Alice Walker says “resistance is the secret of joy” but the inverse is also true. Joy is the secret of resistance. In these tough times we often focus on resistance and forget to be joyful together. But Joy is essential! Our joy is what scares them, our joy is what we are fighting for. Join us to hear about some of UUSC’s joyful resistance and to learn about how you too can lean into joy in these troubling times.

Because we are imperfect people in an imperfect world, we will always feel tension and conflict between the world as it is, and the world as it should be. Our Universalist ancestors teach us to Love the world anyway. How might Universalist Love stories help us to make things better by loving what is broken?

In honor of Black History Month, we recall some of the stories that shape our country, our faith, and our world and why they are important to everyone.

Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned a Beloved Community of love and justice, where the races would be reconciled, and the deep and terrible wounds of racism finally healed. Let’s explore, this MLK Day weekend, what that looks like in this day and age, for our congregation, our community, and our world.

Author Rebecca Solnit says “Hopefulness is risky, since it is after all a form of trust, trust in the unknown and the possible.” We are in what some might call a moment of darkness. What does hope look like in these times? How can we embrace hope even when it feels hard or like we don’t know where we are going?

As we end our month of telling ancient stories, member Paul Kuttner examines the question of why we are still telling some stories hundreds or thousands of years after they were first told. What do these stories do for us? How to they change over time? And what are the stories that we never got to hear?

A minor Jewish festival of lights has become a major commercial holiday in the United States. In December, Hanukkah comes second only to Christmas, with Hanukkah themed decorations and cards sitting to the side at department stores next to Christmas decorations all December long. But do you know what Hanukkah is actually celebrating? What’s the ancient story it is based on? We’ll learn about the story this holiday is based on.

In the advent season, we anticipate the coming of joy and possibility. In hard times, feeling joy and anticipating joy can feel like a major risk. Sometimes it feels safer to shrink our hopes and expectations. What can we learn from the Christmas and advent season about opening up to the vulnerability of joy?

In times like these, it can be difficult to sustain hope for the future. Yet sometimes the best way to imagine new possibilities is to remember the past. The history of Middlesex Fells offers some clues. Our guest this morning in Professor Dan McKanan, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Senior Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School.

Going to church is good for you. People who go to church live longer according to a Harvard study. But it’s more than that. Are you wondering if church is for you? Do you need convincing that coming back to church is a good idea? Do you want to attend more? Join us for a service about why you should come to church (without the guilt!).