 Greetings fellow UUs and supporters! We are meeting IN PERSON and on Zoom until further notice. Our theme for October is Awe. Watch a sleeping baby, a rainbow, a towering sequoia tree, or experience any number of life's wonders and you will be in awe. Simply put -- awe is seeing life as sacred. --- Sunday, October 16th Service:  Wonder is a splendor that cannot be named. As we looked out at the vastness of the universe and life around us we struggled to find some meaning in our seemingly insignificant lives. Organized religions made the mistake of looking at the mysteries and pretended that an answer, a revelation, a truth existed to explain it all. Doctrines were established to teach the truth and rituals performed to feel the truth about who the architect of the heavens is and that 'he' cares about us. Life was made meaningful by living according to his word. But, we have paid a heavy price in believing that supernatural law takes precedence over natural law -- to believe that it is our divine right to have dominion over the earth, and that we are entitled to exploit all of earth's gifts for selfish needs. Our alienation from the natural world deprives us of a real intimacy with the natural splendor that graces our life and which in fact has given us life in the first place. Religion has provided us myths, and myths are not truths. The natural world provides wonder which does not require complete understanding -- just reverence. Unitarian Universalism provides the foundation to lean the new generation into a greater reverence for what is and to provide an ethical mandate for how to preserve and sustain that which is sacred. A new religious imagination needs to guide and help us to identify the interconnectedness within the web of all existence and that recognizes the integrity of the natural world as a condition for the integrity of the inner spiritual world. Service Outline Service slides Sermon Videos: Part 1 Part 2 Please visit us either in person at 1119 Johnston St. or on Zoom: tinyurl.com/zoomuulala or via the link at uulala.org. We now have Religious Education for children up to age 10. We visit with coffee and snacks from 10:30-11 am. The service runs from 11 am until 12 noon. After the service every second and fourth Sunday of the month we have a potluck dinner. On other Sundays we go out to eat at a local restaurant. Everyone is invited! --- Last Sunday's Service Recap: From a young age, America Fererra wanted to be an actor. In spite of those who told her 'people like her' did not make it in Hollywood. The roles offered her were typically Latino stereotypes. After attempting to mold herself to accommodate what roles were available, she was eventually offered roles that represented women that were imperfect, but endearing. Her big role as 'Ugly Betty' was a great success but it did not change the system that resisted Latinos being their authentic selves. She realized that she needed to demand that the system change but not by identifying who the good guys and bad guys are because most of us are neither one of those. Change will come when each of us has the courage to question our own fundamental values and beliefs then see to it that our actions lead to our best intentions. She was told that in order to fulfill her dream and contribute her talent to the world she needed to resist who she was. She is ready to stop resisting and to start assisting her true authentic self. Her identity is not her obstacle but is her super power because she and we are what the world actually looks like. In order for our systems to reflect that they don't have to create a new reality, they just need to stop resisting the reality we already live in. --- Useful Links:
--- Announcements:  --- Rally In Support Of Iranian Citizens:  There will be a rally on Sunday, October 16th at 10 am in front of Dominos Pizza to support Freedoms that are being denied to women and men in Iran. If you wish to participate, please bring a sign of support or protest if you are able and some will be available as well as extra markers. As we will be on the sidewalk facing oncoming traffic, large lettering and short messages will be easier for drivers to read as they approach the intersection. Suggested slogans are 'Justice for Amini', 'Women, Life and Liberty'; 'We are all Mahsa Amini'; 'Freedom In Iran'; 'Free Iran'; 'Women/Life/Freedom', 'Stand with Iranian Women'; 'Be Iran's Voice'; '#MahsaAmini'; 'Support Iranian Women'; 'I Stand With The Women Of Iran' --- Postcards to Swing States:  If you have filled out Postcards to Swing States, we are recommending that you mail them no eariler than October 21st. and no later than October 28th. --- Calendar:  --- Touchstones Journal for October:  --- |