First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin

Rev Carrie Holley-Hurt's sermon delivered on January 26, 2025. We are a people who value transformation but so often, we tie ourselves to the fixed state of "good." Join Rev. Carrie as she explores transformation and how it plays into our goal of a more just, loving, and compassionate world.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on January 19, 2025. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously laid out a dream of justice and Beloved Community. January 20 will be both MLK Day and inauguration day. We'll examine how we might develop the spiritual resilience to keep the dream alive through a time when it seems so threatened.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's service delivered on January 12, 2025. As humans, we make sense of our world by creating stories. Essentially, both as individuals and as groups, we construct ourselves through constructing narratives about ourselves. And those stories not only determine how we feel about ourselves and our world, but they also drive who we are, what we do, and who we are becoming. In effect,...

Rev Chris Jimmerson and Rev Michelle LaGrave's service delivered on January 5, 2025. For New Year's Day, we will hold our annual burning bowl service. We contemplate what we would like to let go so that we may more easily find our center. Then we whisper that which we would like to let go into pieces of flash paper, toss them into a fire, and watch them burn away.

Guest Speaker Bis Thornton's sermon delivered on December 29, 2024. As 2024 enters its final few days, many of us are thinking about endings. How do we keep loving when loving is what makes saying goodbye so hard? And how can we stay focused on joy in the present when we fear the suffering the future holds? Join guest preacher Bis Thornton on a journey into the Gospel of John to see what its stori...

On December 24, 2024 Rev. Michelle LaGrave leads our annual Christmas Eve service of Lessons and Carols.

On December 22, 2024 we join together for this annual tradition of song and holiday merriment for our no-rehearsal Christmas Pageant.

Rev Erin Walter and Rev Michelle LaGrave's sermon delivered on December 15, 2024. Join us for a fun and festive service where the congregation will unwrap gifts of presence.

Rev Michelle LaGrave's sermon delivered on December 8, 2024. Rev Michelle offers us survival tips for the spiritual work that we can learn and follow to prepare for the new administration coming in January. She uses the term Zombie Apocalypse as a metaphor because the circumstances we face are so extreme, so out of the ordinary, so out of control, that they seem unreal.

Celebrating the life of Kimball Wayne Bockman. Wayne Bockman was born on June 24, 1955 in Pasadena, Texas to Anna Joyce (Jones) Bockmon and Wayne Russel Bockman. He left for parts unknown on September 2, 2024. We celebrate his life with stories, humor, and the songs he loved.

Rev Erin Walter's sermon delivered on December 1, 2024. Sexism and misogyny harm people of all genders and can affect our communities in subtle, even unnoticed ways. How can we make a spiritual practice of rooting out those prejudices in our world and ourselves? Rev. Erin Walter updates her UU Women's Federation award-winning sermon "From Eve to Hillary." The sermon was featured at the 2017 Genera...

Minister Emerita, Rev. Meg Barnhouse's service delivered on November 24, 2024. Some thoughts on prayer from a person who used to be really good at praying, but now has many theories and thoughts about it. Lots of people are praying for me since I am sick, and I don't know how to feel about it.

Rev. Michelle LaGrange's service delivered on November 17, 2024. In times like these, what kind of soul work are we called to do? Can we, might we, repair our spirits?

Rev. Jamie Yandel's service delivered on November 10, 2024. This is the time to lean into our faith and be with one another. We will talk about our collective grief, anger, desperation, and just be together.

Rev. Erin Walter's service delivered on November 3, 2024. On the Sunday between Dia de los Muertos and Election Day, Rev. Erin Walter reflects with us on the call of our ancestors and our power, as Patti Smith sings, "to dream, to rule, to wrestle the earth from fools." However hopeful or scared, energized or exhausted, you may be feeling in this changing season, come sing, dream, and exhale in co...

Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Michelle LaGraves's service delivered on October 27, 2024. Each year, we celebrate the differences we make in our world together, and the joy that comes from being a part of and supporting this religious community. Join us for an uplifting service followed by a joyful celebration of building the Beloved Community together.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson's service delivered on October 20, 2024. Author, theologian, and Minister David Augsburger writes, "Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable." Feeling truly heard can be such a blessing. Might it also be true that truly hearing is a sacred act that will nourish our own soul?

Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Rev Michelle LaGrave's service delivered on October 13, 2024. We join together with love, joy, and a sense of belonging to express our commitment to our mission. Join us on this special Sunday when we explore building the Beloved Community and all that we are and dream of becoming as a religious community. Together, we make our pledges for 2025 so that we may live that com...

Rev. Patrice Curtis and Rev. Michelle LaGrave's service delivered on October 6, 2024. Rev. Curtis, UUA's Transformational Interim Ministries Director, is helping First UU prepare for our ministerial search. Rev. Curtis amplifies belonging, diversity, equity, and inclusion within congregations and queries unhealthy patterns that make Beloved Community difficult to realize. At their request, Rev. Cu...

Rev. Chris Jimmerson's service delivered on September 29, 2024. This month, our church has been participating with our sibling churches throughout the country in the UU Climate Justice Revival. We have had a variety of learning and participation opportunities throughout September, focusing particularly on the climate crisis. This Sunday will be the culmination of those activities, and we will expl...

Rev. Chris Jimmerson's service delivered on September 22, 2024. We are barreling toward the holidays and all the joy, stress, love, grief, community, busyness, beauty, loneliness, and so much more they can entail. And then there is also a major election and its as yet unknown aftermath. How do we begin to find our spiritual center so that we can be better prepared for the heightened intensity of t...

Rev. Michelle LeGrave's service delivered on September 15, 2024. Building beloved community is, at its heart, about transformation. Reflecting upon cultural differences among the generations is one way we can think about welcoming pluralism into our lives and our communities.

Rev. Michelle LeGrave's service delivered on September 8, 2024. What does it mean to belong? How might we support ourselves and each other in cultivating a sense of belonging? Why is belonging important to building the beloved community?

Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Michelle LeGrave's service delivered on September 1, 2024. We come together to begin our new church year with the annual Water Communion Ritual. We share with one another water that symbolizes something meaningful to us as we blend and mingle the waters that remind us of our shared faith.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Michelle LeGrave's service delivered on August 25, 2024. Rev. Michelle and Rev. Chris will answer your questions about the church, life, the universe, and everything (though neither will pretend to have the answers to all that).