Complete Service-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

What Books Changed Your Life? (September 22, 2019) We talk about the "larger library of human wisdom" from which we draw as Unitarian Universalists. That includes, of course, poetry, history, psychology, biography -- all the places learning and insights about life and the living of it surfaces for us. What about books, then, fiction, non-fiction, have most changed us. What is our own personal scri...

Connections that Hold Us (September 15, 2019) On this day when special music honors a beloved member, Vera Lee, we begin a year of small group ministry and remember that what holds us, grounds us, that where the deepest wisdom and insights so often come is from one another. In family (the one we are born into or choose and make), at work (when it is healthy and good) and in the circles of friends...

Cuentista: Who tells us who we are? (September 8, 2019) Come on our Opening Sunday. We will bless our students and teachers who are beginning their year of religious education together, and launch our own year of life. Drawing from Cherríe Moraga’s book on her mother, entitled “Native Country of the Heart” we will look at how the cuentista, the story teller, shapes us, and why that is relevant to...

Alive with Hope, Despite It All (September 1, 2019) In keeping with the music theme, the sermon will address hopeful signs for economic justice, such as new successful union organizing, new approaches by labor such as bargaining for the common good, the Poor Peoples Campaign, the increasing engagement of youth and young adults in economic justice-related work, and the role of faith communities in...

Biophilia, the Urge to Connect with Life (August 25, 2019) Edward O. Wilson introduced the idea that we humans had the urge to connect with other forms of life in his 1984 book, "Biophilia". What happens when we have that connection, though, is just as important, how it changes us and our relationship to the world; that love may be what saves us! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Christi...

Finding Your Voice (August 18, 2019) Young adulthood is a phase of discovery of one's voice, perspective, morals, values, and more. It's a time when all of one's hopes and dreams seem possible, even as the forces seek to stop them. There is simply no proper way to navigate its trials and tribulations. Alan Alpert, Worship Associate and Song Leader Joe Chapot, Young Adult Coordinator Jamie Docherty...

Deep Time (August 11, 2019) Author Robert Macfarlane writes about the intersections of human and natural realms.  In Underland:  A Deep Time Journey he writes, " To think in deep time can be a means of not escaping our troubled present, but rather of re-imagining it; countermanding its quick greeds and furies with older, slower stories of making and remaking. Set down your smar...

At Least a Thousand More (August 4, 2019) According to the Sufi poet Rumi, "there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground." but even in the 13th Century, that was a conservative number. In her last sermon as Assistant Minister at UUSF, Rev. Mary Ganz reprises a theme from one of her first here as an intern minister 15 years ago, considering the meaning of "prayer" for Unitarian Universali...

No Going Back (July 28, 2019) They say there is wisdom to be found as we get older. How do we make our way to it, through thickets of diminishing memory or physical strength? Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Assistant Minister Carmen Barsody, Worship Associate Reiko Oda Lane, organ Mark Sumner, piano Mark Kapner, piano Jiun-Chyi Yew, soprano Asher Davison, song leader Reece Hart, Welcome Carrie Steere-Sal...

In Memoriam (July 21, 2019) Years ago when the losses of US soldiers reached over 1000, a member of the church I served set up a meeting to say how horrified and saddened she was that we ceased to notice the losses -- all happening in our names. So, we witnessed to it one week soon after, and then in one ritual for every week that followed until the war was officially declared over. We vowed not t...

Hope in an Age of Climate Despair (July 14, 2019) On this warming piece of rock that is our home, what can we hang our hopes on? Can we find a path between denial and despair? Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Assistant Minister Richard Davis-Lowell, Worship Associate Martha Rodriguez-Salazar, flute and vocals Sharon Wayne, vocals and guitar David Jones, piano Mark Sumner, song leader Amy Kelly, Welcome Be...

Poetry and Life Distilled (July 7, 2019) Following on the theme of spaciousness and invitations to sit with life and go deep, we will spend a Sunday hour sitting with the wisdom source and texts of a few arresting, delightful works of poetry. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Sam King, Worship Associate Reiko Oda Lane, organ Christine Tulis, harp and vocals Asher Davison, song leader Eri...

Inside/Out (June 30, 2019) It’s Pride Sunday, our city is throwing a party to celebrate Queer culture in all its many marvelous manifestations. Before heading to the parade, join us for worship. We’ll explore the idea of culture care, how to create generative environments that help communities and individuals thrive and grow, openly, honestly and with boundless joy. Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Mi...

Releasing on Urgency.... A Sermon for Summer (June 23, 2019) We all know what gets done when we are highly efficient and focused -- just how much we can accomplish and just how much there is that needs accomplishing. What is lost, though, in a world enamored of urgency? How can summer be a way into reminding ourselves of what that other space makes possible? From Dismantling White Supremacy to sta...

A Little Better than Before (June 16, 2019) Sidney Poitier, the great actor and director once said, "I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life." The influence of our fathers (their presence or absence) shapes us. Reflecting on their lives, their influence, their legacy is a big piece of what it means to wrestle with our own lives. We reflect o...

What Deserves Our Ultimate Trust? (June 9, 2019) The first challenge to a child’s emotional development, said Erik Erikson, is trust vs. mistrust. James Baldwin said that what he learned in church is “do our first works over.” In a society and time that has come to distrust information, institutions, and almost all else, let’s talk about trust. On a Sunday when Rev. Southern will be in New York fo...

You Know That I Love You (June 2, 2019) Here at First Unitarian Universalist SF, we try as best as possible to draw the circle ever wider and be an inclusive and loving community. We all have limited time and energy, of course, and so both individually and collectively, we often fail to achieve this goal perfectly. No surprise there since perfection is impossible, but perhaps we can inch just a li...

Two Bodies, One Heart (May 19, 2019) Ralph Waldo Emerson told us, "Friendship demands a religious treatment.” In this sermon guest minister the Rev. Dr. Colin Bossen will offer of a spirituality of friendship that draws upon Unitarian Universalism Transcendentalist roots. Dr. Bossen currently serves as the interim senior minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston. He is in San...

Good Enough Mother (May 12, 2019) On this Mother’s Day, when we celebrate our mother’s let’s talk about cutting ourselves some slack. Perfection is overrated for one. But also, giving it up — illusion that it is — might just be the best gift we give our kids. Goodbye Paragons of Virtue. Hello Goddesses of Good Enough! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Ministe...

Growing a Soul (May 5, 2019) UU Minister A. Powell Davies, whose All Souls Church in Washington D.C. was a leader in challenging segregation in the nation’s capital during his ministry, once said that the purpose of life was, “to grow a soul.” There are so many ways we grow a soul. This Sunday we’ll honor a couple of those and just hold up the venture itself, remind ourselves of what it takes, mos...

Liberation (April 28, 2019) “The goal,”Rabbi Irving Greenberg once wrote of Passover, “is to go back thousands of years and to experience, first, the crushing bitterness and despair of slavery and, next, the wild, exhilarating release of freedom.” And then to ask, what do I need to be liberated from; what liberating work is left to do, remembering what that work might look and feel like. Let's acc...

Miracles (April 21, 2019) Part of the Easter story is the most horrific cruelty and loss that precedes it, and then the most magnificent miracle that wakes us Easter morning. How do we rational, scientific folks make sense of miracle stories, and of this one in particular? Let's re-frame Easter for our ears and lose none of the beauty of it in so doing! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister...

Stepping Stones: Rites of Passage Class (April 14, 2019) We have four bright, young thinkers in this year’s class, each has posed their Big Life Question, now it's time for the ministers to answer! Rites of Passage Class 2019 (Zoe, Erik, Calder, Oriana) Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Assistant Minister Shari Halliday-Quan,...

The Way - The Fools Way (April 7, 2019) "The Camino is Life!" Along the Camino de Santiago, these words are often heard, called by one pilgrim to another, or seen, scribbled on a wall or a rock -- words that challenge and inspire, adding the energy necessary for the climb up another hill. How was life on the Camino similar to life walking in the Tenderloin as a Faithful Fool? What energy and focus...

Threshold Living (March 31, 2019) Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Shari Halliday-Quan, Ministerial Intern Trudy Lionel, Reflection: Why I Give Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate Jordan Kersten, soprano Reiko Oda Lane, organ Dr. Mark Sumner, piano Ariel Andrew, song leader Gayle Reynolds, Trustee Kelli Murray, AOF Co-Chair Donald Shearer, video camera Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Liv...