Lighting the Chalice: Sermons from the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Berks County

Rev Richard S. Gilbert, Unitarian Universalist Community Minister, writes:

We meet on holy ground, Brought into being as life encounters life, As personal histories merge into the communal story, As we take on the pride and pain of our companions, As separate selves become community.

How desperate is our need for one another: Our silent beckoning to our neighbors, Our invitations to share life and death together, Our welcome into the lives of those we meet, And their welcome into our own.

Join our affiliated community minister, Rev. Sage Olnick, as she explores decisions on living and dying well in honor of April's National Healthcare Decisions Month.

Easter is one of the holiest days in the Christian liturgical calendar, a time when Jesus was said to be resurrected. This morning we explore what it means to Unitarian Universalists to rise up--to lift ourselves from mere routine and be transformed from despair into joy and gratitude.

Intro and Outro music “Hope and Peace” provided via Creative Commons License by HookSounds.

As a religious community, we are dedicated to caring for the overall well-being of members and friends. How do we hold each other in care, attending to the safety of minds, bodies, and spirits? Our offering benfitted the UU Berks Food Pantry.

Intro and Outro music “Hope and Peace” provided via Creative Commons License by HookSounds.

This morning's service celebrates a diversity of stories in our religious community. Together the congregation will build a cairn to express the uniqueness of our individual gifts and the collective power of our being in community. 

 

Photo compliments of the Mannix family.

Intro and Outro music “Hope and Peace” provided via Creative Commons License by HookSounds.

A lot of attention is given to finding balance in our lives. What if balance has to do not so much with finding a still point on which to rest as it does with having a point on which to pivot? How can balance in motion be healing and liberating?

Intro and Outro music “Hope and Peace” provided via Creative Commons License by HookSounds

Each of us drinks from wells we did not dig, and digs wells from which others do or will drink.  Join us this morning as we reflect on those who prepared the way for us and those for whom we are preparing the way.

Join us this morning as we begin an exploration of what it means to be a people of perseverance. How can we take one more step, say one more word or prayer, or sing one more song when we have lost faith, lost hope, or lost our way?

What do we do when our good intentions go awry? How do we act on what is promised? Faith needs to be acted upon, it requires follow-through. Become a doer, not just a hearer. Bring your behavior closer to your beliefs.

When life is going well, it is easy to speak of abundance. But oh, those days when everything is falling apart for us, or when the woes of the world are too much with us. Those days it can be hard to look around and see anything but mud puddles.

Yet those are the very days, the very times, that abundance is most needed. The practice of appreciation, of seeing a world of abundance, is one of the greatest practices we can share as UUs.

Read the full text here: http://www.uuberks.org/sermon/beautiful-view-beautiful-glass

A person can be loyal to a place, a person, a cause, an ideal, a vision, to God, to their religion or religious community, to a value, a relationship, or a promise that has been made. A world without fidelity to these would be a world without bravery, integrity, trust, and love. But how is fidelity distorted in today's world? And what does fidelity mean to our worship, our spirituality, and to unitarian universalism as a faith? 

Read the full text here: http://www.uuberks.org/sermon/fidelity-act-courage