First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin

Our Whole Lives (OWL) is the nationally renowned sexuality education program rooted in our faith values. OWL includes age-appropriate curricula for people from kindergarten through older adulthood. OWL is an essential element of our faith development ministries and the differences it is making in the lives of people in our religious community and beyond.

Come join us as we celebrate Rev Chris Jimmerson's formal intallation as First UU of Austin's setted minister on February 17, 2024. As a church family we come together with invited clergy and guests to joyfully celebrate this happy occasion.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's service delivered on February 11, 2024. In our mission, we say that we "do justice". What if truly doing justice requires not just new ways of thinking but new ways of being? Equity instead of equality? Liberation versus liberalism? Proximity rather than paternalism? What if we moved beyond charitable compassion to a love that is revolutionary?

Rev Chris Jimmerson and Rev Michelle LaGrave's service delivered on February 4, 2024. We join together for an all ages service to bless the beloved animal companions in our lives.

Rev Michelle LaGrave's service delivered on January 28, 2024. How do we build an accessible church where more and more people will feel included and welcome? We'll share some stories of what it means to live a disabled life and how we can begin to dismantle ableism within ourselves and our community.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's service delivered on January 21, 2024. Our Universalist heritage professed that God is love and would save everyone - "universal salvation". No one would be condemned to hell. We have come to think of this as a universal love that calls us to "love the hell out of this!world" (thank you, Rev. Joanna Fontaine Crawford). Universal love calls us to create universal salvation in...

Rev Michelle LaGrave and Rev Chris Jimmerson's service delivered on January 14, 2024. Sometimes love feels easy, like when we think about our love for a beloved pet or family member. Other times, love feels hard, like when we encounter someone who feels difficult to love or when we are loving someone through a hard place. What happens when we lay sentimentality to the side and think about Love the...

Rev Michelle LaGrave's service delivered on January 7, 2024. Play and playfulness are easily overlooked aspects of faith, development, and spirituality. Join us for a playful New Year's service filled with Robert Fulghum readings.

Bis Thorton's service delivered on December 31, 2023. We hold our annual New Year's 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.

Rev Michelle LaGrave and Rev Chris Jimmerson's service delivered on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2023. On this night of anticipation, we raise our voices in story and song to greet Christmas. May the lessons of compassion, trust, and generosity alight within us and lead us into the new day, renewed.

Rev Michelle LaGrave, Rev Chris Jimmerson and Kelly Stoke's service delivered on December 17, 2023. We join together for this annual tradition of song and holiday merriment.

Rev Michelle LaGrave's sermon delivered on December 10, 2023. Mystery abounds during this season of telling the old stories and celebrating the unknown. How does mystery feed our spirits or nourish our souls? How does embracing the unknown help us to grow?

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on December 3, 2023. The winter solstice has been observed through a variety of rituals, celebrations, and spiritual beliefs across multiple cultures and throughout the ages. We will explore some of these traditions, many of which still manifest within our current practices. The winter solstice has often been associated with the return of the light. Might it...

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on November 26, 2023. Sometimes, we mainly tend to think of generosity as the giving of our time, talent, and treasure, and usually treasure. And it can be all of these things. Spiritual generosity may be more about a way of being in our world though a deep sense of and grateful appreciation for our true interconnectedness, moving through life with attention...

Rev Michelle LaGrave's sermon delivered on November 19, 2023. As we enter into this season of gratitude, we'll explore the story of Thanksgiving from some new perspectives.

Carrie Holly-Hunt's sermon delivered on November 12, 2023. As Unitarian Universalists, we work towards building the Beloved Community, a community in which everyone's needs are centered and met and where equity is enshrined in all we do. As we work towards this larger and universal goal we also do the work of practicing the Beloved Community in our own space. Let's explore the role of relationship...

Rev Michelle LaGraves's sermon delivered on November 5, 2023. This is the time of year when spiritual traditions around the world, including our own, remember and honor the people from whom we came, our ancestors. This year we will focus on the importance of naming traditions while remembering those ancestors who have helped to shape us into who we are today.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on October 29, 2023. So often, we think of fear as a feeling to avoid. Why then, do we also sometimes revel in it - like during this time of Halloween or through horror movies, extreme sports, or scary amusement park rides? We will examine how fear is probably necessary for our survival and how our response to it can either sabotage our well-being or enrich i...

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on October 22, 2023. In life, we inherit so much of who we are and who we may become, just as we do in our Unitarian Universalist faith and in our church. And that heritage can be a mixed blessing. Hope may be found in knowing that we can find ways to let go of that which denies our collective liberation and build upon that which opens us to life-giving, crea...

Rev Michelle LaGrave's sermon delivered on October 15, 2023. Generosity shows up in our lives in so many places and so many ways. Today we celebrate the generosity that is present in this church and which enables us to do the work of nourishing souls, transforming lives, and doing justice.

Rev Michelle LaGrave's sermon delivered on October 8, 2023. Our lives are filled with moments of amazing grace, which break our hearts wide open with compassion for our fellow beings. We may not know why these moments come and go, even so we can meet them with gratitude together.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on October 1, 2023. Our commitment to supporting this church and its mission are making real differences in our lives and in our world. We will look back on some of those differences this religious community has made and re-commit our time, treasure, and talent toward nourishing souls, transforming lives, and doing justice to build the Beloved Community.

Rev Michelle LaGrave's sermon delivered on September 24, 2023. Have you ever felt like you didn't belong - somewhere, somehow, sometime in your life? Probably, if you're like most people. What makes the difference in feeling like you do or do not belong? How can we help ourselves, each other, and people we haven't even met yet cultivate that oh-so-important sense of belonging? And how does all of...

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on September 17, 2023. As a religion without creed, without a set of beliefs to which we must all adhere, our UU spirituality is rooted in relationship. We create religious community though sacred promises we make with one another about how we will be together in the ways of love. We will examine the ancient tradition of covenant making and how we practice it...

Rev Chris Jimmerson and Rev Michelle LaGrave's sermon delivered on September 10, 2023. New ministry, new church year, new programming, new members - with so many new beginnings it is time to call ourselves into covenant with each other and with the community as a whole. Rev. Michelle and Rev. Chris will explore with each other and with all of us their perspectives on the covenantal foundations of...