First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston Podcast

This Sunday we launch our capital campaign to rebuild and renew our campus. Come rejoice us with as we imagine how we can green and reconfigure our buildings and make First Unitarian Universalist an even better place to widen love's circle.

The civil rights activist and Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel understood God as pathos, a divine personality who had compassion for humanity. In this second sermon in our series "Lives of the Spirit," we will explore Heschel's belief that religious piety and social justice activism, which he named the prophetic, were inextricably linked. His life and teaching might offer us an answer to t...

We celebrated Labor Day with a service devoted to the importance of labor unions. Included is a lovely performance of "Rich Men Earning North of a Million", words and music by Billy Bragg and performed by Charlie Burrus.  There is also some important information on something that you should have learned about in school but probably didn't, how to form a labor union!

Many Unitarian Universalist congregations kick off the new congregational year with an Ingathering service. Members and friends reunite, re-covenant, and prepare for the new church year.

The Latin word  limen  means "threshold." Liminal space is an inner state and sometimes an outer situation where we can begin to think and act in new ways. We find ourselves at the threshold of a new church year, and for some, a new school year. How can we make the most of our time in a liminal space?

"It's been said that Unitarian Universalist is the best-kept secret, but why? When the world is on fire we can offer people a safe, healing, and loving space. Let's explore what it means to be Unapologetically UU and why it matters so much right now."

The Founder of The Nap Ministry, Tricia Hersey, urges us to spend more time resting, imagining the world we want, a world where we could rest more, be less tied to capitalism's goals, reclaim our bodies and minds as our own. Carol Burrus honors rest and calls us to resist the work ethic that causes us to feel unworthy of our own existence without constant activity to prove ourselves.

Universalists historical believed that God loved and saved everyone without exception. Unitarians, in contrast, understood salvation to be a process of continual moral improvement where people worked to uncover the divine light within. In this sermon, Dr. Bossen will reflect on the tensions between these two doctrines and how they inform our life together today.

This week's service gave us an opportunity to learn more about Rev. Dr. Colin Bossen with our "Question Box" service. Members of the congregation and staff submitted questions that he answered instead of delivering a sermon. Some are fun, some are thought provoking, all are interesting.

The days heat up, kids are off of school, and we may have changes of scenery on a getaway. Whether taking unhurried walks after dusk or enjoying the breeze of an electric fan, the relaxed days of Summer lend themselves to introspection.

"Wakan" is the the Lakota use of it meaning  "divine spirit(s)". Rev. Mona Lopez from Resurrection Metropolitan Church of Christ, has pursued studies in Metaphysics, Native American traditions and Eastern religions. She links the Lakota concept of Wakan to being present.

A story from Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine provides the inspiration for reflection on the role of "ontological wonder" in life and ethics.

Our Emeritus Minister, Rev. Dr. Dan King, will return from the ongoing General Assembly to give some early first impressions and perspectives on this year's program theme "Faithfully Becoming" in the context of emerging religious and social consciousness developments that relate to our denomination's progressive religious values.

Recent years have seen a startling assault on the rights of people of color, the LGBTQ community, and women. In this service honoring Juneteenth we will consider what all of these attacks on human dignity have in common and the ways in which the First Principle of our Unitarian Universalist Associations calls upon us to resist them.

What is joy? How can we find it? In this service suggested by 2022 auction winner Susan Murphey, we explored and celebrated joy through word and music. 

Gazing toward the horizon can lead us to contemplate our future, but we can also reminisce and reconsider our past. Today, we remember those we've lost, what we've done, and how those things might shape our future.

Dr. Bossen will preaches about the Eighth Principle and why he believes it is important for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston to adopt it if we are going to live into our vision of widening love's circle.

We look toward the horizon, where the known and unknown meet, as if to our future, but our choices determine if we'll step forward or away. In our youth, mothers and loved ones guided us to make good choices. Our spiritual lives are also actualized by our thoughtful choices.

Robert Wedderburn was the likely the first person of African descent to serve as a Unitarian minister. A political radical, he was convicted for blasphemy in 1821 two years after he opened the multiracial Hopkins Street Chapel in London. A hitherto unknown figure amongst Unitarian Universalists in the United States, this will be the first sermon about him in this country. It results from research...

In this service celebrating May Day we will look at the roots of the tradition as both an ecological and labor holiday. I plan to invite local workers who have been organizing with Starbucks to come and share their testimonials during the service. We might consider a forum on labor issues either between the services or after the second service.

On Earth Day 2023, we explore...what influence do we have in our relationships with others? How can we use our limited, but real agency to create a life that changes us and the community we love?

We will follow the Saturday service with a service focused on calling for an end to gun violence.

Our Easter service this year will include a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Faithful Fools street ministry in San Francisco. The Faithful Fools founding minister the Rev. Dr. Kay Jorgensen was both a religious leader and a clown. Alongside her friend Carmen Barsody, a Franciscan nun, she started a ministry that has pushed Unitarian Universalists across the country to discover what love...

Walt Whitman told us, "The smallest sprout shows there is really no death." There are those, whom we lost this year, whose ability to inspire us will live on. Continuing his revival of an annual tradition, Rev. Scott reflects on some of these individuals.

A seed, feigning cold death, warms and sprouts to achieve its potential, unimagined until realized. We join together on the first day of a new year to think not only about what we hope to achieve, but why.