liberal, inclusive, LGBTQ friendly, all denominations, progressive, welcoming

20/20 Vision: Can We See Clearly Now?

A hopeful look forward for the 2020’s – the make or break decade of the make or break century.

Rev. Dr. Mark Y. A. Davies is the Wimberly Professor of Social and Ecological Ethics, Director of the World House Institute for Social and Ecological Responsibility, and Executive Director of the Leadership. Education, and Development Hub North America for the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry) at Oklahoma City University where he has worked in both teaching and administration for 22 years. He is an ordained elder in the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church where he has served as Chair of the Board of Church and Society from 2015 to 2018.

A Ritual for the Season

The first Sunday of the new year is a time for reflection and introspection. It is a time of new beginnings and possibilities. To our ritual of letting go (flame), metaphoric cleansing (water), setting intentions (oil), and new beginnings (light), we are adding a way to reconnect to the Earth and growing things. We will be planting seeds for our Web of Life Monarch Way Station.

The Worship Team, leading

Sitting On The Cusp Of A Year

We conclude this worship year, as is our tradition, with a morning assembly featuring all of us, everyone who would like to share a reading, song, poem, or a story. Being at the cusp concluding the first decade of the century and launching into the second one, what thought do you bring to this transition? Bring whatever you wish to share, with the only guideline being one of time. Six to seven minutes for each speaker allows more opportunities to listen to what others have brought.

A Three-In-One Morning

Three special observances coalesce within this week-end. The Winter solstice on Saturday evening celebrates a pagan heritage. Christians look with Joy on this third Sunday of Advent and Jews light the first Hanukkah candle at dusk Sunday evening. Our assembly today will celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah and Solstice in readings and music.

Laughter in Dark Times

When life gets you down, whether from personal or global tragedy, it is important to find your laughter. As Josh Billings says about laughter, “Genuine laughing is the vent of the soul, the nostrils of the heart, and it is just as necessary for health and happiness as spring water is for a trout.” Come join us for a morning of therapeutic laughter with Certified Laughter Leader, Marla Loturco

Celebration of Chalica and our Seven Principles

Chalica begins Monday, December 2nd and ends next Sunday, December 8. For these seven days Unitarian Universalists celebrate one principle on each day. The last Sunday, is normally devoted to the last principle. The worship team has invited seven members to each select one principle and share what it means to them. The speakers are Carol Powell, Jolene Whiten, Ronda DeCaire, Jim Holmes, Robert Shelton, Dick Powell, and Marion Hill. Which principle would you have chosen?

What is Truth and Why Does It Matter?

We seem to find ourselves in an increasingly post-truth society in which many people simply confuse truth with ideology or whatever gets repeated the most by their favorite politicians or news sources. What does it mean for something to be true and why does this matter for the creation of human and ecological flourishing in our world?

The Rev. Dr. 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 Institute for Social and Ecological Responsibility; and Executive Director of the Leadership. Education, and Development Hub North America for the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry at Oklahoma City University where he has worked in both teaching and administration for 22 years. He is a United Methodist minister and holds a Ph.D. in Social Ethics, from Boston University.

Mark engages in advocacy and activism in the areas of peace, social justice, and ecological sustainability. Locally this is expressed through his work with the Human Community Network, which works to create non-violent systemic change for a just and flourishing human and ecological community through collaboration, education, innovation, and action.

For All That Is Our Life – All Music Assembly

Our familiar and well-loved hymn of thanks and praise is the inspiration for this musical service at the cusp of Thanksgiving and the holiday season. Our talented musical volunteers and the Worship Team present a morning program that mines the riches of our Singing the Living Tradition and Singing The Journey hymnals to celebrate not only gratitude, but also the many contrasting elements and moods of our shared humanity. This promises to be a very special assembly!

White Lion, Radicals, and UU Values

A look at three points in American History from 1619 when the first African slaves arrived to 1919 when the largest deportation of immigrants from these shores took place and to 2019 where questions of who are citizens, who are immigrants, who belongs and who decides still plague us. Ponder this fact of history: without the idealistic, strenuous and patriotic efforts of black Americans, our democracy today would most likely look very different – it might not be a democracy at all.

This assembly will include prayers for the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The Rev. Strong, a sixth-generation UU, co-founded our congregation 22 years ago as a outreach ministry of Community UU Church in Plano where he served as minister. After retirement and the death of his husband John, he relocated to Texoma and is an active lay-member of Red River UU’s where he is the lead coordinator for the Worship Team.

Strong grew up in Madison WI and received his BA degrees in Psychology and Spanish language from the University of Wisconsin, and his Masters of Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry, part of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley CA in 1979. Over the next 30+ years he served UU congregations in ME, VA, MA, CA, AZ, WI and TX.

The Joy of Impermanence

Most people, if they give any thought to impermanence, have a negative view of it. Why do good times have to end? Why do loved ones have to go? Why must health and youth fade? What we do not contemplate is that –were it not for impermanence– we’d be stuck forever in old problems, with unwanted company, and never-ending negative situations. Impermanence is a blessing!

Tashi Nyima is a Buddhist monk and a practitioner of Indo-Tibetan Yoga and Ayurveda for more than thirty years. He is the director of the New Jonang Buddhist Community in Dallas, Texas and a spokesperson for Dharma Voices for Animals.