Would you like to deepen your spiritual practice, live your passions, and make friends at QUUF? Rev. Florence Caplow and the Pathways Team introduce a new program of conversations, service opportunities, and joyful service. Click here to listen to the introduction and reflections. Click here to read the introduction and reflections.
QUUF member Mitch Poling was the high bidder on a sermon topic for Florence at our annual QUUF auction. He has requested this topic because of his interest in the field of cosmology. Florence is no cosmologist, but she will attempt to rise to the occasion with explorations from the fields of ecology, Zen, and process theology.
We stand just inside the threshold of a political time that few of us expected or imagined. It seems that our beloved UU values are under fire in every way – women’s rights, civil rights, the environment, healthcare….How do we find courage and clarity in this time? How do we decide who or what we will defend? What is being asked of us?
Traditionally, the Sunday after Christmas is our last time to sing Christmas music for the year. This year we will begin the service with Christmas music, honor the eighth day of Hanukkah, and end with turning toward 2017 and our resolutions for the year to come. This year our resolutions may go far beyond starting an exercise program: as UUs we must strengthen our resolution for responding with faith and courage to what is happening in our country. Where do we find that inner resolve, and how do we stay awake and clear in our resolutions?
9:30pm to 12:15am. We gather for moving meditation, song, silent meditation, and Buddhist bell-ringing led by Rev. Florence Caplow and Christopher Overman.
At 4:30 pm Wednesday please join us for this free event honoring the dark and turning toward the light. We will begin with an interactive and meditative ritual of silence, music, song, and candle lighting in the Sanctuary, followed by a joyous bonfire at at the kitchen shelter at Fort Worden. Bring finger food and non-alcoholic drinks to the bonfire to share. All are welcome to both or either event, and please let the larger PT community know of this event. Childcare available during the ritual, including a children’s solstice celebration.
If you have wood to donate, please contact Janete Carter. For more information about this service, contact Siena Foxx
For this fourth Sunday of Christmas, “Joy,” we revive a QUUF tradition of the minister sharing the pulpit with a member of our congregation. Florence and Roger will each reflect, personally and honestly, on joy and dark times. What is joy? Is there room for joy in the middle of trouble? Are there practices of joyfulness that may give us strength and endurance even in hardship?
The holidays are times when old hurts are felt again and new hurts are sometimes inflicted on each other. As a nation we are also angry and hurting after a bruising election. Our Unitarian Universalist tradition has the practice of “renewing covenant” when harm has been done. We will explore stories and practices from the world’s spiritual traditions on how forgiveness can be possible even under the most difficult of circumstances.
Our annual All Souls memorial service and ritual will acknowledge and honor our ancestors who have passed away – ancestors of our family, spiritual ancestors, and ancestors of the heart. We are here now because of our ancestors, and they live on in us. Please bring names, mementos, or photographs for our altar of anyone who has passed away whom you wish to honor – human or animal. Older children are encouraged to stay for the service.
“Covenant” is an ancient term for a sacred agreement, and it has always been at the heart of our understanding of our community as Unitarian Universalists, where we covenant with one another to walk together in peace. But covenant goes beyond the walls of our sanctuary – what would it mean to covenant with those who face oppression, to covenant with all beings, with the earth, with the children of the future? And is covenant merely an idea, or is it a spiritual practice? We will explore these questions through story, poetry, and song.
