UUMKE Sunday Service Podcast

In full presence to the moment, our perception of time shifts. We drop down through the bottom of now into the ocean of timeless being. Paradoxically, radical presence to self can lead to the dissolution of self. Join us for this worship service where we explore how the spiritual practice of presence can bring us to a place of presence to all that is.

When actions and words go sideways, our messages can have mistaken meaning+. Fixing a communication breakdown takes skill, care and brave vulnerability. The tools to find our way back to one another can heal ourselves and our communities in this polarized world. Join us to explore real ways to mend our interactions and restore relationships at this child dedication, multigenerational Sunday.

To make amends means to compensate or make up for wrongdoing. How do we do that? Is it even possible? Danya Ruttenberg writes, “We all cause harm sometimes. We have all been harmed. We also are all bystanders to harm.” But we lack tools to heal harm. Join us this Sunday when we reflect on some big words like ‘repentance’ and learn a process for repair.

Elections mark a beginning, not an end. We are still in the middle of the story, being called to work together to care for one another and this world. Voting is one part of democracy, the rest of it is the work of being a good citizen: caring for the sick, working in solidarity with the vulnerable, and seeking justice for the harmed. Our humanity, and our values, remain the same, and we will conti...

What makes a conversation or a community safe? What do we need in our lives to feel safe and ready to open up? This week we explore the practice of deep listening in community. Like the fractal patterns in seashells, our practices with one another can help build a larger network of safe, listening communities.

Silence can contain oceans. In the depth of silence we can discover truth, love, the holy. Deep listening to one another also includes silence, as we listen to one another’s body language, breath, and non-verbal cues. Join us for this service where we explore silence’s power to lead us. 

In her poem “The Clearing,” Martha Postlethwaite suggests that when you don’t know what to do, you should “create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there, patiently.” Parker Palmer claims that the only way the soul can emerge is by creating a clearing for it through deep listening. How might we create a clearing for the soul and listen to what it needs in our dense lives, packed...

In this month of December, we explore the spiritual practice of Presence.  What does it mean to be present?  What does presence feel like?  How does the practice of Presence help us to put love at the center in our lives?

To repair the fractures in this nation, and in our own hearts, we need empathy. We need the whole of our minds and hearts, but fear takes us out of that wholeness. We are fighting fascism for our democracy, which is frightening, but we cannot sit in that fear. We need empathy to connect with our fellow citizens, and we need our whole brains to be able to make good decisions. Join us for this servi...

Body versus Spirit is a false dichotomy that the church perpetuates to our harm. Embodiment means to give body to a spirit, so body and spirit are connected. We enter this world through a body and become a body to live. How can we reclaim the body in church, and why would we want to do that? Because embodiment is life!

Life isn’t easy, it’s full of challenges and decisions that just seem impossible to surmount. Things happen that we don’t have answers for: loss seems to be a constant companion, we reach a point where we don’t think we can cope with it anymore. We have reached the edge and the only thing out there is an abyss of uncertainty, fear, pain; even anger. I propose that that “edge” is a place of rest.

Identity is a complicated, shifting set of perspectives and priorities. How do we do the work of knowing ourselves and one another? Join us at 10:00 a.m. for a service that explores the spiritual work of finding our transformative, pluralist selves.

Sacred belonging is the ground of Universalism. In our faith, we all belong, and no one is left outside the sacred circle of life and love. Stories of supremacy, of some people belonging or deserving more than others, harm our society and our souls. These kinds of stories have been told for a long time to amass power and dominate groups of people. Join us for this Sunday service where we tell a di...

Various aspects of our identity reflect in changing patterns of color when held up to the light, like a kaleidoscope. Identity includes what we do, where we came from, our role in relationships, our history and lineage, how we look, our beliefs and values, the communities where we belong. As the kaleidoscope turns, identity brings meaning and celebration. Join us this Sunday when we explore how id...

Discovering one’s value, self-worth, and identity.

This Sunday we explore the active commitment we make in renewal, that every day we put a new down payment on being alive. What do you recommit yourself to?  Which vows do you renew?  Come celebrate the active work of renewal in community.

Why do we seek renewal? What does it do for us? People get pulled in many directions which can separate us from our wholeness and purpose. Join us this Sunday when we explore how to pull ourselves back together, reconnecting with what makes us new again.

We honor the love, grief, and complexity that may arise for people on Father’s Day. What is required to become a father? What is the role of a father, and how might this role have changed in your lifetime? And, in recognition of Juneteenth, we honor America’s “second independence day” in all its joy, grief, resilience, and complexity.

Gender is a topic as complex as humans are, with there being so many gender expressions and experiences. Join us this Sunday as we look to transgender authors, poets, and ministers to celebrate the transformation that comes with gender. Whether you are transgender, cisgender, or not sure about gender – join us to celebrate the transformation that comes with self-reflection and discovery!

Come renew your faith in the power and beauty of the present moment at this annual flower ceremony. Flowers’ delicate fleeting beauty brings us back to the present moment. We are here in community, sharing the beauty of this delicate, fleeting moment with one another.

On this Memorial Day weekend, we explore how pluralism strengthens our democracy and serves as an antidote to domination. How does shared responsibility work? What do we owe one another in pluralistic societies? Join us for a service of reflection and inspiration.

Mother’s Day is complicated. Joy and grief are woven fine depending on our life experiences, unfulfilled desires, expectations, and loss of mothering. Current restrictions on reproductive freedom can force people to become parents. How can our community hold the pluralism of all kinds of mothers, including the choice to not be a parent?

Our Unitarian Universalist faith values all its people and our diversities of knowledge, life experience, and ways of being. Our people come from all directions, and arrive in community as beloveds. How does a faith, a church, a people hold all the different ways of knowing and being and still have a center? Join us for this service as we explore how our UU value of pluralism holds us together in...

Ignoring interdependence props up the myth of the rugged individual by erasing people and communities. The pandemic was a brief respite from this erasure when it became clear that people who produce food and water, process garbage and wastewater, and care for children, are essential to our functioning as a society. None of us can survive alone; our lives depend on the work of thousands of people....

The climate problem perfectly illuminates our interdependence with all life: with each other, with all the peoples of the world, and with every other species as well. Our fundamental interdependence with all life can make the problem feel so big, it is overwhelming. And yet, the biggest problems are also deeply local, and the solutions to them can be too. Join us for this Earth Day Service where w...