Burning Bowl Ceremony
Readings Celebrating Endings and Beginnings

 What the Dickens  
This Sunday, Christmas Eve morning we will be celebrating one of Unitarian Charles Dicken’s most powerful stories, A Christmas Carol. Please join us for this live action retelling of Charles Dicken’s classic with special Hope Unitarian Zing!!! This live action service will be one you don’t want to miss. 

Yule Meditation by John Swoboda
Meditation in Light for Yule
 This Sunday you will be invited to explore the changing of the seasons and shortening of days through ritual and celebration while we pray for prosperity in the year to come. 

Hope Singers and thoughtful readings to celebrate the Holiday Season.

Our Generosity Recipient for December is LIFE Senior Services

LIFE Senior Services specializes in home and community-based services that promote healthy aging and aging-in-place for seniors, as well as services and support for family caregivers who play a critical role in helping their loved ones continue living at home.

Learn more or donate at the link below:

https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx...

 Hope Unitarian Church and the Mystery of The Mysterious Message 
BY REV. JUSTIN MCCREARY DECEMBER 3RD, 2023 - 11:00 AM 
    When I was a child I read Encyclopedia Brown, the Hardy Boys’, and watched Nancy Drew Mysteries I always appreciated the title. The Mystery of the (Fill in the Blank). It was always something that could be solved, figured out, or made sense of. I still love mystery TV shows and movies, I try to figure out the whodunnit before the end. As I grew older, I learned that mysteries weren’t always solvable, as I began to explore spirituality beyond the easy answers, I realized that not only were some of the mysteries unsolvable, but sometimes, it is better that way. Unitarian Universalism does not provide easy answers to the world and the people who act within it, it is about wrestling and often coming to grips with the mysteries we may never understand. 

11/26/23   JoAnn Hause
    The Attitude of Gratitude we can cultivate for the Holiday Season can show us the best way to make new and wonderful memories. It is only when we accept that we cannot control anything but ourselves that we can truly move forward to holiday joy.

 Divine Generosity 
BY REV. STEVEN WILLIAMS 
NOVEMBER 26TH, 2023 - 11:00 AM 
    In a world of seemingly relentless strife, war, and division, generosity can be a challenging attitude to take towards humanity. What might God(de/ss)(s) tell us about such a posture? How can our divine nature help us meet each other with open and generous hearts? 

 By the Grace of God: An Auction Sermon
 REV. JUSTIN MCCREARY
 NOVEMBER 19TH, 2023 - 11:00 AM 
     Welcome to this year’s Auction Sermon. Rebecca Jones, the auction winner, offered me a quote from an old UU World Article. The quote, by Rev. Sarah York, says, “Some people might say of those they serve at a soup kitchen, ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ I think what they really mean is, ‘There by the grace of God am I,’ “The interplay between these phrases is intriguing, the difference between them rests in how we define generosity and how we relate to the people to whom we are generous. This Sunday I will start with this quote then integrate some theological concepts by UU Minister Rev. Rebecca Parker to talk about kindness and concepts of paradise in a complicated world, that is many things but paradise. 

 Resting in an Interdependent Web: A Sermon About Gratitude BY REV. JUSTIN MCCREARY NOVEMBER 12TH, 2023 - 11:00 AM 
      When I heard the phrase, “Let’s give thanks,” as a child I knew we were about to pray. Giving thanks was a holy practice, it was a sacrament, it was the moment when we communed with the almighty before something else happened. Thankfulness was a precursor to eating, asking for help, going into surgery, begging for intersession, and as the one who was often asked to give thanks, it became a box to be checked before I could do the thing I wanted to do. When I became a Unitarian Universalist, I wondered if I had any room left for prayer, especially since my faith in the almighty was and still is often in flux. I found a lot of excuses not to pray, because I realized I didn’t know how to anymore. It was easier to just simply, not check that box. But I also felt like I was missing something, so I began to listen when the UUs I looked up to would pray, and something bloomed inside me because prayer didn’t center on some deity, it centered on gratitude, it wasn’t a box to be checked, it was a reminder that we are all in this together. Not just the people but the entire interdependent web of creation. It is the acknowledgement of the connections, prayer is gratitude, thanksgiving, and connection. So this Sunday, I will focus on living in a state of gratitude.