First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston Podcast

For Earth Day 2024, we weave together Wisdom from the ways trees thrive, ideas from ecofeminism AND the way we root ourselves in UU values and community to be able to branch out into the world.

First Unitarian Universalist is once again a participating space for the FotoFest Biennial. This year we are featuring selections from Wendel A. White's Manifest (2009–present) and Red Summer (2011–2019) series. Manifest presents in classic still life fashion individual objects found in collections, public and private, from African American history. In his montage series Red Summer, White, ties th...

We launch our annual stewardship campaign with the theme United for Love and Action. In our service we'll consider what it means to come together as a religious community and why membership in a Unitarian Universalist congregation can be a spiritual practice. 

The oldest Christian texts of Easter end not with visions or encounters with Jesus but with an empty tomb that left his followers "trembling and bewildered." What does the empty tomb mean for us today, some two thousand years later?

Guest Preacher Dr. Mtangulizi Sanyika: An examination of what the soul of America might feel like in 2050 given projections that "minorities" will then be the" majority." How will we culturally and spiritually respond to this new multi-cultural democracy populated by people of color and progressive Anglos?  "BABA" DR. MTANGULIZI SANYIKA is a recognized scholar-activist with over 60 years of experi...

From Japanese anime and mountain monasteries to the libraries, concert halls, and cathedrals of Europe, from Hollywood to the small country churches to the financial institutions of America, people may look for meaning in countless venues and through various sources. Have we even scratched the surface of where to find meaning?

The River is Our Blood: Mary Brave Bird The focus of "Lives of the Spirit" for March is the Sicangu Lakota writer and organizer. A member of the American Indian Movement, she blended Lakota religious practices with her activism in an effort to protect indigenous sovereignty and the land. How can such a perspective inspire us in both our solidarity work and efforts to address the climate crisis?

Covenant Sunday: Service is Our Prayer We celebrate the anniversary of the adoption of our congregations covenant with a consideration of the question: What does it mean to make service a spiritual practice?

This month's offering in our "Lives of the Spirit" series is devoted to the community organizer. Born into a share cropping family in Mississipi, she helped raise the possibility that the United States might become a multi-racial democracy and asked the question, during the civil rights movement: "Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where ... our lives are threatened d...

Mystic and social activist Thomas Merton said, "Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him." Expanding upon one of the themes of his last sermon, Rev. Scott considers how our metaphors of the Divine are both created by our cultures and influence how we see others and the world.

Since, its earliest day the members of the First Houston Universalist Church of Houston have been devoted to the proposition that the purpose of religion is, in the words of one its earliest preachers, "to make this world a Paradise, a pleasant, happy place for all to live in." We will celebrate the congregation's anniversary with a special service devoted to all that our community has accomplishe...

A Thousand Elections from Now: The Unitarian Universalist 5th Principle affirms "the  right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large." What does that mean this election year and centuries into the future? Rev. Erin Walter of the Texas UU Justice Ministry joins us in person to share a UU-grounded vision for saving democracy and building Be...

Religion can be a source of comfort and guidance, a basis for moral beliefs and behaviors, and provide a sense of community and connection to tradition. Rev. Scott has recently been mulling over the various ways this is realized, from a Protestant church in Kentucky to a pre-Columbian ceremonial site in Mexico. Would not an ineffable Divine, being infinitely adaptable, be able to provide meaning i...

The monk and spiritual activist Thich Nhat Han helped to introduce Zen Buddhism to the United States. His practice engaged Buddhism led him to oppose the Vietnam war, work for peace, and inspired generations. In January's "Lives of the Spirit" service we'll look at his sense of a meaningful life and how his perspective and practice might inspire us in our own lives.

The Article II Commission of our tradition is proposing significant changes to our UUA statement of purpose and principles that includes a re-articulation of our core values, stating "Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values." What does it mean to understand Love at the center of our faith and to live our values through the "spiritual discipline of Love"

"This is what I want in heaven . . . words to become notes and conversations to be symphonies." So said the late, great Tina Turner. She was just one of the inspiring people who passed away this year. Continuing his annual tradition, Rev. Colin reflects on some of these individuals.

Our annual service of lesson and carols draws from both the traditional Christian canon and the gnostic gospels, those part of the Christian tradition that have long been regarded as heretical. Join us for an evening of beauty, music, art, and poetry that is not to be missed!

In 1983 the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston became one of the first congregations in the United States to offer sanctuary to refugees fleeing violence and civil war in Central America. We'll mark the anniversary of the congregation's commitment with a service devoted to the Rev. Bob Schaibly's historic sermon that helped launch a national movement.

December 1 st  will be the 35 th World AIDS Day, created to raise HIV awareness and mourn those whom we've lost. Since so-called 'lepers' in the Bible, causes of disease have been speculative and victims of disease have been stigmatized. COVID continues to make itself known in our community. Causes and effects of disease are now politicized, and victims and those who disagree are villainized. How...

Our annual Bread Communion service, foreshadowing Thanksgiving, honors those ancestors who are remembered through the bread they baked. This year, we also hone in on the Work of Mercy: "Feed The Hungry". Request the weekly eNewsletter by subscribing at https://firstuu.org/subscribe/ Support our online and in-person programming by making a donation via text message: Send a text to 73256 and send th...

Dorothy Day was both a mentor and mentee while crafting the three core Catholic Worker principles: voluntary poverty, personalism, and pacifism. How do these principles resonate in American churches and culture 90 years later? Request the weekly eNewsletter by subscribing at https://firstuu.org/subscribe/ Support our online and in-person programming by making a donation via text message: Send a te...

The UUA is currently in the process of revising Article II of its bylaws. This is the section where the principles and sources currently reside. In this service, we consider what the proposed changes to article say about Unitarian Universalist theology and how they might help encourage each of us towards a deeper sense of spirituality.

Guest preacher Omowale Luthuli-Allen is a Houston-based international human rights activist and a veteran of the struggles for peace, justice and democracy since the 1960's and 70's. He engaged to stop the Vietnam War and was a supporter of the Nuclear Freeze movement. Along with a core group of student activists, he co-led the fight to bring democracy to the University of Houston. He graduated th...

The Texas born queer scholar and activist Gloria Anzaldúa celebrated spirituality that emerged at the borders: the borders between nations, the borders between sexes and genders, the borders between ethnicities and races, the borders between languages, and any other border that we might encounter. In this installment of "Lives of the Spirit," we will draw from her wisdom to explore how paying atte...

This year marks the two hundredth anniversary of the Supreme Court case Johnson v. McIntosh. The court's decision in the case used Catholic theological doctrine to form the basis for much of US property law. In 2012, the UUA repudiated the doctrine at its General Assembly. In this service, we'll reflect on what it means to live in a supposedly secular country where some of the central laws are of...