated in the revised Article II proposal. Rev. Dobbins will share some of her congregation's reactions to the proposal and explore what bell hooks called our "search for clarity around the nature of love." Is love a feeling or an action? If we are to learn to love in action, what are the skills of love? How can we know when we are acting from a place of genuine love ... or even what that is?
Rev. Monica Dobbins is in her 3rd year of professional ministry, serving as the Assistant Minister at First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City where she focuses on preaching, religious education for adults, serving as a resource for older youth, and pastoral care. The social justice issues closest to her heart are health care reform and immigration justice.
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Monica lives in downtown Salt Lake with her spouse and daughter; enjoys hiking and knitting; and misses sweet tea desperately.
"Love is at the Center” - Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx
Unitarian Universalists place Love at the center of the values that define and unite us. This is not sentimental soft-hearted love, but the courageous creative love that encompasses all of life. We affirm each person’s inherent worthiness and dignity and honor the interdependent web of life, and respond to all with love. Join us to explore the power of this all encompassing love.
This is the first in a series of monthly sermons that our minister, Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx, will lead exploring the 6 values with love at the center which are the proposed evolution of how Unitarian Universalists define and align themselves. For the UU nerds among us, this is part of the process of adopting a revision to Article II of the Bylaws of the UU Association of Congregations. Full report from the Study Commission and action taken at 2023 General Assembly.
"Unitarian Universalism – Where are We Going, Why and How? A UUA General Assembly Report Back," Linda Macpherson & Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx
The 2023 UUA General Assembly took place at the end of June and Wy’east sent two delegates, Linda Macpherson & Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx. This General Assembly featured some significant decisions that will impact our broader Unitarian Universalist faith for years to come. Join us to learn more about the proposed new Article II and the selection of a new President for the association.
Family Worship 9:30 AM
Join Our Virtual Service Sunday at 10:30 AM
This service will be offered ONLY as a virtual service.
Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom
Meeting ID: 275 194 110
Phone In: (669) 900-6833
"Agree In Love" - Rev. David Pyle
A covenant is a set of promises that we make to one another, in a Unitarian Universalist religious community, in light of something larger than ourselves. A covenant is a commitment to the relationships we have with one another and to making, maintaining and strengthening those relationships, a religious practice, even when and especially when times are difficult. As we make that commitment to relationship, because together we can achieve something important that we could not achieve by ourselves. Because these religious communities we form matter not only in our own lives, but in the lives of people we have never met and may not ever know.
Multi-Platform Worship Sunday at 10:30 AM
This service will be offered as BOTH a virtual and an in-person service.
Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom
Meeting ID: 275 194 110
Phone In: (669) 900-6833
"Water Communion & InGathering", Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx
Join us as we welcome the shift in season and the new beginning spirit of September – a new “church year!” The second Sunday in September is the traditional date for our annual Water Communion and Ingathering. Join us joyfully in person or virtually on Zoom with a small amount of water representing your summer or your current position on your life journey. Come, let us gather together and refresh our shared commitment to our beloved community. Service led by Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx.
"The Spiritual Discipline of Love", Rev. Phillip Lund, UU Minister, Congregational Life Consultant for the Mid-America Region of the UUA Virtual Worship
When our 3rd principle says, “encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations,” what does it mean? Does it apply only to individuals, or to the entire congregation? If Unitarian Universalism is to remain relevant, perhaps it’s time for us to embrace the spiritual discipline of love and move from a spirituality of “me” to one of “we.”
Normally, the 1st Sunday Service is Multi-platform and the 2nd Sunday Service is Virtual only, but due to the Labor Day holiday, the 1st Sunday (September 3rd) and 2nd Sunday (September 10th) are switching formats. Our Monthly potluck will be next Sunday – the 10th.
"Pet Blessing” - Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx, Wy'east Members & Friends
A blessing is a wish of gratitude or happiness towards a person or animal or thing. In this service we will acknowledge how our lives have been blessed by our animal friends and express our happiness and gratitude that they make this so. Please invite your animal companion to attend with you or bring a photo of a beloved animal companion who is no longer with us. Rev. Leslie will share our story and lead the pet blessing.
"An Interconnected Struggle for Justice: Palestine & Israel” - Ned Rosch
From the ancient cobblestones of Palestine, whether in Gaza, the West Bank or Israel, it is one interconnected struggle for justice!
The new Palestinian generation has buried the ghosts of the past and moved on. And now, they are ready to speak and fight for themselves. Jenin, the most recent battle between Israel and a new generation of Palestinians, is just the start. And for Jews, where we stand on this issue and whether we are in solidarity with those who struggle for freedom is one of the most critical issues of our lives.
Ned Rosch was raised in an observant Jewish family that strongly identified with Zionism, and named after a great-uncle killed in the Holocaust, Ned Rosch grew up with a deep connection to Israel where he worked on a kibbutz and studied at the Hebrew University. As he developed friendships with Palestinians, he became increasingly conflicted about his Zionist upbringing and his growing understanding of the Nakba, the dispossession of 750,000 Palestinians from their land and the ensuing Palestinian struggle for liberation. He ultimately came to understand that tribal loyalty must never trump a commitment to justice. With this realization came a burning passion to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and a belief that his own liberation as a Jew will never be complete until there is justice for the Palestinian people.
Ned traveled to Gaza with Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility two months after the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza. His recollections of that experience - teaching yoga to people in refugee camps and bombed out apartment complexes who had lost loved ones and so much of their lives - are chronicled in his chapter in Stories of Personal Transformation: Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism, https://www.interlinkbooks.com/product/reclaiming-judaism-from-zionism.
Ned returned to Gaza in 2020 and hopes to go back again in September of this year.
Multi-Platform Worship Sunday at 10:30 AM
This service will be offered as BOTH a virtual and an in-person service.
Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom
Meeting ID: 275 194 110
Phone In: (669) 900-6833
“Love is Our Birthright” - Rev. Monica Jacobson-Tennessen, Community Unitarian Universalist Church
(Virtual field trip to the Tri-Cities, Pasco, Washington)
One of the ways we expanded our connections during the pandemic was to share services with other area congregations. We will travel virtually on this Sunday by joining the Zoom Service of our sister congregation in the Tri-Cities -- the Community Unitarian Universalist church in Pasco, Washington
The US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has named our current social challenge as an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” He also speaks movingly about the truth that love is our birthright, and our need to rebuild our connections. We’ll explore his wisdom in this service, and also welcome back our choir after their summer break.
Join Our Virtual Service Sunday at 10:30 AM
This service will be offered ONLY as a virtual service.
Join the Zoom Meeting from the Community Unitarian Universalist Church
https://zoom.us/j/96103198990?pwd=VmtFUFgyOGIrYmdhTnJBNXNKN3lNUT09
Meeting ID: 961 0319 8990
Passcode: 450755
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"Roots & Wings" - Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx
It's not easy to be a Unitarian Universalist. We are the ones who move away from the well-trodden path to make our own way. Rev. Leslie will share about our roots as UUs and her own roots as a Unitarian Universalist and minister . Please come and reflect on your own path as a UU -- what holds you close and what sets you free?