Complete Service-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

"Weaving Waters: Regional Assembly Worship" Sunday, February 6, 2022 10:50 am, Worship Service This worship is an embodied, engaging, multi-gen service focusing on unity and interdependence. It is a testimony, boldly embracing the reality of Regionalization - combining resources and congregations to better and more equitably serve a vast geography from Western Nebraska through and to Alaska (and b...

"The Many Faces of Leadership" Sunday, January 30, 2022 10:50 am, Worship Service Two days from now the Lunar New Year celebrations will begin and the Year of the Tiger will begin with it. And although being born under one of the Chinese Zodiac signs or another is supposed to have some influence on your character or disposition, perhaps each sign can also be an invitation to all of us to explore s...

"Some Joy Please" Sunday, January 23, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream This Sunday let's take a break from lockdown woes and worries and turn our attention to how we bring joy and pleasure into our lives. Is it a song, a favorite recipe, a good book? Hard times make us think that joy isn't possible. But we think joy and pleasures, and staying in touch with both, is the secret sauce that will g...

"History is not History" Sunday, January 16, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream On this Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend when we could focus on the history of the Civil Rights Movement, let's focus on the present realities. From the old deed to an old house to a new staff member's request for a simple lanyard, to modern civil rights leaders asking we celebrate MLK Day only one way this year, what...

"'God' is not God's name" Sunday, January 9, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream As a theist, a liberal theist, in a pluralistic religious movement, and a congregation with a significant humanist/atheist/non-theist members, I don't talk much about God. Today, I will, and what that word, that-which-it-points-toward, means for me, and has for other progressive theists too. And whether it is useful...

"Right Belief or Right Living" Sunday, January 2, 2022, Worship Service Livestream On Sunday, January 2nd, the Rev. David Usher will be preaching “ right belief or right living“. David was the hula hoop champion Manchester before going on to write one of the greatest books of knock knock jokes and it’s probably most famous for his art exhibition at the Guggenheim of cotton candy sculptures. We hop...

"Kwanzaa" Sunday, December 26, 10:50 am, Worship Service This Sunday we will celebrate and deepen our understanding of Kwanzaa, an African American and Pan-African cultural holiday observed by millions of people worldwide. Please join us in honoring the symbols and significance of another important December rite that lends texture and meaning to this Holiday Season. We will be helped by Brotha Cli...

“The Hanging of the Greens: An Intergenerational Service” Sunday, December 19, 10:50 am, Worship Service Nearing the shortest day of the year, we will make and bring in greens in an intergenerational service with participatory music led by percussionist Allen Biggs and Reiko Oda Lane (and the Bell Choir). Come and be prepared to be part of the revelry. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister;...

"Being Alive" (December 12, 2021) Worship Service We are welcoming the President of Starr King School For The Ministry, the Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt preaching. And we are celebrating two rites of passage -- blessing the newest member of our congregation, Baby Eliot, and celebrating Thomas Brown who has served this congregation for over two decades and is formally retiring. Come join service and t...

"Big Music Sunday" (December 5, 2021) Worship Service Walt Whitman was a man who lived a very rich life, finding beauty and divinity in all corners of the earth. We enjoy his words as set to some of the most beautiful music imaginable, but we also speak his words, we hear his words, we hear about the man. As a special element we also shall frame the service with that which gave him inspiration to...

"A String of Gratefuls" (November 28, 2021) Worship Service A service of readings and songs on what gives us joy and for what we are grateful. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Mari-Ester Magaloni Ramos, Worship Associate; Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate; Rev. Millie Phillips, Small Group Ministry Co-Chair; Reiko Oda Lane, Organist; Leandra Ramm, Mezzo Soprano; Ben Rudiak-Gould, Song...

“What the Pecans have to Teach?” (November 21, 2021) Worship Service I know -- What does Vanessa mean by this?! Drawing on a chapter in Robin Wall Kimmerer's "Braiding Sweetgrass" a little more about the pecans in your pie, and their life story and wisdom, to lead us soulfully into the week ahead. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Linda Harris, UUSC Chair; Bell Choir led by Reiko Oda La...

“The Pursuit of Radiance” (November 14, 2021) Worship Service As the darkest days of the year arrive, lights appear everywhere: ropes of lights outline tall buildings, colorful Christmas lights brighten windows and trees, candles are lit reverently in Hanukkah menorahs, Kwansa kinaras and winter solstice rituals. We humans instinctively crave and seek out light when days are dark. This is true, me...

"We are the Thousand Winds that Blow" (November 7, 2021) Worship Service This service is one that may be becoming a tradition for us -- a chance on this Sunday that coincides with Samhain, All Souls Day, and Dia de Los Muertos to call into our space the memory, an a snapshot of the lives we have lost this last year -- call them into the space to bless and mourn and offer gratitude. Rev. Vanessa Ru...

“The Costumes We Wear” (October 31, 2021) Worship Service A worship service about disguises. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Dennis Adams, Worship Associate; Sam King, Worship Associate; Reiko Oda Lane, Organist; Nancy Munn, Soprano; Bill Ganz, Accompanist; Ben Rudiak-Gould, Songleader Eric Shackelford, Camera; Shulee Ong, Camera; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Joe Chapot, Li...

“The Land of Memory” (October 24, 2021) Worship Service The artist Etel Adnan, wrote that her memories were like a forest with unstable boundaries. Adnan was born in Lebanon, lived in France, then moved to California, living at the base of Mount Tamalpais, where she wrote and painted for many years. Her paintings were a way to explore memories and make meaning of them. Navigating the land of memor...

"Right Thinking, Right Feeling and Right Relations" (October 17, 2021) Worship Service Twins and co-authors of a recent book "Burnout", Emily and Amelia Nagoski talk about patterns of thinking and dealing with stress that lead to burnout. However, they also go deeper, to patterns of thinking, feeling and being in relationships that undermine our own and one another's health, joy and, I'd say, dera...

"Who is Earth to Me?" (October 10, 2021) Worship Service Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book "Braiding Sweetgrass" opens with a simple description of this act of weaving, braiding the supple green stalks of a plant, but what unfolds is layers of relationship and story and a paradigm that has saving grace. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate; Sam King, Worshi...

"Higher Love: Installation Service" (October 3, 2021) Worship Service "The Installation Service of Senior Minister Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern" This is a sermon (Higher Love) about where this ministry together takes us and some of what we learn along the way. Our preacher, the Rev. Elizabeth Lerner Maclay, is the Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Church of Providence, RI. Rev. Maclay has been...

"Enough is Enough: The Inflation of Satisfied and the Risks" (September 26, 2021) Worship Service In the stories of people I know, their children's stories, in what I see in the world, with dire consequences to the planet and to our mental health, I see the inflation of "enough" and I don't just mean in material terms. I mean in all kinds of ways. Let me give examples and let's look at what that m...

"Ganesh Chaturthi and the Need to Remove Obstacles" (September 19, 2021) Worship Service Each year in India there is a ten or eleven-day festival to celebrate Ganesh, the Elephant-headed god who is playful but who also is famous for a particular kind of power, one we all always seem in need of summoning into our lives. Join me for some stories, images, and reflections on the power of ritual. Rev....

"New Eyes and Not Afraid" (September 12, 2021) Worship Service This Sunday is this confluence of holidays and holidays and anniversaries raising the question not just of how we begin in the midst of ongoing challenges, but how people have always done so; even we ourselves did 20 years ago. We frame that exploration with music, special music, for the occasion. Come join us. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southe...

"In Our Hands Is Placed a Power" (September 5, 2021) Worship Service Welcome to our annual Labor Day service, where we celebrate the contributions to social justice by the labor movement both currently and historically. As has been true for several years now, we will be joined by members of San Francisco's labor union choir Rockin' Solidarity. Hard times have always been here for the vast majority...

"The Power of Focus" (August 29, 2021) Worship Service Steve Jobs is famous for his message on focus, the power of focus. In a different way, the same message has power for our spiritual and moral lives. After all, have you noticed how what we look for in the world in part determines what we find? Or how consciously deciding what we want to make happen also requires us to surrender to not making o...

"I Know Nothing" (August 22, 2021) Worship Service In the millions of acres of trees, in the dark and light, the shadows, the dappled light along canyon walls and rivers, there is real knowing. What is it, to surrender, to let go of having to know, to do, and to let it be enough that the elements sing? Rev. J.D. Benson, Guest Minister; Mari Magaloni Ramos, Worship Associate; Asher Davison, bass-ba...