Sermon Archive
“Gratitude, Food, and Feelings about Thanksgiving”
Now that we know what we know about Thanksgiving you might have conflicted feelings or you might not be celebrating it at all or you might have crafted some new traditions around it, so for this year's annual bread service, we are broadening the topic to include Gratitude OR Food OR Feelings about Thanksgiving. Wy'east Members and friends will offer a series of thoughts and reflections on these ideas. Join us and share some of your own.
“Creating Beloved Community at Wy'east and in the Wider World” - Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx
In these times of polarization and separation, the vision of Beloved Community is ever more vital. How do we see each other as beloved fellow human beings even in the face of differences? Leslie will share wisdom learned from the teachings and practices of NonViolence.relevant to personal life, congregational life, and community connections.
Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx is currently a UU community minister whose ministry focuses on supporting leaders to care for the whole, bringing complex ideas to life in story, and using Playback interactive theater to bridge differences. Her website is www.ConversationThatMatters.com. She is joining us as our candidate to be our quarter-time minister.
There will be a "Special Congregational Meeting" immediately following the Service
As reported by the Wy'east Board last month (click here to review), the Ministerial Search Committee has presented a candidate for our quarter-time ministry position to the Board. The Board is pleased to report we have successfully negotiated a contract with Rev. Becknell Marx to serve as our quarter-time minister beginning on December 1st. Following this introductory service, there will be a congregational vote to affirm her as our quarter-time minister.
“Psychology of Guns & Gun Fanaticism and Negative Impact on Policing” - Robin G Henderson MD
Robin Henderson’s presentation on guns, gun fanaticism and the impact on police behavior, when it feels like “guns are everywhere”, focuses on several intersecting factors in our current political culture. He urges genuine, substantive and historically proven gun regulation policies, not the timid marginal steps typically placed on the table from either political party.
Robin’s interest results from a combination of personal life and professional experiences. After becoming deeply disturbed about the tragic Viet Nam conflict, he applied for conscientious objector status, focusing on the topic of “aggression”. He learned more when later examining over fifteen hundred Viet Nam veterans in psychiatric evaluations at a VA facility. Subsequently he had several police officers as patients and saw real parallels to the current situation where police often have to work in a gun infused urban environment.
Robin Henderson is a member of Wy’east and a retired psychoanalytic psychiatrist.
"Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly..." - David Wheeler
Can we combine a fierce pursuit of justice with humility, kindness, and a conviction that "the moral arc of the universe does indeed bend toward justice”?
Originally from Louisville, KY. David has degrees from Yale University Divinity School (M.Div.) and the Graduate Theological Union (Th.D). Pastoral ministry including First Baptist Church of Los Angeles and First Baptist Church of Portland. He’s had teaching positions at Central Baptist Seminary (Kansas City); Fuller Seminary; San Francisco Theological Seminary, Southern California; and Palmer Theological Seminary. David was also a guest professor in Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Russia. He’s had 40 years of bilingual ministry. He had been an Organizer for CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice), Los Angeles. Currently, David is a member of the Faith/Labor Committee, and Portland Jobs with Justice.
There will also be a Special Collections this Sunday benefiting "PDX NAACP"
“5th Sunday Inaugural Day of Service: Hollywood Neighborhood Clean-up” - Diane Ingle and Larry Burt
Each church year there are 4 months that have a 5th Sunday. As part of our lay-led ministry, we will be 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.
Join us on October 30th for our Inaugural 5th Sunday Day of Service. Wy'east Members Diane Ingle and Larry Burt have partnered with SOLV to do a neighborhood cleanup in the Hollywood Neighborhood. Our goals are to help make the area a safer, cleaner, more pleasant area to visit and to help build community spirit among our members. Volunteers will pick up litter in the Hollywood neighborhood business area within a four block radius surrounding our meeting placeThis is a private event for Wy'east Unitarian Universalist Church Congregation in lieu of the regular Sunday October 30th Service.
The details:
- We will meet in the parking lot at the back of the Center for Positive Aging at 10:30am (masks encouraged) and finish at 12:00. RAIN or SHINE!
- SOLV will provide trash bags, trash pickers, disposable gloves, and high-visibility vests.
- Volunteers should wear clothing appropriate for the weather including closed-toe shoes and long pants; also bring a filled reusable water bottle, and an umbrella if it looks like rain. A small backpack is also suggested to carry any extra clothing and the water bottle.
- Parking and transit are available the same as for our regular Sunday morning church service.
- Bathrooms are available at the Hollywood Library and at various businesses in the area.
- All participants must sign a SOLV waiver to participate - Click Here to Sign the Waiver. Paper forms will also be available at the meeting site. You don't have to sign up ahead of time. You can just show up!
Children are Welcome!:
- Childcare will be provided at the Center for Positive Aging
- This is an all-ages event. Children under the age of 13 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
If you have further questions, contact Diane Ingle at 503-936-6947 or Larry Burt at 503-329-6397
There will be NO Virtual Service nor Multi-Platform Sunday at 10:30.
“Deciding the Future of Portland’s Government” - Dr. Melanie Billings-Yun
In December 2020, the Portland City Council convened an independent Charter Commission to review and recommend amendments to the City of Portland Charter (City's Constitution). After a year and a half of research and public listening sessions, on June 14, 2022, the Charter Commission resoundingly approved a proposal significantly changing Portland’s form of government and method of electing representatives. On the November 2022 ballot, voters in the City of Portland will get to decide whether or not to pass this amendment. As part of our Social Justice Speaker Series on the Health of Our Democracy, Dr. Melanie Billings-Yun will share with us some of her insights and experience in working on this project.
Dr. Melanie Billings-Yun (PhD, Harvard) is past co-chair of the Portland Charter Review Commission. Professionally, she is an international negotiation consultant and professor, having taught for 16 years at Portland State University, as well as at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Georgetown University, and colleges overseas. The author of Beyond Dealmaking: Five Steps to Negotiating Profitable Relationships, Melanie has worked throughout Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East, to help organizations and individuals resolve disputes and build more cooperative relations. For her work in bridging cultural differences, she was awarded the 2020 Simon Benson Alumni Achievement Award.
“Love AS a Practice” - LaShelle Lowe-Charde'
Each week we practice love by reading our covenant together which begins with the line, "We covenant with each other as a community of Love." This Sunday, Wise Heart Pdx founder, LaShelle Lowe-Charde' invites us to explore "Love AS a practice."
LaShelle Lowe-Charde' found Wise Heart with a mission to help make a shift in consciousness about how we relate to life. She dreams of a world in which we value and thrust the quality of connection with ourselves and others as the primary way to build and maintain a thriving life for all. Learn more about her and Wise Heart at www.wiseheartpdx.org.
“Land Acknowledgement: Why Does it Matter?” - Service led by Wy'east Members & Friends
Wy'east worship services and many public gatherings open with a statement acknowledging the ancestral and territorial lands of first peoples. In this lay-led service falling the day before Indigenous People's Day, we will explore the practice of land acknowledgment through the lens of personal experience and inquiry about how we move this practice from statement to action.
“Whole Hearts, Mystical Minds: Faith reflections from the Psychedelic Renaissance” - Rev. Mira Kepler (née Mickiewicz)
The mainstreaming of psychedelic medicines, from psilocybin to MDMA to ketamine, holds promise for treating mental health conditions, easing end-of-life anxiety, and augmenting personal growth and exploration. What does this conversation offer to communities and people of faith, even those with no plans to personally try these medicines? What does this modern research and ancient wisdom tell us about consciousness, mystery, spiritual practice, and right relationship?
Rev. Miranda Kepler (née Mickiewicz) is a UU minister and a Zen Buddhist student based in rural northwestern Oregon. She currently works offering organizational support to a Native American drug and alcohol recovery center. Mira’s training includes many years of teaching and leadership at outdoor schools and camps, a Master’s of Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry, and a residency as a hospital chaplain. She is passionate about rites of passage, trauma healing, birth and death work, and tending land and family.
"How Changes in Democracy Are Affecting Our Lives" - Lenny Dee
Understanding the political orders we have been through, and are now in, are crucial to getting a perspective on the future of American Democracy. The City of Portland has changed a great deal through the evolving national political order. From the New Deal and Neoliberalism, to the Presidential policies of Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Obama, and Trump, we will explore those changes with a particular focus on homelessness.
Lenny Dee is a long time Portland activist. He was instrumental in developing and passing the Portland Clean Energy Initiative. In addition, Lenny led the first campaign against Urban Renewal in Portland, played a key role in building a region-wide coalition that positively impacted regional development, and published a journal that won one hundred awards from the National Society of Professional Journalists.