Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun Sermons

The Jewish High Holy Days offer an opportunity to start over with a clean slate and to make amends. As we begin a new year, how might we honor these opportunities? (9/16/2018)

Labor Day is about much more than a three-day weekend symbolically marking the end of summer. The first Monday in September was set apart as a time to celebrate the labor movement’s role in securing worker’s rights. As one popular bumper sticker says, “From the People that Brought You the Weekend.” Indeed, extrapolating from the Labor Movement’s successes, in the late nineteenth century, many of o...

Spiritual development involves opening ourselves to the complexities of life and the its inhabitants. (8/26/2018)

A love of language and a language of love. (8/19/2018)

Be Who You Are. A simple concept on the surface but a complicated and difficult idea in practice. This week’s service will talk about the idea of being unapologetically you in a world filled with labels that both unite AND divide us. No two of us are the same, we are all singing different parts in the choir of life. (8/12/2018)

How Life Experiences Affect Our Perspective and Use of Labels (8/5/2018)

We build skyscraper forts out of the labels we use to characterize "others", and hurl epithets and worse at "them". Yet we are all members of the same species, live on the same planet, and have the same basic biological needs. How do we reconcile the immense barriers we've created between individual subsets of us and them with the basic facts of our earthly human existence...

Computer software makes suggestions on what we might want to watch or buy, helps doctors make diagnoses, and judges issue sentencing, even helps vehicles on the road drive more safely. While the perception of computers is that they are making un-emotional, un-prejudiced assessments, they are based on data provided by humans, and so can hide and perpetuate bias we are unintentionally feeding them....

Continuing with our summer series, we will investigate labels of religious affiliations. What do we gain from these labels? What are the dangers that can come from these labels? How do our principles guide our actions when confronted by labels? (7/15/2018)

Just as in viniculture and musical culture, our own personal 'Terroir' nurtures and informs us, providing our lives with tastes of joy, sorrow and wonder with every sip. (7/8/2018)

We use labels to make sense of the world. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? This summer, our speakers will explore many of the labels we use, both for ourselves and others, and their impact on how we see and treat the world. (7/1/2018)

After five years as UUCL's Treasurer, Marco shares parting thoughts and the things he has learned along the way. More than just numbers, facts, and figures, how can we work together to truly be greater than the sum of our parts. (6/24/2018)

In the book, Gardens of Democracy, authors Lui and Hanauer argue that western institutions are based a fundamental misunderstanding of Darwinism: only the strong survive, dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest, etc. They argue that the growth models of our religious and social institutions have been based on competition and self-interest. And yet, observing the natural world, we see that the natural...

Curiosity as a Virtue. (5/27/2018)

How defensiveness gets in the way of mission and in the way of creativity. (5/20/2018)

Considers the question of whether and how we love the unlovable. (5/13/2018)

It has been said that we are co-creators with God. Theism aside, what does that look like? And what does it mean to be a creative people? (5/6/2018)

Can we make things happen? or do we let things unfold? Where is the balance in emergence, emergency and urgency? (4/29/2018)

Randy Newman's song helped define 1968, a year marked by sadness and irony. Now, 50 years later, what song will reflect 2018? (4/8/2018)

"A celebration of the rebirths in our own lives with the Flower Communion--an annual ritual that celebrates beauty, human uniqueness, diversity, and community. Originally created in 1923 by Unitarian minister Norbert Capek of Prague, Czechoslovakia, the Flower Ceremony was introduced to the United States by Rev. Maya Capek, Norbert's widow. Please bring a flower to share. You'll tak...

What does it mean to be a leader? In this time when we are craving positive leadership, perhaps we should redefine what it means to be a leader. (3/25/2018)

In creating and directing our own lives, what do we have to work with? Gratitude is not simply a way of keeping a positive frame of mind.  More importantly, it’s an evidence-based way to take inventory of what we have in our lives. Some of the best advice on how to live gratefully comes from the Stoic philosophers. (2/4/2018)

Is everything worth doing worth doing well? (1/28/2018)

Intending to do something isn't at all the same as living intentionally.  How do we turn the one to the other? (1/21/2018)

Each year we invite several members to share their personal journeys to Unitarian Universalism. (01/07/2018)