Sunday Mornings at Cedars

Madeline Ostrander, Guest Speaker Gregory Cook, Worship Associate Reflecting on the power of community and the potential for small actions to have larger impacts and ripple effects, and about mindfulness and the importance of paying attention to details. Madeline Ostrander is a science journalist and writer whose work has appeared in  NewYorker.com , The Nation, Sierra magazine, PBS's NOVA Nex...

Guest Speaker - Kathryn LaFond Worship Associate - Johanna Munson In the Celtic world this is a time called Imbolc, known to bring the gift of insight and inspiration. A time to bring our curiosity, our questioner forward, to act as midwives for what brings justice and truth to a world badly in need. How might we discern between how we live currently and what the world is asking of us? And, how ca...

Tyler Weaver, Member and Guest Speaker Mike Cox, Worship Associate We are living in a time of great division within our country. Tyler and Mike will discuss why we believe finding common ground is important for the health of our families, communities and country. We will be breaking up into small groups to explore what we can do as individuals and as a congregation to address these divisions and t...

Rev. Jennifer Alvair, Guest Minister Nancy Philip, Worship Associate How can we cultivate spiritual strength and resilience during times of global crises? How might we learn to build trust across differences in today’s polarized nation? Come join us as we explore these interdisciplinary questions through the lens of peacebuilding and ecological renewal.

Rev. Bruce Bode, Guest Minister Gregory Cook, Worship Associate This service near the beginning of the new year will, Janus-like, look both ways. Following a sermon message engaging Denise Levertov’s poem “Once Only” as its text, it will include a “Composting Communion,” then, in community, greet the New Year!

Guest Minister - Rev. Kate Lore Worship Associate - Nancy Philip Together, Rev. Kate Lore and Nancy Philip will contemplate the darkest night of the year, the return of the light and the magic of the season."

Rev. Emily Melcher, Guest Minister Johanna Munson, Worship Associate In this season of ding-a-ling-a-ling, what would it mean for us to find ourselves in what poet Billy Collins calls “the generous pocket of silence”? How might we be truly present in this season of anticipation?

Rev. Kate Lore, Guest Minister Nancy Philip, Worship Associate We are entering what is for many of us a magical time of year. For others, though, these days come with sorrow and stress. How do we navigate the complexities of the holiday season? Rev. Kate Lore  is a Unitarian Universalist minister known for her work in social justice and community ministry. She has served in various roles, includin...

Rev. Barbara Cornell, Guest Minister Gregory Cook, Worship Associate In the early 60’s Directors of Religious Education were responding to parent and youth requests for help navigating the changing world of sexuality, when they joined forces with the UUA to create a new sexuality curriculum for middle schoolers, called About Your Sexuality (AYS). Today, we have the lifespan sexuality curriculum, O...

Rev. April Frazier, Guest Minister   Johanna Munson, Worship Associate   Aikido is a martial art, as well as a philosophy and a spiritual practice. There are lessons we can take from our training on the mat out into the world. Aikido teaches us to practice centering, while providing a real avenue for choosing peace and impacting both ourselves and the world we live in for the better.

Rev. Jessica Star Rockers, Guest Minister   Nancy Philip, Worship Associate Amidst a season of change—and in an era that often feels overwhelming and chaotic—let’s take a moment to remember those who came before us. We’ll gather inspiration from their creativity, express gratitude for their sacrifices, and imagine a future of joyful community care.

Rev. Bruce Bode, Guest Minister  Jenny Weaver, Worship Associate This sermon will offer a range of thoughts, feelings, reflections, and perspectives as we draw near to this consequential national election.

Rev. Barbara Gilday, Guest Minister  Nancy Philip, Worship Associate From time to time in our lives, we find ourselves questioning who we are – graduating from school, becoming a parent, losing a job or a special relationship, retiring, or experiencing a serious health crisis. etc. At these times, it’s helpful to have a template to sort out the new evolving you, and a way to remember those questio...

David Korten, Guest Speaker  Johanna Munson, Worship Associate Fran Korten’s service on October 6 reminds us that according to Genesis, God gave us dominion over the Earth, presumably to exploit for whatever we choose. Recently, in obedience to that dictum, we crafted an economics that tracks human progress by growth in human consumption. If that story is in error, what is our intended human purpo...

Fran Korten, Guest Speaker  Gregory Cook, Worship Associate In the Bible, Genesis tells us that God gave man dominion over all the creatures of the Earth. That “old story” is well embedded in our culture with many dysfunctional results. We need a “new story” that recognizes we are simply one species among many other species, interconnected with all. We will discuss the signs of a shift to a new st...

Grace Bonow, Guest Speaker   Nancy Philip, Worship Associate  What’s Up With Young People These Days?: A Teenager’s View on Today’s World The world is a complicated place. It’s full of catastrophic problems like climate change, social injustice, and of course the millennia-old complaint: young people. How do young people today see the world? How can we ensure that we as humans, but especially dese...

Rev. Barry Andrews, Guest Minister Jenny Weaver, Worship Associate  For many people today, Ralph Waldo Emerson is a quaint relic of the nineteenth century, or worse yet, a dead white male with little to offer contemporary Americans. Not so for me. I have spent many years reading and reflecting on his writings. I have taught classes, led workshops, and written several books about him. I have tried...

Johanna Munson, Guest Speaker   Gregory Cook, Worship Associate According to Albert Einstein’s law of conservation, mass and energy are interchangeable, and the sum stays constant. What if we apply this to the cycle of life and death? There are as many stories of afterlife as there are spiritual traditions; however some traditions exclude the possibility of “the undiscovered country, from whose bo...

Rev. Jennifer Alvair, Guest Minister  Gregory Cook, Worship Associate Water Communion is an annual ritual of welcoming one another back into community after our summer travels. This uniquely UU ritual reminds us that we all come from water, we are made of mostly water, and just like the way water scatters into raindrops and streams, we often scatter during the summer months. The mingling of the wa...

Sandy Spear, Board Member and Educator   Mike Cox, Worship Associate What are the best practices for emotional self-regulation? According to Dr. Marc Brackett at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, there is extensive research on emotional self-regulation.

Rev. William (Bill) Comfort, Guest Minister   Gregory Cook, Worship Associate The title comes from the name of a meditative way of interacting with scripture called Lectio Divina. In Lectio Divina a person reads a piece of scripture over several times slowly until a part of the text seems to particularly speak to the person. The scripture in question can come from the Bible, another holy text or a...

Rev. Victoria Poling, Guest Minister   Johanna Munson, Worship Associate Author and scholar bell hooks observes, “While ours is a nation wherein the vast majority of citizens are followers of religious faiths that proclaim the transformative power of love, many people feel they do not have a clue as to how to love.” Today we’ll explore a variety of perspectives on what is necessary for love.

Nancy Philip, Guest Speaker Worship Associate and Gregory Cook, Worship Associate. What happens to your identity when others have decided who you are? We’ll examine the question of public perceived identity using the works of and recent events in the life of Salman Rushdie.

Bainbridge island climate activist, John Kydd is our Guest Speaker with Jenny Weaver the Worship Associate.