UUMAN Unitarian Universalist Metro Atlanta North Church

While our service focused on security procedures on the UUMAN campus, we elected not to livestream that portion of the service to the online public. However, we wanted to share this month's 50/50 recipient, North Fulton Community Charities. We've included a presentation by NFCC's Sharri Morgan, who explains their mission, our church's longtime connection with the organization, and...

Today's service audio focuses on how, when you get right down to it, we never do anything alone - success, failure, joy, grief. We celebrate our joys and hold one another in our grief.  How do we support one another? Sometimes it's a "parking lot angel," as you'll hear. And another way we support one another is through the acceptance of new members to our beloved community. T...

"May we remember the very best of who they were, and what they embodied. And may we embody that essence in our lives." Due to the intensely personal nature of this service, and to potential privacy and security concerns of a downloadable podcast episode, the specific reading of names of those who've died in the last year has been cut from this particular audio. However, you will hear...

How did we get to believe that “making sense” is an intellectual, rather than a sensual, thing? Things “make sense” not when we engage the mind but when we engage the senses. And re-engaging our senses may well be at the root of our salvation. You'll also hear a Child Dedication (welcome, Koda!), upcoming event announcements, and original compositions performed by Music Director Alex Pietsch....

Leaving the faith system that you grew up in is difficult - and often traumatic and/or life-altering. But doubt need not be the death of faith. In this episode, you'll be provided with guidelines to maintaining one's own comfort level of fidelity to one's principles. Also, you'll hear what happens when a chalice decides to extinguish itself mid-service, and an improvised-on-the-spo...

Descartes said, “I think therefore I am.” Couldn’t he have said, “I breathe therefore I am”? What is the breath? What is its relationship to life? What is its relationship to the natural world? What does it connect us to? Why might a written language such as Hebrew have only consonants and no vowels? As Reverend Dave describes, many might think that it's because it would be blasphemous to atte...

Who among us does not enjoy ridiculous, sometimes silly mishaps experienced by our political enemies? Anything wrong with having a bit of fun? Only when it keeps us from focusing on what we need to do to neutralize these enemies. With the likes of someone such as DeVos, her school privatization scheme is part of a nationwide effort to finance our public education by what, our guest speaker posits,...

Pretty much all of your big, billion-member-type world religions require fealty. Submission. Put your own personal stuff aside and obey something greater than oneself. Yeah, not us UUs, though... right? Maybe not. Consider: Among the dances we do, of joy, and love, and yes, a dance of death, do we do a "dance of supplication"? Is such obedience actually the path to true freedom? Plus fid...

After the announcements and comedy skits (pretty sure Rev. Dave's Top Ten List qualifies for the latter group), comes the serious question. What kind of commitment are we making to ensure the safety of those whose very lives are threatened by the right wing's culture war? How can we adequately support them, as America's individual states pass legislation and impose regulations delibera...

Thirty-six who are righteous and hidden? Are they among us? This question, among other lessons from the Kabbalah, are an integral part of this week's service, along with gratitude for those willing to be imprisoned for their beliefs. "Chromium Attic" composed by John Pruitt, and performed with Dave Dunn. Copyright 2023. All rights reserved. Intro and outro background music by Tim Moo...

In this annual sacrament, we recognize the selfless contribution made by our beloved animal companions, as well as remembering those dear souls who were once part of our lives. These are the creatures "whose only mood seems to be, 'I want to be with you always.'" You'll hear stories about butterflies and songbirds, and of course, "Amens" punctuated by unscripted bar...

Just what is "Covenant" supposed to be, anyway? Rev. Dave notes that in 2018 UUMAN gathered to determine what shared values we had, and came up with "Love, Connection, Wonder & Awe, Courage, and Justice." And then he asks: "So what do those words mean to you? Do they mean the same to me?" And that's where we have to dig a bit deeper, so we do. Even if it means...

Join us this week as lay preacher and educator extraordinaire Rollin Mathis introduces us to the first of what will become a Second Hour Adult Enrichment course this year. Where else can you not only find the holy grail, but hear a musical jingle performed on the spot to promote its search? Also, the usual announcements, readings, and musical accompaniment. A note about the sound--we apologize for...

"For-profit prisons. Guns. Exploited domestic and migrant workers. Children workers. Our economic system!" And that's just the literal start of a much longer list of lamentable issues brought to the foreground that we have to consider, all crying out for our attention. Do we hear those cries? People should not have to face crisis alone. May we have the courage to resolve, and use our...

"You've now seen one, then you do one, and then after a year of being President, you get to teach one." Past President Miriam Patanian answers everything you always wanted to know about how UUMAN is governed but were (maybe!) afraid to ask. She also shares how she came to "find our tribe" here in Georgia, why she felt called to this three year tour of duty, and what it how...

"Peace, joy, love, tears, strength? It's all in there." After a summer's break, Rev. Dave Dunn and worship associate Mandi Winders lead this service to begin a new year at UUMAN, connecting one another through our annual Water Communion. Along with a wondering time story for all ages , you'll hear from four points on the compass as we recommit to ministry (thanks to our Presi...

"Balancing or taming our hungers is necessary to reduce the drain we are having on this earth, and it puts Trickster's energy in its place." Lay speaker Donna Melcher takes us on a deep dive into the role of the Trickster, who lives among us and has been here for as long as our species has walked the earth. While it's known by many names, its constant throughout history has been...

"People DO find us. I've always believed that if more people knew about UUMAN, our values, our unique brand of no-dogma spirituality, that many more would come and join us." Mike Chambers shares his vision of the Board President's role in accomplishing such worthy goals, reports relatively good news about UU membership trends, and talks about his past work as VP focusing on UUMAN...

This week's service focuses on the importance of friendship. Our lay speaker Megan Curtis advises us to expand our sense of "what is 'a friend'," and to "find friends in whatever form they come." Worship associate: David Kroeber. Musical accompaniment and original music, including "Ascent," written and performed by John Pruitt, copyright 2023. All rights r...

The first of a six-part series of interviews with the newly elected UUMAN Board, we start with Jennifer Phillippi, who discusses what the Treasurer does, and what her experience and background brings to the role. Plus musings on Unitarian Universalists' skepticism, enneagrams, and fire dancing. Intro and outro background music by Tim Moor at Pixabay. UUMAN is a welcoming congregation and we th...

Individual liberty is sometimes criticized as selfish, a failed doctrine, failing to prioritize community. However, the recent Supreme Court decision ending abortion as an individual right, now subject to legislative control, has led many of us to take a fresh look at the value of personal liberty. As Unitarian Universalists, can we continue to side with love and protect individual liberty? Are th...

"Even though changes are coming, we can find happiness together." So preaches Randy Blasch, whose life changes will be taking him away. Whether it's a major relocation, or additions (subtractions?) to UU principles and sources, or gun safety laws, changes are fraught with difficulty yet, in the words of David Bowie, we have to "turn to face the changes." Plus morning announ...

For this week's service, our lay speaker Dwana Bush channels David Whyte who said, "a beautiful question starts to shape your identity as much by asking it as it does by having it answered.   And before you know it, you will find yourself actually shaping a different life, meeting different people, finding conversations that are leading you in those directions that you wouldn’t even have...

What does it mean to identify as a Southern white person in today’s world? Especially if your family history goes way back, racism is not just prevalent, it is part of the song we have sung for centuries. Explore the spiritual and emotional journey of making reparations for slavery in an old Southern family and what it takes for us all to ‘sing a New song of the South’, for our sweet homes in the...

Merri Beth Stevens intertwines personal stories with just enough science and technology to allow us to grasp "the immense flexibility of the father's brain." Listen and learn to better understand what fathers, and father figures, do to us fellow humans (and in MB's case, how they compel us to take risks.) Along with a road trip with a Stuckey's pecan log roll reward, instruct...