Sermons & Talks

May 31. 2020 Paula Bennet Good morning. I wonder if there is a school of unlearning. You see, we all bring into adulthood---- identities, childhood lessons, and personal philosophies that we have acquired along the way. Some of these identities and lessons are good for us. A strong work ethic, compassion, empathy, and more. They help us feel happy and peaceful. Other lessons, unfortunately, contribute to our anxieties, make us skeptical, or perhaps just make life more difficu

By Chris Edwards, with facilitator Robin McNallie December 29, 2019 Music: “Auld lang Syne” Hymn #95: “There is More Love Somewhere” Chalice reading: The Second Coming BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while th

by Sasha Rosser October 13, 2019 This service is available to watch on YouTube in two parts.

September 29, 2019 By Linda Dove Let’s now continue meditating on the season this lovely autumn morning. As the late Mary Oliver wrote: Another year nearly gone, leaving everywhere its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves, the uneaten fruits crumbling damply in the shadows, … My hope is that today we savor the moods that the season evokes in us. We’ll use the power of poetry to put us in touch with autumn’s beauty, its significance in the cycle of the seasons, and what I call

Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalist Flower Communion May 5, 2019 Facilitator: Martha Sider The title of today’s service is taken from the song " White Coral Bells You’ll find it printed on the insert to the OOS. White coral bells upon a slender stalk, Lilies of the Valley deck my garden walk ¦ I, like many children, was introduced to this song at summer camp, Kenbrook Bible Camp. And yes, at that camp we sang mainly specifically Christian songs around the campfire, but t

by Nancy Barbour April 14, 2019 On Children (from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran) Introduction These words from Kahlil Gibran will frame what I have to share with you today. They provide an image of the child as a powerful human being. Though I am not a parent, I have spent most of the last 35 years as an Early Childhood Education scholar studying how children grow and learn and how families in the US and abroad support and care for their children. As an early childhoo

J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. February 24, 2019 Defining Reflexivity The word “reflexivity comes from the Latin “reflectare, which means “bending back, as does light when it reflects off a mirror. In 1938 sociologist Robert K. Merton wrote about it arguing that an intellectual should reflect on their position in the world and how it affects their ideas and how their ideas affect it, with this mutual going back and forth key to reflexivity. He also discovered the idea of “self

By B. Don Franks, February 10, 2019 Atmosphere Personal experiences Positive influences Positive changes Critique of 2019 Next steps Atmosphere I was born in 1938 and lived in several towns in Arkansas until the early 60s. In this “last part of the Jim Crow era, Whites controlled all aspects of life, including politics, education, courts, and financial affairs. We were kept separate from Blacks (except for the servants). There was no mixing of the races in schools, cafes,

By Chris Edwards 2.3.2019 Readings “But February made me shiver With every paper I'd deliver Bad news on the doorstep I couldn't take one more step “I’d love to rise from the grave every ten years or so and go buy a few newspapers. “War reporting is still essentially the same – someone has to go there and see what is happening. You can’t get that information without going to places where people are being shot at, and others are shooting at you. The real difficulty is having e

by Jonathan McRay Delivered on 7/22/18 -Moment of silence to honor the land, the indigenous people, and those who have been enslaved here My mother’s father grew up in a farming family. Not one that farmed for much money, but one that raised hogs and grew gardens on rented land. After my grandfather grew up, his parents bought land and built their house with their hands. Just before I was born, my great-grandfather was crushed by his tractor on a steep hillside. Years later

Presented by: Rebecca Harris Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalist July 1 st , 2018 Unitarian Universalism has seven principles and six sources, which are listed in just before the hymns. The Unitarians emerged in Transylvania & Poland in the 2 nd ½ of 16 th century, the Universalists in the United States in 1793. What did these Unitarians and Universalists believe? Well, thanks to social media I was able to put out a call on FB asking that very question, as I was searchin

by J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. January 21, 2018 1) This talk follows and extends a talk given about a decade ago at HUU by Ed Piper, then the minister at Waynesboro UU. While I disagreed with some of what he said, I agreed with his main points. Numerous studies of this subject agree that the most important contributors to happiness and life satisfaction are good family and friend relations, health, and employment for those of working age who wish to work. Things that can make one

December 24, 2017 by Merle Wenger Today, I find ample reason to celebrate the first days of winter the last weeks of the year, the increase of sunlight for Hannukah and Kwanza, Feliz Navidad, a very old story the birth of a king, to whom many sing a virgin birth no less, that neither implies sterility or inability but certainly emphasizes the aspect of fertility which would have pleased the country folk long ago whose pagan rituals sanctified birth's mystery a conjuring of t

On Sunday, October 8th we celebrated membership in HUU and welcomed new members who have joined our congregation in recent months. Three of the readings that were included as part of the service are listed below. All are in pdf format. Sense Making Caregiving Justice Seeking

By Linda Dove September 3, 2017 Have you too experienced that uncomfortable feeling when you are new to a group and someone forgets to introduce you? For me, that is not affirming. It feels like a put-down. Naming is powerful, isn’t it? And not naming is just as powerful. Today I name White Privilege in the context of White Supremacy. I will talk briefly about this in the context of our country’s recent upheavals. Charlottesville is the example close to home where the ALT-r

The service on July 23, 2017 was called “ Players and Bridges ” and was presented by Merle Wenger, Rachael Baczynski, and the Chalice Children. It was an excellent and FUN service with singing and dancing. Part of each Sunday service is the reading of A Story for all Ages. As we entered, each person was given a card with “Write Your Own Story for all Ages as the title. Each card contained the following: Once upon a time, there was a _____________________________ Everyday,

by Joni Grady October 16, 2016 By now I hope old members have had their hearts filled with memories of past challenges and accomplishments and newer ones have had their interest piqued by these same glimpses into the distant and recent past. While I was here that May day in 2011 when the 20 th anniversary was celebrated, I don’t remember much about it so it’s been VERY interesting to dig back into HUU history. I thought to look at our wonderful webpage and it was like findin

September 18, 2016 By Linda A. Dove Today we are going to think about our collective purpose as humans and as UUs in the tough circumstances of our shared life in the 21st. century. Most of the time we focus on our own life-paths. I certainly do. And I am grateful for my life. But every few years, I feel restless. This is my intuition nagging me to refresh my sense of purpose towards a meaning that expands beyond myself. I am not talking about fate here. Fate is when things

August 28, 2016 Valerie Luna Serrels INTRODUCTION Perhaps like many of you this week, I’ve been riveted by stories of the alliance of various indigenous tribes coming together to oppose the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.7 billion project which will run through sacred ancestral land in the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Seeing photos and video of 60 different native American tribes standing together in solidarity on the banks of the Cannonb

Church and State HUU service 7.17.’16 – Robin McNallie: Intro of Ben Fordney When Ben Fordney was alive, he on a number of occasions would introduce me as a guest speaker in the history classes he was teaching at Blue Ridge Community College and JMU’s Lifelong Learning Institute. So I now, with some real sadness, get briefly to do the same for him. Before his first retirement, Ben had a distinguished career in the foreign service, including a posting to South Vietnam in the