Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation's Podcast

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on December 6, 2020. Reflecting on how inner stillness is a space within where we can listen to the genuine, Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor explores how inner stillness moves us from chronological time to "kairos" time which mystics call "real time" or "God's time," and where the goal is in Rabbi Abraham Heschel's words " not to have but to...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on November 29, 2020. The sermon is delivered by Ministerial Intern mandi huizenga. To be human is to live and love in brokenness, for to be human means loss and pain. How can we be resilient in that brokenness? How can we be holy and whole? Can we leverage that brokenness to create a world more just, to create the Beloved Community? The them...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on November 22, 2020. Rev. Gage shares, "I know this sounds a little ridiculous, but I am inspired by those leaves that are still hanging on the trees this late in the season. There they are, still surviving, against all odds. You know, kind of like us. Here we are over 8 months into our pandemic existence, and we are still persisting and res...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on November 15, 2020. Members of our community, Ken Hooker, Carol DiMatteo, Dr. Elías Ortega, and Tom McCann join our ministers and share unique challenges and losses that have come with the pandemic and how to cope. The theme for November is what it means to be a people of healing. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit  http:/...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on November 8, 2020. Many of us are struggling with how nearly half the voting public sought to give our current president four more years. Rev. Alan Taylor reflects on the need for religious liberals to take time to rest, rejuvenate and ready ourselves for the future.   The theme for November is what it means to be a people of healing. To re...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on November 1, 2020. During this deeply anxious period in history, Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor reflects on the importance of invoking the love of those who have gone before us and how we can navigate this uncertain time.    The theme for November is what it means to be a people of healing. To read about our theme-based ministry, please v...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on October 25, 2020. The sermon is delivered by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor. Howard Thurman served as a mystic for the civil rights movements of the 50s and 60s. His teachings are as important today as then as he teaches that only by going inward can we effectively go outward. Pastor Otis Moss III says, "America wants to think of itself...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on October 11, 2020. The sermon is delivered by Intern Minister mandi huizenga. We UUs love rationality and reason which encourages us to "think through life." The mind, however, is only one part of what it means to be human. We lose so much when we ignore the other parts of ourselves. mandi reflects on what listening to the heart and body, b...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on October 11, 2020. The sermon is delivered by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor. Rev. Taylor applies Buddhist teachings and the Hebrew story of Elijah's search for God to the contemporary need to center ourselves and to respond compassionately to suffering. The theme for October is what it means to be a people of deep listening. To read abou...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on October 4, 2020. The sermon is delivered by Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage. Join in this exploration of the challenges and gifts of deep listening (not just listening, but deep listening), through the help of Mister Rogers, StoryCorps and James Baldwin. The theme for October is what it means to be a people of deep listening....

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on September 27, 2020. The sermon is delivered by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor. Reflecting on the wisdom of Yom Kippur and the unique gifts of Judaism, Rev. Taylor explores current challenges and America's need for repentance and repair—and the central role of the religious community. The theme for September is what it means to be a peopl...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on September 20, 2020. The sermon is delivered by Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage. Reflections on a new year, dogs' greetings, letting go and life six months into a pandemic.  The theme for September is what it means to be a people of renewal. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit  http://www.unitytemple.org/faith...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on September 13, 2020. The sermon is delivered by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor. Reflecting on how spiritual and social renewal has occurred throughout history with the birth and re-birth of compassion, Rev. Taylor explores how our current historical moment is calling for radical empathy and revolutionary love. The theme for September is w...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on September 6, 2020. On this Labor Day weekend, Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor reflects on what Valarie Kaur calls "the sweet labor of love" that calls us to address classism and racism through opening up to the stories of those we encounter.  The theme for September is what it means to be a people of renewal. To read about our theme-based...

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on August 30, 2020. The sermon is delivered by Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage. Rev. gage observes that last year at this time, we never in a million years would have pictured remote or hybrid learning or masks or social distancing protocols, or virtual water communion services, or the incredible chaos of the systems around us....

Today's podcast is from a worship service live streamed on August 23, 2020. The Unity Temple Mental Health Awareness Team (MyHAT) brings three journeys navigating mental health along with diverse resources. Leisa Aiken, Rev. Ericka Bailey and Cory Anderson share vulnerably and powerfully. The theme for August is what it means to be a people of possibility. To read about our theme-based ministry, p...

This sermon was delivered by UTUUC Music Director Marty Swisher on August 16, 2020. Marty shares insights into how music is a force for transformation. The theme for August is what it means to be a people of possibility. To read about our theme-based ministry, please visit  http://www.unitytemple.org/faith-development/soul-connections  on our website. For the safety of all in light of the COVID-19...

This sermon was delivered by Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons on August 9, 2020. Our Unitarian Universalist ministries have a long history in culturally specific communities around the world and here in North America. Who are some of these communities? Why and how were they accepted or rejected? What does their legacy mean for the future of our faith? How can we live into a broader, more faithful interdep...

This sermon was delivered by Pastor Ira J. Acree on August 2, 2020. Rev. Acree has served Greater St. John Bible Church, a thriving Missionary Baptist church in the Austin neighborhood, for the past 30 years. He reflects on the story of Esther of the Hebrew Scriptures and how people of faith are called "for such a time as this."  The theme for August is what it means to be a people of possibility....

This sermon was delivered by Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage on July 26, 2020. Four plus months into our pandemic existence, Rev. Gage has been thinking hard about what sustains us, what keeps us going, what gives us hope. What makes us feel free, or at least keeps us in touch with something beyond our current circumstances. Two readings presented by youth member Clare Roarty precede...

This sermon was delivered by Rev. Dr. John Buehrens on July 19, 2020. Rev. Buehrens explores how the American Transcendentalists ignited movements for racial, gender and social justice in the 19th century and reflects on their wisdom for our current moment. The podcast includes a reading from "The Limits of Tyrants" by Frederick Douglass. The Rev. John Buehrens was president of the Unitarian Unive...

This sermon was delivered by Rev. Julie Taylor on July 12, 2020. Rev. Taylor explores the sometimes complicated relationship between the military and Unitarian Universalism. Rev. Julie Taylor is a Unitarian Universalist community minister specializing in critical incident response, community crisis and pastoral care. Julie is the Senior Director of Contextual Ministry and an affiliate professor at...

The sermon was delivered by Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor on July 5, 2020. How does a faith community participate in social change and especially the democratic process? On this Fourth of July weekend, Rev. explores the three levels of participating in democracy, both as individuals and as a faith community. The theme for July is what it means to be a people of hope. To read about our theme-bas...

The sermon was delivered by Minister of Faith Development Rev. Emily Gage on June 21, 2020. There are moments when our hearts open up as wide as can be and let us be fully present to all that is. We can sense all the love and joy and sorrow and pain and vulnerability at once. And we need those moments. And... we simply can't live like that all the time. It might be too much. The theme for June is...

This podcast is excerpted from Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation's live streamed worship service on June 14, 2020. "The central task of the church is to unveil the bonds that bind us." Using the work of Resmaa Menakem, Senior Minister Rev. Alan Taylor reflects on the challenge of processing the trauma of racism and how this trauma often gets lodged into our bodies. The theme for Jun...