First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg's Podcast

2023-11-19 - “We all have within us a centre of stillness surrounded by silence,” reflected Dag Hammarskjöld on the dedication of the Meditation Room at the headquarters of the United Nations. He believed that, in the place where the nations of the world gathered to debate the great issues of the day, there should be “one room dedicated to silence in the outward sense and stillness in the inner se...

2023-11-05 - “Gather the spirit, harvest the power; our separate fires will kindle one flame,” we sing in the words of singer-songwriter Jim Scott. What is this power? Where (or who) does it come from? And how can we harvest it? The answer is found in our congregational affirmation, which asserts that service is our prayer. It then falls upon us to discern where we are called to serve – individual...

2023-07-16 - How many of us were told long ago that we didn’t have any artistic talent… or that we weren’t good enough?  (I sure was) Today I want to talk about how art should be for the masses; not the mass consumers, but the masses who do art for themselves.

2023-06-18 - “Life is a series of surprises,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, and this certainly seems to be true. While it’s also common to hear people, especially bosses and spouses, say, “I don’t like surprises,” I’ve been surprised by joy so often that I relish the surprises that come my way. From a strain of music to a kind word, and from shared revelry to an unexpected gift, we may find ourselves...

The Canadian Unitarian Council’s Lay Chaplaincy program started in 1971, from a belief that everyone has a right to a rite, no matter their religious affiliation. The program, to paraphrase the CUC, helps people in need of meaningful rite of passage ceremonies that recognize their personal beliefs and the needs of everyone attending the ceremony, reflecting Unitarian and Universalist values. The t...

2024-05-05 - How do you make decisions? Oftentimes, the choice is easy; other times it may be especially difficult. “We still haven't figured out any satisfactory systematic way of deciding these things,” observed the late Daniel C. Dennett. “Anything that can relieve the burden of figuring out how to make these hard calls is bound to be an attractive idea.” While some may wait for a sign, I...

2024/05/19 - Everyone needs to eat, but not everyone has the money, time, energy, or desire to cook good food. In early 2023, I decided to see what would happen if I offered to cook dinner once a week for friends, asking only that they pitch in for groceries as they could. Over a year later, I’m now regularly making 30 meals for old friends and new comrades every Tuesday on an entirely Pay What Yo...

2024/04/14 - Canada's National Volunteer Week, April 14-20, is when organizations take time to appreciate Canada’s 24 million volunteers. We are part of a collective volunteer movement which is critical to strengthening the well-being of our communities. This year's theme is “Every Moment Matters; no effort is too small.” Your time, skills and kindness truly matter in reaching out to the...

2024/04/28 - Long before the Unitarian Universalist Association adopted its current statement of principles, which affirms “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part,” John Ruskin Clark was urging us to adopt a new worldview that found the unity of being in what he called the great living system. “Life is a process by which order is created out of disorder in the u...

2024/03/31 - Novelist D.H. Lawrence believed that humans are born first to themselves and only later to a sense of humanity, when “most are born again on entering maturity,” shedding the innocence of childhood and achieving an adult understanding of the world – “a consciousness of all the laughing, and the never-ceasing murmur of pain and sorrow …” Spiritual growth is akin to being born anew, or r...

2024/03/24 - In most religious traditions, the purpose of religious education is to transmit the doctrines and practices of the faith from one generation to the next, thereby creating the next generation of the faithful. According to William Ellery Channing, however, the purpose of religious instruction (or exploration, as we would say now) is to inspire a lifelong love of discovery, develop the c...

2024/03/10 - “Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink. The years go by, quicker than a wink, enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think!” This 1950’s hit by Guy Lombardo & his Royal Canadians was a bit of a hoot to sing years ago. It talked of working so hard to get to be a millionaire and then you’ll have some fun, or putti...

2024/03/03 - “But ask the animals, and they will teach you,” Job declared after lamenting that he was a laughingstock to his friends. I find myself increasingly drawn to wild places and the creatures that inhabit them. On World Wildlife Day, we will reflect on how the wildlife that surrounds us enhances our lives and teaches us how to live upon the earth well, if we are paying attention. “I love t...

2024/02/25 - “The vocabulary of a religious faith once seemed dead to me,” writes Kathleen Norris, who conceded that, even after returning to church, “I’d run into barriers, words that seemed like mental roadblocks.” This is familiar territory for many of us. Sacred words may scare us, and religious jargon even offend us – or perhaps do nothing for us at all. Why do we react to some religious word...

2024/02/11 -  “I’m just not that interesting.” This phrase, spoken by a patient to whom I was to provide a spiritual care intervention, resonated deeply with me. At 85 years-old, this person, at the twilight of their life, assessed the whole of their 85 years in a simple and dismissive way. Every day, whether it feels like it or not, contains the profound miracle which is life; a profound miracle...

2024/02/04 - It is often asserted that stained glass appeared in medieval churches as a means to illustrate the stories of the Bible for a largely illiterate audience, but I’ve never been satisfied with this explanation. It somehow minimizes the value of the art and its meaning. I’ve sometimes heard people express appreciation for this church’s stained- glass windows because they don’t depict reli...

2024-05-26 - “Pluralism that reflects no commitments whatever to the common good is pluralism gone berserk,” according to John W. Gardner. Robust pluralism, the diversity that resolves itself in unity, requires sufficient shared values and mutual trust to work. As it turns out, pluralism is more work than universalism, but more achievable for religious communities, and between religious traditions...

2024-07-14 - In a world where religion continues to act as a means of division and hatred, this sermon will speak about the necessity for people of all faiths and backgrounds to come together for common good. There will be an emphasis on the universal law of loving all – seeing the presence of one higher entity in all peoples, regardless of our differences. As a person of the Sikh background, who...

2024-07-21 - You are welcomed to join in this service inviting us to live out of a gratitude base, engaging with whatever life may throw our way. This is not a naive gratitude which ignores the challenging, in order to keep a happy mask in place. Wholesome gratitude seeks the strength of a life-affirming base with which to build on other positives, and actively address negative realities.

2024-06-23 - While what we call artificial intelligence reveals the astonishing capacity of modern computer technology to process information, I’m not persuaded that this capacity is properly called intelligence, at least not in any meaningful human understanding of the term. Intelligence is more than the ability to manipulate data, even predictively. We really need a new term to describe AI, alth...

2024-07-07 - It goes without saying that we are each the sum of our experiences. We carry stories, scars, wounds, lessons – and sometimes, tattoos – from the life we’ve had. But what happens when who we were is no longer congruent with who we are? How do we negotiate that change? In this sermon, Andre will share his experience from once being a pastor in various Christian churches and a proponent...