Sermon Archive
"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
One tap mobile
+12532050468,,96103198990#,,,,*450755# US
+12532158782,,96103198990#,,,,*450755# US (Tacoma)
"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?
"5th-Sunday Day of Service” - Center for Positive Aging
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, our "5th-Sunday Day of Service". 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.
This month we will be supporting the Center for Positive Aging with some sprucing up and cleaning of the space we share with them. We will be meeting on the back side of the Senior Center at 10:30AM and will be doing general cleaning tasks that will be finalized early next week. Work stops at Noon. Complete details of the tasks to be performed will be posted as soon as possible. For any questions, please connect with Ron Thurston.
There will be NO Service, but please join us joyfully at the Center for Positive Aging for a morning of fellowship and service.
"Reflections from Another America” - Ava Collopy, Wy’east friend
Ava Collopy grew up in Oregon and often attended Wy'east with her father as long as fifteen years ago. She then moved to Ireland, where her family originates from, and she currently resides in Arkansas, near other relatives. Ava has taught in Europe, and is still doing that in the southern US. Given that she is a friend of our Wy'east family who has both stayed in touch and visited, we invited her to speak on what it's like for her to live and teach where she is now, in Another America.
"How Do We Side With Love?” - Wy’east Members & Friends
This Sunday is the annual Portland Pride Parade. As Unitarian Universalists we are called to show up in love to support the movement fighting for rights and liberation for LGBQT+ folks. How will you "Side With Love" on this Sunday?
Some of us will be called to join or attend the Pride Parade*. Our Multi-Platform Worship will offer another way to Side With Love by learning more about the work of UPLIFT Action, a social justice focus of the UUA's Side With Love public advocacy arm.
"Ever Willing: Becoming the People Our World Needs” - Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti, Senior Minister of the First UU Congregation of Ann Arbor, Michigan
The pandemic has wrought change and created uncertainty for institutions, like our Unitarian Universalist congregations, and our wider world. Who and what are we becoming, individually and collectively? This is the sermon from the Sunday service from the UUA General Assembly at the end of June and it explores these themes as we gather in community to celebrate the best of who we UUs are.
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti serves as Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is a co-editor of "Conversations with the Sacred: A Collection of Prayers" (2020) and the 2018-2019 UUA common read, "Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class, and the Environment." He has served extensively in Unitarian Universalist leadership, including as a member of the UUSC Board of Trustees; the UUA Board of Trustees; President of DRUUMM (our UU people of color organization, Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries); Commissioner on the UUA Commission on Appraisal; Secretary of the Board of Starr King School for the Ministry; and as an author and advocate of the 2007 General Assembly resolution confronting gender identity-related discrimination. He brings to the ministry his multicultural experience serving as a U.S. diplomat during the Clinton administration. Rev. Manish loves desert hiking and his amazing kids and husband.
View the entire service here:
"Annual Summer Celebration in the Park"
Announcing our Annual Summer Celebration! Our annual tradition of gathering in a park the first Sunday in July (near July 4th) continues with our July 2nd Summer Celebration & Interdependence Day Picnic. This joyful in-person gathering is in lieu of our usual Sunday Worship Service. There will not be a worship service on Zoom or at the Center for Positive Aging. We'll socialize, play games, and catch up on what's been going on in our lives.
When: Sunday July 2, 2023 from 10:30-2:00.
Gathering, socializing and game playing will last till around 11:30 when serving will begin. After eating participants can continue socializing and game playing. Our reserved time ends at 2:00 PM. Matt will be leading us in well known songs from about 11:00-11:30.
Where: Creston Park near SE 43rd & Powell, Group Site "D"
The group sites are on the West side of the park.
So this will be a potluck with each member or family contributing a food item of their choice to be shared. We encourage you to bring the drinks of your choice, lawn chairs, blankets, crayons for the children to draw on the table coverings and favorite games(bad mitten, hula hoops, crochet). Board games are also welcomed.
Membership Committee will provide brown paper table coverings, paper plates, cups and napkins. Additionally we will have hand sanitizer, tea, water, and large trash bags. Everyone is welcome to bring their own utensils and plates.
We encourage you to come, relax, enjoy your Wy'east community and the warm mid Summer days.
Direct your questions to:
Ron Thurston, Membership Chair
318-300-9509 (phone or text)
“The Church: To Be and To Do” - Rev. Byron “Tyler” Coles
Every year on the last Sunday in June, our faith joins together for the largest annual gathering of UU's in Worship. This service will be live streamed at 11am Eastern Time (8am Pacific) and we aim to share some of the highlights at our usual worship time.
However, that recording is not expected to be available in time, so we will hear instead from the Rev. Byron “Tyler” Coles, from the Congregational Life Staff of the Southern Region of the UUA, with a sermon recorded for the use of small congregations like ours. We will share the GA Sunday Service by the Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, Michigan at our next worship together on July 9th.
Join us on Sunday instead for: “The Church: To Be and To Do” by Rev. Byron “Tyler” Coles
In the wake of such great change internally and externally, we must ask ourselves, 'What is the Church to be and do in this time?' Come, let us gather in community as we reflect on this question, speak honestly of our journey, and faithfully imagine a future to come.
Tyler Coles (they/he) is native of Roanoke, VA, and the only child of Monica and Terry. Inspired by the good news of Unitarian Universalism, Tyler believes the best of our collective ministry strives towards conjuring "the Beloved Kin-dom on earth as it is in heaven." They engage this mandate through the work of multi-religious organizing, supporting young adults, and movement chaplaincy.
Tyler has served the greater faith as the Young Adult Community Leader of SPARK, Intern Minister of Mount Vernon Unitarian Church, and respectively as a steering committee member of Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM) and the Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism's (BLUU) Steering Committee for youth ministry. They currently serve on the Congregational Life Staff for the Southern Region of the Unitarian Universalist 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