Sunday Reflection with Rev. Aaron Payson @ The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester, MA

As we enter another season of Advent, we pause to consider the spiritual challenges of “waiting”. In their book, Discernment, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Michael J. Christensen, Rebecca J. Laird write, “Our spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, expecting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination or prediction. This, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control.” Join us as we explore the spiritual discipline of “waiting”.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

Join us this Sunday as we celebrate the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday by exploring the role of origin stories and how the one popularized in our country about Thanksgiving might better be understood. What shall we offer in thanksgiving this year? How shall we remember our history? What does our faith tradition offer us as we seek to create a more just and peaceful world? Join us and find out!

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

Writing for Religionnews.com last August, Phyllis Zagano quipped, “As several mainline faith leaders and the U.S. Catholic bishops have pointed out, the derisive oppression of poor immigrants by members of the current administration is sickening. That some administration officials continue to publicly espouse Christian ethics is mind-boggling.”

Unitarian Universalism has a long history of arguing for a return to the essential nature of religion, especially Christianity, during times of political, social, and religious upheaval. This Sunday, we will explore some of that history and ask what we are arguing for during this present era of turmoil.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

Sometimes, we feel as though we are fully authentic, entirely ourselves. Sometimes we feel just the opposite—lost, confused, as if we do not know who we are. Today, Rev. Michael F. Hall returns to UUCW to talk about the trouble we sometimes have reconciling the experience of Being with the notion of Self.

Rev. Michael F. Hall has been an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister since 2012. After a 12-year settlement at his first church, Michael now serves the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Franklin, NH. We are delighted that Michael served as our Guest Minister this Sunday.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

Rev. Dr. David Breeden, in a piece entitled “Compassion Needs Weather,” writes, “Compassion loves rough soil, the stones, weeds, the cracks between our best intentions.” This Sunday, we explore the place of intention and how, sometimes, intention can get in the way of healing, compassion, and progress toward peace. Join us for this important exploration!

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

Rev. Aaron Payson is in his 27th year as Minister of this congregation. He holds a BA in Psychology from Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA, and a Master of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School, New Haven, CT. Rev. Payson is active in many community and denominational organizations and is an adjunct instructor in the Sociology Department at Worcester State University.

In his song “Holy Now,” UU Musician Peter Mayer sings, “It used to be a world half there, Heaven’s second-rate hand me down, Now I’m walking with a reverent air, ‘Cause ev’rything is holy now.” We pause this morning to consider what it might mean to give up the sacred/profane binary that has been the mark of many religions and ponder how our presence in it might shift if we lived as though we were part of a holy whole. Join us for this special service with guest musician Peter Mayer.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen. "Holy Now" written and performed by Peter Mayer

Eileen Workman writes:

You are not weak for trembling in the face of cruelty.

You are not naïve for hoping when the sky darkens.

You are not failing because you cannot fix it all.

You are part of something ancient and emergent:

a slow, deep evolution of consciousness

that transcends the need for violent revolution.

You are part of the sacred turning.

This Sunday, we consider how this “sacred turning” is revolutionary. In the face of all the emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual turmoil that seems to be free-floating through our universe at the moment, what might we learn from the poet who reminds us:

You are not here to silence the oppressor,

but to make oppression obsolete

through the gentle, radical embodiment of wholeness.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

Join us this Sunday as we explore the complexities of history and memory and the ongoing impact that the creation of our origin story as a nation has on all of us. As we honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we strive to face the legacy of our founding with humility and courage.

During this service, we also honored Domestic Violence Month with an exhibit on the chancel from the YWCA of Central MA entitled "Empty Places at the Table" that featured a table set with place settings that included the names and short biographies of women whose lives have been taken in our region by acts of domestic violence.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

We honor the Jewish High Holiday of Yom Kippur this week as we explore the essential nature of Tikkun "repair" in Hebrew. What might we learn about the current state of the world and our place in it by honoring this ancient Jewish time of turning inward and outward toward others, and the Master of the Universe, to discover how we might be in this moment of trial and tribulation in our world.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

This week we continue exploring the parables of Jesus, asking if the message is about despising wealth or the obligations we have toward each other.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.