All Souls Unitarian Church

The service was held on Sunday, March 22, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Kelli McLoud-Schingen, Guest Speaker, Mariela Pérez-Simons, Intern Minister, and Rev. Barbara Prose, Executive Director of Ministry. DESCRIPTION Our celebration of Women's History Month continues. "Enlightenment is intimacy with all things." —The Zen master Dogen (1200-1253), founder of the Sōtō sc...

The service took place on Sunday, March 15, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister, Rev. Barbara Prose, Executive Director of Ministry, Carlton D. Pearson, Affiliate Minister, Mariela Pérez-Simons, Intern Minister. SUBSCRIBE TO AUDIO PODCAST: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/all-souls-unitarian-church/id193096943 WATCH THIS SERVICE ON...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, March 8, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Carlton D. Pearson, Affiliate Minister. DESCRIPTION Authority is one of the most needed and yet intimidating words in the English language. Authority must first come from your human essence. You share and/or delegate portions of your authority in life, but never all of it. We learn to honor our...

The message was delivered on Sunday, March 8, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Barbara Prose, Executive Director of Ministry, at the Humanist Service. DESCRIPTION There is a positive death movement happening. It involves talking openly about our bodies: how we age, get sick, and die. It includes practices like: death doulas, death dinners, death care guides and more....

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, March 1, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Mariela Pérez-Simons, Intern Minister. DESCRIPTION "What a long time it can take to become the person one has always been," says the writer and teacher Parker Palmer. This sermon is inspired by Palmer's words. I want to explore the ways in which the human soul goes into "hiding" because of accul...

The message was delivered on Sunday, February 23, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Jan Peppler, Ph. D., Guest Speaker, at the Humanist Service. DESCRIPTION Courage isn't reserved for the few. Every day we are each face the need to be courageous in both small and big ways. The courage to step up, to surrender, to do the right thing, to choose love over fear, and—perhaps sc...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, February 23, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. DESCRIPTION There is a long history of using the Bible to further discrimination. During the years of legalized slavery, many Christians used biblical explanations to justify their "right" to own slaves. Today religious freedom is, again, being weap...

The message was delivered on Sunday, February 16, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister, at the Humanist Service. DESCRIPTION "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them." These words from Fredrick Douglass seem quite fitting for the curre...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, February 16, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Barbara Prose, Executive Director of Ministry. DESCRIPTION In an election year, 32 years ago, John Wolf preached this sermon and said, "If the people of this country do not feel manipulated, if their basic instincts for fair play and for justice are not confounded, then something ominou...

The message was delivered on Sunday, February 9, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Barbara Prose, Executive Director of Ministry, at the Humanist Service. DESCRIPTION Talking about race and racism is often so painful, we want to avoid the conversation. Still, in the depths of our being, we understand that none of us will be free, until all of us are free. If we are wh...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, February 9, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Arthur F. Carter, Jr., Ph. D., Guest Minister. DESCRIPTION Successful organizations, institutions, and movements often have visionary leadership. When these entities fail, onlookers frequently point to leadership as the locus of failure. While not the source of hierarchy, this tendency suppor...

The message was delivered on Sunday, February 2, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister, at the Humanist Service. DESCRIPTION Janis Joplin famously sang: "Freedom is just another word for 'nothing left to lose." I would contest that we all have things to lose. How do our attachments keep us from being free? What is the right relationshi...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, February 2, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Carlton D. Pearson, Affiliate Minister. DESCRIPTION Freedom is a commodity. Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than any possession or privilege life can offer. Freedom is the power to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. The act of Freedom isn't for cowards...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, February 2, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. DESCRIPTION Janis Joplin famously sang: "Freedom is just another word for 'nothing left to lose." I would contest that we all have things to lose. How do our attachments keep us from being free? What is the right relationship to have between freedom...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, January 26, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Mariela Pérez-Simons, Intern Minister. DESCRIPTION Throughout history, human beings have felt a sacred kinship to the sun—being the bestower of life and light. For instance, sun-worshipers such as the priests of the Incas used to blow kisses to the rising sun during religious ceremonies. Join...

The message was delivered on Sunday, January 19, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister, at the Humanist Service. DESCRIPTION THROWBACK SERMON SUNDAY Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Throwback from Rev. Dr. John Wolf, 1966 In 1966, a young Dr. John B. Wolf spoke to All Souls in Tulsa about Black Power in no uncertain terms. A year earlier Dr....

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, January 19, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Carlton D. Pearson, Affiliate Minister. DESCRIPTION It is a main, and sometimes impossible, challenge to change what someone else created, we can only manage it as responsibly as we can. However we can change and/or save what we have created using our own innate abilities to imagine and re-im...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, January 19, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. DESCRIPTION THROWBACK SERMON SUNDAY Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Throwback from Rev. Dr. John Wolf, 1966 In 1966, a young Dr. John B. Wolf spoke to All Souls in Tulsa about Black Power in no uncertain terms. A year earlier Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, January 12, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Carlton D. Pearson, Affiliate Minister. DESCRIPTION Saving Creation may possibly be the number one planetary charge and challenge of the 21st century. We are obviously too late to save some of it, but we're never too late to begin to more aggressively correct what we have insulted and assault...

The message was delivered on Sunday, January 12, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Barbara Prose, Executive Director of Ministry, at the Humanist Service. DESCRIPTION Did you know that nearly 91,000 people were removed from the voter rolls in Oklahoma this past April? Jason Nichols, an instructor of political science at Northeastern State University, and former mayor...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, January 12, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Barbara Prose, Executive Director of Ministry. DESCRIPTION Did you know that nearly 91,000 people were removed from the voter rolls in Oklahoma this past April? Jason Nichols, an instructor of political science at Northeastern State University, and former mayor of Tahlequah recommends we...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, January 5, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. DESCRIPTION Brother David Stendal-Rast, a Benedictine monk has observed: "Ninety-nine percent of the time we have an opportunity to be grateful for something. We just don't notice it. We go through our days in a daze." We often don't realize what we h...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, January 5, 2020, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. DESCRIPTION We are in the third decade of the 21st century. We've split the atom, discovered quarks and the most microscopic of things. We have telescopes that let us peer into the ageless past. Yet there are still people who think that everything the...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, December 29, 2019, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Carmen White-Janak, Guest Minister. DESCRIPTION 2009 through 2019 closes out a decade. A decade where many travelers on their journey have chosen conformity over releasing old patterns, habits, and pathologies, leaving them tired and weary. My message, "I'm Tired of This Church," is an...

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, December 29, 2019, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. DESCRIPTION On this final Sunday of the year (and of the decade) I will share both evocative and practical tools to visualize your future. Discover innovative ways to bring the right things into your life in the coming weeks and year and decade. We...