A compelling teaching from the Epistle of James reads, “Removing action from faith is like removing breath from a body. All you have left is a corpse.” Religious progressives have allowed the faith narrative in Texas to be dominated by an extreme vocal sect of one religion. No wonder our state is on life support!! … Continue reading Breathing UU Faith Into The Body Politic
Religious communities often disagree more than they agree – conflicting theologies, writings, beliefs … the list goes on and on. One thing, however, seems to be present in many, if not all, gathered communities of faith: music. We will again this year celebrate Easter special concert by flutist Cornell Kinderknecht. For those who cut church … Continue reading Easter for the Non-Religious: Our Seventh Annual All-Music Easter Morning
An exploration of how our society can leverage our religious diversity to find common ground for our journey together into Beloved Community. Mark Davies is the Oklahoma State Humanities Scholar for the Smithsonian Institute Museum on Main Street Water/Ways exhibit. He is also the Wimberly Professor of Social and Ecological Ethics; Director of the World House … Continue reading Embracing Religious Pluralism and Celebrating Interdependent Community.
Would you rather be close or far? How far is it, and how long till we get there, Sisyphus? How close is too close, Icarus? Oops, better ask Daedalus! William Lloyd Fridley, a longtime friend of the congregation. Fridley is an Associate Professor of Education and has been at Southeastern Oklahoma State University since 1999. … Continue reading Close to You? Distance and Communication.
The World is my Parish – reflections on what we might learn from the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, in our current global context. We will also be exploring the universalist themes within Wesley’s understanding of grace. Mark Davies is the Oklahoma State Humanities Scholar for the Smithsonian Institute Museum on Main Street Water/Ways exhibit. … Continue reading The World is my Parish
Dr Tudor filed a complaint of discrimination against Southeastern University when she was denied tenure solely because she is transgender. They retaliated by firing her. She sued and won (unanimous vote of the jury). She is now asking a federal appeals court to allow her to return to Southeastern with tenure. The State of Oklahoma … Continue reading An Instinct for Kindness: Being an Ally in Times of Crisis
Robert and Lanan Shelton are long time members of Red River UU. Robert began his love affair with elephants when he was a child. His grandmother traveled extensively, and when she visited a country with an elephant population, she brought a figurine representing an elephant indigenous to the area. Robert’s sister moved to southern India, … Continue reading Why We Love Elephants
Toulouse T’ Care, the singing duo of Fenton Rood and Mark Christian, brings us a morning filled with songs Woody Guthrie Wood wrote, along with a couple of songs about the man. Guthrie was a lot of things. He was an activist during the depression and all the way through World War II. As Unitarian Universalists … Continue reading In The Spirit of Woody Guthrie with “Toulouse T’ Care”
“Teams” The morning worship from The First Parish in Bedford, MA The Rev. John Gibbons, speaking We go to movies to become engrossed with what we see, hear and feel. We know it is a film and yet we feel the emotions. We laugh or cry, are happy or sad. We leave often deeply touched by the … Continue reading Teams (video message)
During February we honor National Black History month. Often the remarks focus on Dr. King. Marco’s mom Adrian suggested to the worship team that we create an assembly on Bayard Rustin. None of us knew the name, the man, nor anything about his life. We agreed that looking at this fascinating character is worth a … Continue reading Bayard Rustin ~ the Gay Socialist Pacifist Who Planned the 1963 March on Washington
