Church of the Larger Fellowship UU Worship

Poet Nikita Gill, in a blessing of a poem for the beginning of 2026, tells us that “when love comes knocking, do not doubt it. Instead open the door with warmth and let it in.” Sometimes, love comes knocking from unexpected sources. We will experience that love and allow it to challenge us to practice our faith in deeper and more liberatory ways. The Words of Welcome from our Beloveds in Newton, I...

As is our custom to begin the year, our tech crew is on holiday break. Donté and Aisha will come to you live through Zoom, sharing a less-formal worship experience on our monthly theme of Love.

Come conjure and experience joy with us. Please bring things with you that bring you joy: food/beverages, activities like knitting or puzzles, etc as we listen to music that has been popular in CLF worship, develop a joy list, and commit to make joy a priority in the next year.

Here on the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, we will find joy in the darkness. Come celebrate Yule with us!

I was recently on a podcast to talk about dating divorced and over 50. In this sermon, I'll share the ways UUism has shaped who and how I am in the world.

The state of the world feels dire, so isn’t it time to get serious? Author Atena O. Danner talks about why cultivating pleasure in a time of depravity is among the most important things that people of conscience can do right now. Atena O. Danner is a cultural worker who imagines Black liberation, engaged in boundless curiosity. As a poet, singer, and visual artist, Atena’s work encompasses kitchen...

In this service, we’ll explore redemption through the lenses of abolition and harm reduction — not as a clean arc, but as a communal, messy, and ongoing process. We’ll look at how people and places dismissed by empire often carry profound wisdom about care, resilience, and transformation. In these overlooked spaces— in the world, in ourselves— grace becomes visible, and new paths toward collective...

We will look to the ancient and current wisdom of the Haudenosaunee people as we nurture gratitude for each other and for the beings with whom we share this planet. We are reminded by this wisdom that all flourishing is mutual.

Currently, many of us are experiencing days that are darker due to the seasons of fall and winter. Typically, in these seasons there are numerous celebrations and observations that center the “return of the light.” This week, I ask us to reconsider our relationship to the dark as I assert that the dark is the place we find redemption.

If our faith teaches us that every person is inherently worthy, it means that no one is disposable. How does this change the way we gather, live, and advocate for justice? How does it change how we approach redemption and salvation?

It has been over two years since the start of the genocide in Gaza and the world has been grieving the continued loss of life and potential of thousands upon thousands of Palestinians. Together we will honor the lives lost and hold in our hearts prayers for an end to the horror and destruction.

Description: Job's wife is vilified for her anguished, irreverent response to tragedy in her household. But what if we listened more closely to her challenge? What if, instead of avoiding or ignoring the pain of loss, we allowed it to open a path to a fuller, more courageous faith? Reflection question: It has been said that a broken heart is an open heart tenderized to love even more deeply. What'...

Often when we discuss grief, we are being encouraged to identify, acknowledge and/or accept the layers and cycles of grief that we are experiencing. But how do we engage this subject when we are the cause of another person’s grief? This week. I will share a story about a time when I was a source of grief.

The Rev. Meg Barnhouse once said, "I believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person, not every idea." In what ways can we lean into affirming each other and maintaining the humanity of all as we work to dismantle systems of harm.

Arundhati Roy, in her novel The God of Small Things, describes trauma, grief, and loss as leaving holes in the universe--shaped like the things we have lost. When we sew up those holes, we leave a mark behind even as we restore our fabric to wholeness. How do we honor those marks and help each other sew up our holes of grief?

Lamentation is a ritualized approach to grief. It creates opportunities for us to acknowledge, reflect upon and say goodbye to the piles of rubble we leave behind; our many unmet expectations, dreams and desires.

How do progressive religious folks maintain their faith in a time of monsters? This was the question posed during a symposium in Seattle recently. I will share my own reflections and learning on how we keep the faith in a time of monsters.

Can lament over the suffering all around us be our hope? Can we express lament without getting stuck there? We seek to build a religious community where that lament is welcome as part of a cycle of healing, growth, and action.

So much talk about accountability focuses on our accountability to others but how are we accountable to ourselves. . .our values. . . our flaws. . . our visions. . .our desires? How do we honor the “sound of the genuine” in us, our embodied knowing that is beyond words? Rev. Donté's questions to think about: Why are you on this path of life ? What are your patterns of dissatisfaction with the path...

When we center the needs and care of the most vulnerable among us, we help all of us. When we reject the idea that anyone is unworthy, we refuse to let systems of oppression flourish. We are faced with a moment in time right now. Humanity can center each other, the planet, life and love or we can ignore the reality that our destinies are intertwined at our peril.

We see the atrocities everywhere--starving children, bombed cities, concentration camps. People take to social media and the news talking about "toxic empathy," as if there could be such a thing. It feels like we are losing our humanity in real time. How do we turn the tide?

“The Circle Is Still Open” is a message about grief, covenant, and accountability as sacred practices rooted in love, truth-telling, and community. Through personal story and collective memory, it calls us to reject silence and systems of harm, and to stay in the work of justice by holding one another with care, courage, and integrity. Reflection Question: How might your understanding of accountab...

The beginning of August is celebrated in European paganism as the beginning of the harvest season, known as Lammas or Lughnasadh. We will celebrate the ways in which the Earth sustains our lives, and ponder what accountability means in this context.

In a world that often asks us to wear masks or shrink parts of ourselves, integrity calls us to live with wholeness and authenticity. This service explores what it means to align our inner truth with our outer lives—and how that alignment can be a path to healing, liberation, and sacred belonging.