First Universalist Church

Led by the music ministry of our choir and orchestra, we are held by exquisite voices and sounds, as we prepare our hearts to make our Holiday Gifts to BLUU (Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism.) Back on November 17, we invited the congregation to consume less this holiday season, to live into our core values, and to re-imagine what joy and justice might look like this holiday season. This Sunday, we pooled our gifts (from the money we didn’t spend this holiday season) to support the work of BLUU.  Call to Worship by Holiday Giving Team Members (:31) Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Part 1, Shelley des Islets, Libretto (2:12) Holiday Giving Team Members Reflection (6:16) Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Part 2, Shelley des Islets, Libretto (10:32) Homily, Rev. Justin Schroeder (13:00) Holiday Giving Offering to Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (23:00) Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Part 3, Shelley des Islets, Libretto (26:22)

The greatest problems of philosophy are the most common and mundane aspects of everyday life. Why is the idea of home such a gripping metaphor that evokes deep desire, angst and comfort?  Let’s get past the platitudes and mind numbing nostalgia about home and take a deep dive into the philosophical nature of home. Call to Worship - Daryn Woodson (:21) Sermon - Rev. Karen Hutt (5:45)

Thanksgiving is behind us. December stretches out in front of us. Some of us are entering the season of Advent, looking forward to Christmas. Others in our community look forward to celebrating the Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa. While our celebrations are diverse and many, home will be a part of all of our celebrations. Whether we're preparing our homes (and hearts) to receive guests, or visiting others, we'll be moving in and between experiences of home. Call to Worship - Sara Smalley (:32) Homily - Arif Mamdani (4:45)

When have you felt like you truly belonged somewhere? What did it feel like? If you’ve rarely or never had that feeling of belonging, what made you keep showing up in places that didn’t feel comfortable? We claim that Universalism is grounded in a love big enough to hold us all, no exceptions – but how are we doing living into that core belief, and what might we do to become even more radically welcoming? Call to Worship- Rev. Jen Crow (:29) Sermon- Rev. Jen Crow (3:51)

This holiday season, join us in actively engaging in ways to re-imagine our relationship to the holidays, to our families, to our planet, and to our communities. Over the coming weeks, we are inviting the whole congregation to explore what truly brings us joy in this season, to more fully live into our values as people of faith, and to put in motion new practices and ways of being that might live with us throughout the year.  In this service, you’ll hear from Rev. Justin, youth and adult members of our Holiday Giving Team, learn more about about Holiday Giving Recipient, Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism, and be invited to re-imagine what joy and justice might look like in your life this holiday season.  Youth Reflections (:30) Reflections from Holiday Giving Team Co-Chairs, Isabel Quast and Rev. Justin Schroeder (4:57)

What are the spiritual muscles we need to exercise in order to take our place and make room? How do we tone up our aerobic capacity to lift up the whole of our stories, take in the whole of another’s story, the particular of our community’s story, and within the context of our national story? This week, we will talk about the meaning of “reparations,” and develop a musculature to hold “the full acceptance of our collective biography and its consequences (Ta-Nehisi Coates).” In this service, we listen to where love is taking us next in all the complexity, pain, joy, failure, and richness of our multifaceted stories. Call to Worship- Shawn Neel (:31) Sermon- Rev. Ruth MacKenzie (4:26) 

Our theme this month is “Taking our Place, and Making Room.” Both of these practices require noticing our ego and its movement in our lives. Are we willing to step back, make room, and let other voices, experiences, and realities hold center stage? Are we willing to step forward when that feels dangerous, uncertain, and vulnerable? So often, deep spiritual work involves navigating and understanding our egos. But what about when we have an encounter in which our ego totally disappears? What place do we take up then? Call to Worship- Rev. Jen Crow (:32) Reading- Rev. Justin Schroeder (3:35) Sermon- Rev. Justin Schroeder (5:10)

Ever wonder why and how our church was founded? What does it mean to celebrate the anniversary of a minister’s ordination and installation? Are we consciously using our history to inform our future as a faith movement? This week, we remember and dream together.   Call to Worship- Monroe Chumklang Sermon- Rev. Karen Hutt

Disney’s Moana tells the story of a young woman who hears the call of the ocean. In answering the call, Moana embarks on a voyage to save her people, and find the place she belongs in the process. Most of us aren’t called forth into our belonging so dramatically, and few us are accompanied by a soundtrack featuring The Rock. This Sunday, we listen for how the story and music of Moana speak (and sing!) to us in our continued exploration of The Edges of Belonging. Wisdom Story- Rev. Karen Hutt & members of the congregation (:32) Reading- Arif Mamdani (3:35) Sermon- Arif Mamdani (5:25)

One of the most important and powerful longings of the human heart is for belonging. Perhaps more important even than food or shelter, belonging can offer us a sense of purpose, meaning, and connection that can sustain us no matter what ups and downs life may throw our way. On this episode, we explore what it might mean to honor that human longing for belonging, for ourselves and each other.  Call to Worship- Satya Mamdani (:30) Sermon - Rev. Jen Crow (4:40)

Secrets, shame, and stigma are not helpful when striving for wellness, health, and spiritual well-being. Through great strides have been made over the years, there is all too often a deafening silence around mental health challenges. At First Universalist Church, we aspire to be a place where we can bring our whole selves, as we are welcomed in joy. Join us for our 3rd annual Mental Health Sunday, as we break the silence, speak the truth, and with loving and curious hearts explore the realities of mental health challenges and how that touches all of us.  

A “Why Church?” case study by the Rev. Karen Hutt. Come journey back in time and hear a story about how a UU church was founded to serve the needs of those who wanted church, but were denied.  Call to Worship - Monique Wentzel (:32) Sermon - An Open Door - Rev. Karen Hutt (4:30)  

In the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, Calvin invents a transmogrifier that transforms anything into anything else at the push of a button or the zap of a transmogrifying gun. Change, in the world of Calvin and Hobbes, is easy. Octavia Butler added some nuance to this, reminding us that “all that we touch we change, and all that we change, changes us. That the only constant is change, and that God is change.” If these two perspectives represent points on a (non-linear) continuum of transformation, where exactly does church fit in? Is it a vehicle for our own transmogrification? A container for that which changes us? Do we change church as we take our places in this living tradition? Call to Worship - Rev. Stephanie Vos (:23) Reading - We Are All Longing to Go Home, by Starhawk (:59) Reflection - Rev. Stephanie Vos (1:57) Sermon - Transmogrify(ing) Church, Arif Mamdani (8:29)  

The English poet John Donne wrote, “No person is an island…we are all a part of the continent, part of the main.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “In a real sense, all life is inter-related. All people are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” While this may be true, our lived experience is often that we feel terribly alone, separate, isolated. We feel as if there are wild parts of ourselves disconnected from other human beings. This month, we continue to ask, “Why Church?” This Sunday, we explore how church might be the place where we join our wilderness (our wild places) to the wilderness and wild places of others — discovering deep joy and connection with one another. Call to Worship - Lauren Wyeth (:31) Reading - Excerpt from The Book of Delights by Ross Gay (4:40) Sermon- "Joining Our Wildernesses" Rev. Justin Schroeder (7:44)

Why Church? With so many options on a Sunday morning, why come to church? Why be in human community? Why wrestle with meaning and purpose? Why be unsettled and provoked and calmed and steadied? What are we doing here, anyway? Why are we at church? This service is also Water Communion Sunday, an annual service at which we celebrate the many rivers, eddies and waterways of our life experiences, converging in our sanctuary every Sunday forming a river of faith. We embody this truth by bringing water from our homes, our travels, our walks, and our bike paths—and combine them during the service in a ritual called Water Communion. Story for All Ages: The Journeying Stream - Rev. Jen Crow and Arif Mamdani (:32) Homily: Daring to be Human Together - Rev. Justin Schroeder (6:40) Water Communion Ritual - Worship Team (16:24)

When the culture around us doesn’t encourage us to our best selves, how do we model the kind of world we want to live in? Guest speaker and musician, Matt Meyer, will reflect on the good and bad of middle school, the time he picked the very best costume for a high-stakes 5th grade costume party, and how we find the skills for beloved community. Matt is a musician and community organizer who has led hundreds of services for UU congregations across the country. He has a degree in hand drumming and has studied abroad in Cuba, Ghana and Central America. Matt serves as Director of Community Life for Sanctuary Boston, a contemporary worship community in Boston, and is a founding resident of the Lucy Stone Cooperative in Roxbury. Welcome- Rev. Jen Crow (:22) Call to Worship - Matt Meyer (3:11) Story for All Ages - Matt Meyer (8:05) Sermon - Matt Meyer (15:37)

Our sixth annual Backpack Blessing and worship service is a multi-generational service that offers children, youth, and adults of all ages the opportunity to reflect upon how we might carry the love of our church community and the tools of our faith with us wherever we go. In this season of returning and restarting, we affirm the boundless worth of each and every person, and encourage one another to consciously seek a path of integrity and compassion.  Story- Lauren Wyeth (:31) Reading - Youth Worship Helper (6:10) Homily - Rev. Jen Crow (7:14)

Our breath is the very essence of our lives and a doorway into presence and connection. This episode, Arif Mamdani preaches his first sermon as First Universalist’s new Director of Membership and Adult Ministries, in an exploration of breath, relationship, and hospitality. Call to Worship - Rev. Justin Schroeder (:32) Sermon - Arif Mamdani (1:52)

Guest preacher Rev. Ashley Horan asks, what do improvisational comedy and religious community have to do with each other? We’ll explore the lessons improv can teach us about mutual support, shaping reality together, and being open to the possibilities of collaboration that are greater than anything we can do alone. Call to Worship: Rev. Ruth MacKenzie (:30) Sermon: Rev. Ashley Horan (1:29)

Using a familiar parable (Luke 15), we dive into what it means to search for something in our lives. What impact does the act of searching have on what is found? What is worth searching for in our lives? Are we searching for the impossible?  Responsive Reading and Sermon: Rev. Karen Hutt