Rev. Kari Kopnic. Guest Minister

Jenny Weaver, Worship Associate

When you care deeply, whether for others, your community, or the world, it’s easy to overlook your own well-being. Come and explore how self-compassion is not a luxury, but a vital practice for those engaged in caregiving and justice work. Drawing on the insights of Kristin Neff, Tricia Hersey, and Israa Nasir, we’ll reflect on how to cultivate inner resilience and communal practices that sustain us for the long haul. 

Rev. Kari Kopnick is a lover of good books and poetry, a gardener of native plants, and tends a hearty little charm of hummingbirds in her yard during the cold winters. She serves as the Community Minister and the  Acting Executive Director at The Chaplaincy Institute, an interfaith seminary and community. 

Rev. Margo Rinehart, Cedars Minister

Gregory Cook, Worship Associate

Come and explore the interrelationships of generosity, joy and service as we try to live lives of integrity and purpose. This sermon will also make mention of the Cedars pledge drive! Rabindranath Tagore inspires us with his poem: "I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and, behold, service was joy."

Rev. Margo Rinehart, Cedars Minister

Johanna Munson, Worship Associate

This sermon is a kick-off for all the learning and visioning we will be doing together in the months to come. Let us work together in building a co-ministry of support, beauty, and restoration.  John O'Donohue says, "We each possess an imagination. Everyone, whether they like it or not, is involved in the construction of the world."

Reverend Margo Rinehart is now our minister at Cedars UU Congregation. She has been a Kitsap County resident for over 20 years before recently finishing a ministry in Bozeman, Montana, and is looking forward to serving us.

Rev. Barbara Cornell, Guest Minister

Nancy Philip, Worship Associate

Hope is tricky, especially when things are going wrong. Does it mean hoping for a cure, or turning this disaster around, or what exactly? In this sermon, we'll consider the changing nature of hope and explore our options for getting through these uncertain times.

Rev. Barbara Cornell was in an About Your Sexuality class when she was a senior in high school. From 1993 to 2007, she was Director of Religious Education at Shoreline UU Church, where she made sure to offer both About Your Sexuality and Our Whole Lives to her community. Her ministry for the past 14 years has been hospital chaplaincy at Providence Swedish Edmonds Hospital, where she also coordinates the bereavement program. She is happily married to Dane Scott, a trained AYS facilitator, and they have two adult children who, naturally, are both graduates of Our Whole Lives.

Rev. Bruce Bode, Guest Minister

Gregory Cook, Worship Associate

An exploration of why “everyday depression” comes to us, what it intends, and what

meaning it may hold for us.

Bruce A. Bode is Minister Emeritus at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (QUUF) in Port Townsend, from which he retired in 2018 as the Senior Minister after serving the congregation for fourteen years (2004-2018).

Rev. Rose Edington & Rev. Mel Hoover, Guest Ministers

Jenny Weaver, Worship Associate

Springtime and gardening go together and have us imagining Beloved Community as a garden. Imagine the soil of Beloved Community as the ground of being that nurtures Unitarian Universalism. What do we want to cultivate? How do we handle the weeds? Will everyone be welcome? Camille Dungy's book "Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden" provided inspiration for this sermon.

Clergy couple Mel Hoover and Rose Edington are co-ministers Emeriti of the UU Congregation in Charleston, West Virginia. Retired from congregational ministry in 2014, they continue their ministries through MelRose Ministries, with a focus on creating Beloved Community that considers the intersections of racism, classism, sexism, and environmental justice. Wishing to be closer to their granddaughter (and her parents) prompted their move to Bellingham in 2020.

Rev. April Frazier, Guest Minister

Johanna Munson, Worship Associate

Moral injury is a human condition, suffered as a part of living in a world where we, others, and the earth are harmed by actions or the failure to act. How do we integrate these experiences to be able to continue to live when everywhere we look there are more reasons to cry in agony, scream in anger, or perhaps become numb? Let's talk about what keeps us going, brings us together, and find ways for healing.

Rev. April Frazier is a Board-Certified Chaplain and has spent most of her career in home hospice. She is an Affiliated Community Minister at Shoreline UUC and received her M.Div. from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. She finds joy in nature, creative projects and spending time with her family.

Rev. Kate Lore, Guest Minister

Nancy Philip, Worship Associate

We ALL face challenging changes and losses in our lives—whether it be a change in our health, the loss of a loved one, or the evaporation of a dream. And every time we face such changes, we are offered a powerful spiritual choice.

Rev. Kate Lore is a Unitarian Universalist minister known for her work in social justice and community ministry. She has served in various roles, including as a Minister of Social Justice at First Unitarian Church in Portland, OR, and Senior Minister at Quimper UU Fellowship in Port Townsend, WA. Her ministry often focuses on progressive causes, advocating for marginalized communities and addressing issues like racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and immigration. Rev. Lore is also a speaker and writer, frequently sharing insights on the intersection of spirituality and social activism.

Speaker: Jennifer J. Wilhoit, Ph.D.

Worship Associate: Mike Cox

This talk will focus on the potent inner/outer landscape: the intersection between who we feel we are internally and how we behave in the world. As areas of confluence in the natural world, ecotones are especially rich in biodiversity. Viewing ecotones as a concept, we can begin to apply their value in human contexts – in particular, to guide us in how we conceive of our spiritual lives and how we enact that out in the world as inextricably interconnected ecological beings in the web of life.

Jennifer J. Wilhoit, Ph.D. is a Spiritual Ecologist, published author, interfaith practitioner, hospice volunteer, and the founder of TEALarbor stories. She compassionately supports people’s creative and healing processes by drawing from nature’s wisdom. Jennifer is a long-time active member of the global compassion, interfaith, and gratitude movements. Her website is: www.tealarborstories.com.

Rev. Carol McKinley - Guest Minister

Gregory Cook - Worship Associate

The architect, philosopher and futurist R. Buckminster Fuller wrote, “We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.” In our changing world, that call has become increasingly urgent: when we hear it, how can we respond in ways that help create the future we hope to see?

The Reverend Carol McKinley, now retired, lives in Olympia and is an affiliated community minister with Olympia UU Congregation, where she coordinated that congregation’s Faith in Action Ministry. Her passion for justice activism was nurtured by the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church, which she joined in the mid-1960s.