Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation's Podcast

This service is from a live stream on May 23, 2021, led by Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage. Rev. Gage reflects on both/and thinking, flower communion and all the true stories. The theme for May is what it means to be a people of story. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections on our website. For the safety of a...

This service is from a live stream on May 16, 2021 led by Ministerial Intern mandi huizenga. On this Sunday, Welcome Sunday, we celebrate the expansion of Unity Temple's interconnected web as we welcome the new members who are joining our community. We are also reminded that we must care and tend to our web, strengthening our bonds and caring for our community. The theme for May is what it means t...

This service from May 9, 2021 was created and presented by the Unity Temple Youth Group as part of the high school seniors' Bridging Ceremony. Youth Coordinator Justine Urbikas gives the background for the service. The graduating seniors then give their bridging talks followed by remarks from Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage and Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor. In order, the seniors...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on May 2, 2021 and presented by Dr. Elías Ortega. As a faith community, when we gather, we affirm our commitment to work towards a world shaped by justice and humanized by acts of compassion. To live our lives guided by our shared principles, we need to dare to live into a sacred community where we are shaped and transformed by our highest asp...

This worship service from April 18, 2021 was created and presented by participants in our Coming of Age program. These ninth graders spent the year exploring their Unitarian Universalist identity, history, spirituality, their feelings and their beliefs. Their work culminates in this worship service where each delivers a personal credo statement that they have developed. Minister of Faith Developme...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on April 11, 2021. Reflecting on the process of rebirth and renewal, Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor shares some of the congregation's extraordinary journey over the last 18 years as he approaches the end of the season of his ministry. The theme for April is what it means to be a people of becoming. To read about our theme-based ministry, ple...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on April 4, 2021. Viewing resurrection as rebirth after painful loss or period, Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor explores how love uncaged by death leads to an experience of the Kingdom of God, both within and among us. The theme for April is what it means to be a people of becoming. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit http://...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on March 28, 2021 and led by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor. Reflecting on the history of this congregation, it's faith heritage and the current pandemic, Rev. Taylor explores what it means for this congregation to build a new way here and now. The theme for March is what it means to be a people of commitment. To read about our theme-based m...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on March 21, 2021. Rev . Brian Sauder outlines the commitments of Eco-Justice that are practiced by Faith in Place in their daily work to advance environmental justice. Rev. Brian Sauder serves Faith in Place as the President & Executive Director (www.faithinplace.org). He was the Policy Director and organizer of the Springfield office until R...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on March 14, 2021. The two-part homily is presented first by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor and then Ministerial Intern mandi huizenga. They honor the one-year anniversary of Covid-imposed social distancing by reflecting on how challenging the spiritual work of grief has been during the pandemic, especially through our many losses. The theme...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on March 7, 2021. The service includes reflections from our fourth graders, and Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage considers what commitments are (as per Mary Oliver) like the "loyalty of water to the force of gravity." The theme for March is what it means to be a people of commitment. To read about our theme-based ministry, please...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on February 28, 2021. The sermon is presented Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor. Reflecting on the work of Bryan Stevenson, Rev. Taylor explores what it means to get close to people who are suffering, neglected or abused. For neither justice nor the Beloved Community are possible without people willing to do the uncomfortable work of becoming p...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on February 21, 2021. The sermon is presented by Rev. Mary Katherine Morn and Heather Vickery and is preceded by the audio from a video with adrienne maree brown . Leaders of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee share how we Unitarian Universalists can ground ourselves in the vision of the Beloved Community and support their important...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on February 14, 2021 and led by Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage. Walt Whitman famously wrote: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes." This sermon considers the multitudes within each of us, in our history and in the stories that we tell and believe. The theme for February is...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on February 7, 2021 and led by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor. As our congregation explores "Welcoming All," what are we welcoming all to? If we are about transforming lives, what are we transforming lives for? Rev. Taylor shares his vision of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. The theme for February is what it means to be a beloved comm...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on January 31, 2021. Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd from Bethesda, Maryland speaks powerfully from her Washington, DC neighborhood and asks, "Whose imaginations created our current national culture and our spiritual community? Whose voices and stories do we need to lift up?" The theme for January is what it means to be a people of imagination. To re...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on January 24, 2021 and led by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said at the March on Washington, "Again and again we must rise to the majesty heights of meeting physical force with soul force." It's still true and Rev. Taylor explores how soul force has made a difference in American history and suggests what...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on January 17, 2021 and led by Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage. Muhammad Ali put it this way: "The [person] who has no imagination has no wings." This cuts right to the essential importance of imagination—the ability to see beyond the here and the now. Rev. Gage reflects on re-imagining our past and future, with the help of Isabe...

This podcast is from the worship service live streamed on January 10, 2021 and led by Rev. Allison Farnum, Director of the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois. Join with us as we kick off our quarter-long study of Transformative Justice with Rev. Allison, who invites us to re-imagine the world through the lens of our Unitarian Universalist faith and the work of the Unitarian Univers...

This podcast is from the January 3, 2021 worship service live streamed on Christmas Eve and led by Ministerial Intern mandi huizenga. As the New Year dawns, let's use our imaginations to examine the collective desires of our community through the Unity Temple mission statement. Using our shared community imagination with new imagination partners, let us bring the reality of Beloved Community to fr...

This podcast is from the December 27, 2020 worship service live streamed on Christmas Eve and led by Ministerial Intern mandi huizenga. Let's send out 2020 with a bang! Join us as we bid adieu to the old year, jazz style. A brief musical introduction is followed by Luna Ortega-Huizenga reading A Letter to Management . Then, mandi presents her reflection on the year end supplemented by Jack Ridenou...

This podcast is from the 8 pm worship service live streamed on December 24, 2020. At our later candlelight Christmas Eve service, Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor explores what following the Christmas star can mean today after a heart-wrenching year. The theme for December is what it means to be a people of stillness. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit  http://www.unitytemple.org...

This podcast is from the 4 pm family worship service live streamed on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2020. Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage shares how the three rules of elves can inform our approach to Christmas. The theme for December is what it means to be a people of stillness. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit  http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-con...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on December 20, 2020. This December hasn't gone how any of us has planned; it's lot less busier and noisier than usual. Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage reflects on finding meaning in the quiet moments at a difficult time. The theme for December is what it means to be a people of stillness. To read about our theme-based ministry,...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on December 13, 2020. Reflecting on the mission and vision of this congregation, Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor explores the current challenges in our Welcoming All initiative, upended by the pandemic and the arc of our continuing journey, until we begin the deep dive into Inspiring Compassion. The theme for December is what it means to be...