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Sermon Archive

“5th Sunday Day of Service!”

Date

Each church year there are 4 months that have a 5th Sunday. As part of our lay ministry and to offer respite to our Worship Committee, we are using these Sundays to offer an alternative to traditional worship. In lieu of holding a service, either in-person or on Zoom, we will be organizing a group service project we can do together instead.

  • For this "5th-Sunday's Day of Service," we will support one of our sustaining community partners, Rahab’s Sisters. To learn more about Rahab’s Sisters, see https://rahabs-sisters.org/

If you are able, please join us and make Friendship Cards together (we'll have some supplies to make cards)! Bring your own lunch and we'll make a picnic of it inside!

Gather at the Community for Positive Aging, (formerly, Hollywood Senior Center) between Noon and 1:30 PM

Wy’east members will collect clothing, toiletries, and hygiene supplies; and make friendship cards, and bring them to Wy’east on Sunday the 29th, or make arrangements to have items picked up if you can’t deliver. 

Share your questions and ideas on Wy’east Chat. Let’s work together to make this a fun and helpful service project.

Larry Burt, 503-329-6397
Diane Ingle, 503-936-6947


 

"Our UU Living Tradition brings with it... Change!” Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx

Date

We are religious people of imagination and possibility. We are a living tradition ever evolving and transforming. In these ever more rapidly changing times, we as Unitarian Universalists need to ask: Who are we? How do we live into our values? Our UU Association of Congregations is engaging with the periodic process of examining and updating Article II of our bylaws. This is important because it involves our beloved Principles and Sources. Our minister will walk us through what has happened in this process and what comes next. Join us to reflect on change in our wider movement and in our individual lives.

Leslie's calendar does not allow her to be with us for a Multi-Platform worship this month. She will be in the pulpit again for an in-person worship on Sunday, February 5th and Sunday, March 19th.

Listen to the Sermon

 

“Sacred Organizing” Rev. John Hasenjaeger and Mary Ann Barham

Date

Rev. John Hasenjaeger and Mary Ann Barham will share their experiences and challenges with “Sacred  Organizing,” in their work with the Leaven Community Land and Housing Coalition, a predominantly  interfaith group in Multnomah, Washington & Clackamas Co. that includes both Westminster Presbyterian and First UU in Portland. John will offer some of his own vocational journey and how his  thinking about it has been revolutionized by his Land & Housing Coalition experience. Mary Ann will  introduce us to the “Sacred Organizing Spiral,” as a way of living out one's spirituality in community,  while making real change in the world. Together they will introduce us to the Barbie's Village project,  which will provide transitional housing for Native American families who find themselves houseless in  Portland; this “land back” project will be located just a half mile from where Wy'East UU meets. 

Rev. John O. Hasenjaeger is a retired Presbyterian minister and neighbor of Wy'East UU. He has  served as Pastor of churches in the wider area. John also taught Philosophy and Religion at Clackamas  and Mt Hood Community Colleges. And he has participated in the life of Eastrose UU in Gresham over the last 20 years. Today his church home is Westminster Presbyterian in the Lloyd area. In addition to  church and higher education, John's third vocational dimension is what he has learned to call “sacred  organizing,” which is the subject of today's talk. 

Mary Ann Barham has been a resident of NE Portland for 35 years and currently lives in the  Hollywood neighborhood. She has been a member of the Land & Housing Coalition’s Multnomah Co.  design team for the past 1½ years and attends First UU in downtown Portland where she is involved  with immigrant justice and other social justice activities. 

 

Listen to the sermon


 

"The Decline of Democracies: A New World Order or Temporary Shift?" Melody Ellis Valdini, PhD, Political Science Professor at Portland State University

Date

Our Social Justice Speaker Series on "The Future of Democracy" continues with a presentation from Political Science Professor, Dr. Melody Ellis Valdini. Her talk offers an overview of the recent decline in democracies in the world, with a focus on some common trends and developments that political scientists have noticed. In addition, she will offer several methods that are commonly proposed as potential fixes to this decline, and highlight both the most ineffective and effective solutions for the problem of declining democracies.

Melody Ellis Valdini (Ph.D. 2006, University of California, San Diego) is a professor in the political science department at Portland State University as well as the co-editor of the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. Her research focuses on the consequences of institutional design, with a particular focus on electoral systems, political parties, and women's descriptive representation. She has published in the American Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, Electoral Studies, and Politics & Gender, and is the author of two books: The Character of Democracy: How Institutions Shape Politics (with Richard Clucas) and The Inclusion Calculation: Why Men Appropriate Women's Representation (both published by Oxford University Press). In 2020, her most recent book, The Inclusion Calculation, was selected as the winner of the Victoria Schuck Award by the American Political Science Association, which recognizes the best book published on women and politics in the previous year.

 

Listen to the sermon


 

"Hymn Sing!" Led by Mathias Quackenbush

Date

At this winter time of the New Year, there is nothing so warm and cozy as a service where we sing hymns together, particularly those that bring us joy and hope for the days ahead. We will have some hymns picked out ourselves for sure, but you might also come with some favorites and requests. Hymn sing led by Wy’east Member Mathias Quackenbush.

 

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


 

“Christmas Day Social Hour”

Date

On Sunday, Christmas Day, we will not have a Service, but our regular Sunday Zoom worship connection will be open at 10:30 AM for a Social Hour for anyone who wants to drop in. 

 

Virtual Service Sunday at 10:30 AM

This service will be offered only as a virtual Social Hour.

Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom

Meeting ID:  275 194 110

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

“Christmas Eve Chalice Circle” - Wy'east Members and Friends

Date

On Christmas Eve, we will, at 5:00 PM, “gather for renewal and fellowship” as called for by our mission. We’ll do so virtually, 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 lift up our hopes shining through the darkness and grieve for losses felt heavily during the Christmas Season. 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.

 

Virtual Service Saturday at 5:00 PM

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

“Seeking the Light in the Darkness” - Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx

Date

The Winter Solstice is around the corner. In this darkest time of year, religious traditions from around the world make meaning and ritual around the gifts of darkness and the returning light. Please join us this Sunday for our own "Celebration of Light;" a mix of old (think children's winter pageant) and new (Rev. Becknell Marx's first sermon as our minister), light and dark, joy and contemplation.

 

Listen to the Sermon

 

 

"Lessons From Gate A-4" - UUA Pacific Western Region Congregational Life Staff Team

Date

In her poem "Gate A-4”, Arab-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye shares an account of distress, compassion and community as she is called to interpret Arabic for a fearful traveler at an airport. As many of us take to the highways, airways and railways this November and December, the PWR Staff has put together a worship service that touches on the themes of the poem, and questions such as Who are we called to care for? When do we answer the call to serve? Where might we be surprised by grace?  

This service is a compilation of contributions from the Pacific Western Regional Staff: Annie Scott (CRE), Rev. Summer Albayati, Dr. Melissa James and Revs. Sarah Millspaugh, Sarah Schurr, and Carlton E. Smith.


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

"Pain, Illness, and the Gift of Presence" - Rev. Barbara Stevens

Date

In her work as a chaplain, Rev. Barbara Stevens faces all kinds of illness and suffering. She has learned that the capacity to be present in the face of that suffering comes from having looked at her own fears and challenges, from a faith in life and the human spirit, and from an inner peace that allows for stillness. It is possible for us all to discover such gifts in ourselves.


Rev. Barbara Stevens is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister and chaplain, specializing in serving people in recovery from addiction, trauma, and loss.  She served as the chaplain at Providence Hospital’s inpatient substance abuse program for seven years and currently works as a chaplain with Kaiser Permanente. In addition, she has worked with UU churches as a director of religious education, a consulting minister (including at Wy'east), and an affiliated community minister.  In 2011, she helped start the Universalist Recovery Church that meets on Sunday afternoons at Eastrose Fellowship Unitarian Universalist.  She believes that the source of life and creation is love. If we can accept that love, we can heal. Though we might not escape sorrow and pain, we can know joy. Learn more about Rev. Barbara Stevens and her ministry on her website: www.barbarastevensministries.com

 

Multi-Platform Worship Sunday at 10:30 AM

This service will be offered as both a virtual and an in-person service at 10:30 AM.

Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom

Meeting ID:  275 194 110

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

 

In-Person service is at the Community for Positive Aging (1820 NE 40th Ave).