First Universalist Church of Minneapolis Sunday Service Podcast

BlackLivesMatter. Self-care. Intersectionality. The Underground Railroad. Fractal world change–the power in communities of communities. “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” pleasure activism. Warrior poetry. Stonewall, and the countless other times a drag queen gets her life, and saves another. Women are powerful and dangerous, Audre Lorde writes. Thank goodness. We’re conjuring a joyful ce...

In Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown invites us to imagine a future in which we humans have gained the ability to move akin to a flock of starlings, each of us attuned to those around us, able to shift and move in concert with the community(ies) of which we are a part. This Sunday, February 13, we wonder about the wisdom of starlings and how they might inform our lives, and we’ll celebrate a...

Join us this Sunday for a service of prayer and renewal led by Rev. Jen Crow, Rev. Arif Mamdani, Rev. Karen Hutt, Lauren Wyeth, and Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout. Prelude- Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout (:21) Words of Welcome- Rev. Karen Hutt (1:31) Interlude- In My Soul- Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout (11:52) Time for All Ages- Lauren Wyeth (12:55) Interlude- More Love- Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout (19:00) Prayer and Cyc...

Guest speaker Vicki Elliott, Executive Director of Mental Health Connect , joins our team of worship leaders this week to talk about her own journey with mental health, how it’s impacted her family, and why it matters that faith communities work to destigmatize mental illness and ensure that everyone has access to the mental health care resources they need. Words of Welcome- Rev. Jen Crow (:30) Ca...

The poet, Audre Lorde, is famous for saying, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Building on this truth, we’ll explore how caring for each other – and allowing ourselves to be cared for by others – can help us expand our ideas of survival and joy beyond the individual and into the community. Welcome- Rev. Jen Crow (:30) Stor...

This Sunday, join Rev. Ashley Horan and Julica Hermann de la Fuente for a conversation about the lessons and ongoing challenges in our racial justice work, discussed through the lens of MLK’s legacy. As we once again meet online only to help each other and our broader community stay safe, we will leverage the chat in Zoom and talk with each other about this important work. In the first half of the...

Remembrance Sunday is an annual service that is a time to remember and reflect on our losses over the past year and to honor those we love who have died. This service can also be a time to mark other significant losses in the life of your family, such as a separation or divorce, saying goodbye to friends who’ve moved away, or any number of other things.   Words of Welcome, Announcements, and Land...

This Sunday, December 19, we enter into the heart of this question: what does Unitarian Universalism have to say when it all hits the fan? How can our faith and the commitments we hold in common help us to hold together when it all feels like it’s falling apart?   Words of Welcome and Calling Our Ancestors- Rev. Jen Crow (:30) Story for All Ages- Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch- Rev. Arif Mamdani (8...

In these tender times, we turn to our communities to help us hold it all. This Sunday, Lena K. Gardner, Executive Director of Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), joins Rev. Jen Crow in leading our service as we practice being and building the world we dream about.   Calling Our Ancestors- Rev. Jen Crow (:20) Hymn- Lift Every Voice and Sing- Aimee K. Bryant, Franco Holder (7:06) Prayers a...

As we turn into the longest nights of the year, what commitments will shine like stars, helping us navigate through these troubling times? What if we aimed to keep our hearts soft, our hands open, and our boundaries clear? Together we’ll explore how these ways of being might help us live in alignment with our Universalist faith in the spirit of love and hope.   Welcome- Rev. Jen Crow (:30) Story f...

Rev. Jen Crow, Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, Isabel Quast, Franco Holder and Aimee K. Bryant lead an intergenerational service of story and song as we invite each other into the spiritual practices of giving and receiving and growing. Come find out more about Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism and our annual Holiday Giving project, and leave lifted up by our collective power that comes together when...

We celebrate the miracle that is at the center of the larger cycle of life. We welcome and name and dedicate ourselves to the care of nine children in our Child Dedication Ritual – and as we bear sacred witness to these unfolding lives, it is our hope we will see ourselves and each other anew. Each of us born whole and holy and worthy. Each of us important and ordinary and unique. Each of us in ne...

This Sunday, November 14, we welcome new members into our company. Our new members will be formally welcomed during our second service while our first will offer a renewal of membership and a blessing to those joining. **Both ceremonies are included on the podcast** Whichever service you attend, we invite you to “re-member” what it means to cast our lot with this congregation, day after day, week...

We continue to build a new way of being together as a church community. The choir will sing – with some guest appearances you won’t want to miss; children and youth will be with us and we’ll share in a story for all; we’ll join in meditation and prayer and care, and we’ll ask each other – Can you feel a brand new day? Is today a day when you can feel it? Is today a day when you feel something else...

Instead of our usual hour-long worship service, we invite you to join us for a ritual with music by Franco as the centerpiece.   Words of Welcome- Rev. Jen Crow Ritual- Franco Holder, pianist

“…sometimes, it can take a long time to sound like yourself.” -Miles Davis This Sunday, Oct. 24, we lead a journey of creative prayer practices. There is no one way to pray, or a specific word you must remember. There are many ways to focus the mind and tune the heart to love. We’ll share music and stories. We’ll have fun together, making space to call the wisdom in each of us, until we hear the s...

We are coming ’round the mountain – heading toward a critical city election, toward more church gatherings possible in person, toward fall and the winter holidays, through another cycle of life. How might we relax into this familiar rhythm and circle round the mountain, orienting ourselves toward what matters most as we travel through unpredictable terrain? We let story and song and the wisdom of...

No matter how many times we make our way through the changes life brings, we may still find ourselves wondering if there isn’t some other way around the mountain. This Sunday, October 10, we explore the cycles and spirals of life while challenging ourselves to grow in compassion and commitment each time we make our way through.   Prelude and Words of Welcome- Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout (:35) Story fo...

Risk is an inherent part of what it means to be human and alive. As we go about our daily lives, we regularly engage in almost automatic calculations where we assess the risk of a particular action and its reward. We try to achieve a balance between perceived benefit and perceived safety. But what happens when we’re confronted with something new? This Sunday, October 3, join your worship team for...

If we’ve learned anything these last 18 months, we’ve learned that try as we might, we cannot always control how things turn out. If control cannot carry us, then what can? Unitarian Universalist theologian Dr. Sharon Welch suggests that an ethic of risk may be at the center of what allows us to persist in building the world and the lives of love and justice we long for, even in the face of partia...

Gathering in person at Minnehaha Falls, we immerse ourselves in the imagery of water and the power of the river as we remember the strength of the stones in the banks we build, and the well-worn groove of the river bed that waits for us, whatever the season. We remember the ritual of Water Communion and the symbolic ingathering it represents and we will intentionally hold back the waters for now,...

This multigenerational service of song, story, and strength as we remember that no matter what is going on around us or within us, when we are in it together – what we need is here. Backpacks will be blessed for those who carry them, and all of us will come away with the joy of community and a grounding in our deepest commitments. Worship leaders: Rev. Jen Crow, Lauren Wyeth, Dr. Glen Thomas Rideo...

Where love and connection reside, there is the location of god. Join Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, Julica Hermann de la Fuente, Rev. Arif Mamdani, Franco Holder, the First Universalist Choir (directed by Dr. Randy Buikema), and other worship leaders for worship at on Sunday, August 29 as we gather and reflect, held together by story, prayer, poem, and song. Words of Welcome- Rev. Arif Mamdani (:31) Sto...

Going slow to go fast. Heeding the lessons from geese. These last several weeks, our services have invited us to reflect on how it is that we do this thing called religious community. This Sunday, we continue this exploration as we lift up a concrete approach to the challenges that can arise when human beings try to do things together. Words of Welcome- Rev. Jen Crow (:30) Story for All Ages- The...

This Sunday, we worship at the Lake Harriet Bandshell! Worship leaders Aimee K. Bryant, Franco Holder, Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, Rev. Arif Mamdani, Julica Hermann de la Fuente, Rev. Jen Crow, Lauren Wyeth, and Rev. Karen Hutt will lead and inspire us through music, story, and message, and challenge us to consider what we might learn from — among other things — Canadian geese. Words of Welcome- Rev....