Church of the Larger Fellowship UU Worship

Community provides us with an incredible opportunity to bring our cares and concerns to one another. Often, we are taught not to be a burden or to invoke our own strength when we are dealing with difficult times. We will explore the ways that collective grief can create opportunities.

It is Spring, the season of regeneration and resurrection. Signs of new and returning life are all around us in nature but how do we humans resurrect our joy, fullness, dreams, and visions when they have been buried ? Texts: My First Sermon, A Personal Narrative The Sound of the Genuine:https://www.dailygood.org/story/1846/the-sound-of-the-genuine-howard-thurman/ Gospel of John: 11:38-44

A community centered on love and care is transformative. It allows us to blossom fully into who we are. It holds us as we try on new ways of being. We will explore this kind of community together today.

In times of collapse, it is vital that we are able to imagine a future beyond what we have already known. How do we approach the future creatively while living through decline?

In order for prison abolition to be possible, we must create a society that makes it so. That begins with imagining what the post-abolition world is like, because only then can we begin to work towards it. As CLF prepares to engage our denomination in the study of abolition, we will begin by activating our imaginations.

What does it feel like to live in a liberated world where everyone thrives and we center care and love? "It feels like spring." This question was asked to a group of UUs during a workshop on expanding our imaginations. When I heard this response, I felt it in my body. We'll explore the role of imagination in transforming our world.

Come with me, and we'll be in a world of pure imagination. In that world, we will dream of what can be--not to detach us from what is, but to make something better possible.

When does bearing witness become a radical theological act? How do we provide sanctuary for those whom our society wants to remain hidden? We will bear witness together and in doing so honor humanity, worth, dignity, and love.

How can witnessing ourselves and each other provide spiritual direction and resilience in our times of great upheaval? Soren Austenfeld (he/they), Music Director at First Parish in Malden, MA, shares a reflection from his experience of voice change as a transgender man and his work in gender-affirming voice education.

The story of Pandora’s Box is best known as the story of the curious woman who unleashed evil, mayhem and chaos on the world. But, what many leave out is the last item in the box, hope. We need hope more than ever and we will look for the ways holding on to a hope that transforms society.

What does it mean for us UU’s to bear WITNESS in these times? Must our witness and that of our co-conspirators be uniform and monochromatic? How does one’s social context impact what witnessing looks like? Join us as we begin exploring our February theme of Witnessing. NOTE: the image used here by Nikki Free is a AI generated variation of an original work by Navi Robins.

Beth Murray has served CLF and provided leadership for our Worthy Now Prison Ministry for 20 years, and is retiring at the end of the month. We will celebrate Beth and her example of leadership and service as we say goodbye.

If the purpose of our service is to give rise to the world that we know is possible, we must learn how to make it a reality. Inspired by a new book co-edited by Elandria Williams, we will tap into what E called “collective and ancestral wisdom” in order to explore the qualities that we can cultivate in ourselves and our communities to move everyone forward.

White supremacy culture relies on people embracing a savior complex that names them as the only people capable of addressing a problem. Fascism requires us to believe that we are isolated beings. Healthy leadership helps us realize that we are in this together, and that each of us can bring our gifts to the team that is necessary for liberation.

The tech team is on winter holiday, so Lead Ministry Team members Aisha Hauser and Christina Rivera bring us the lowest-tech online worship as they inspire us to begin the new year with their annual live tradition.

Do the shadow sides of ourselves need to be bad? Exploring winter, mental health, and political theology, we will find powerful magik in the shadows.

We carry the flame for one another, and pass that flame to others in creating Beloved Community. CLF member Rev. Sarah Pirtle explores the magic that we create when we pass the flames of community, love, and justice.

Celebrate the darkness on this, the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Rev. Michael leads this brief and meditative journey into the healing dark to reclaim its power.

Illusion is ruined when one learns the secret behind it, but magic is not. Journey with us from charm quarks to the Island of Misfit Toys to the love at the center of our faith as we explore the science of magic.

Magic happens in the moments when we are present to life. We are always invited to make our own magic. We will explore the ways magic happens when we are present to life.

When I was a child I wondered at the magic of the seasons. And not being sure I sought the counsel of my grandmother. And she helped me believe in....

Does our definition of or orientation to "family" serve our healing & thriving? This week we interrogate and complicate understandings of "Family" through the lens of queer theologies.

This week's sermon will take a deep dive into the book, The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates, using the ancient Christian method of lectio divina, in which we examine passages of the book with our hearts. The book is written for writers and talks about how learning the stories of who we are shape how we view the world and what we value.

June Jordan's "Poem for South African Women" commemorates a 1956 protest against apartheid by some 40,000 women and children, who used their bodies to protest their lack of a voice in opposing their own oppression. We remember the poem's final line, "we are the ones we've been waiting for" as we summon the courage to move forward on the journey toward liberation.

The fall or harvest season is a time celebrated across many cultures as time to commune with and honor our ancestors. Our worship this week is inspired by the Day of the Dead, a multi-day ancestor tradition widely practiced across Mexico and Mesoamerican communities.