What becomes possible when Unitarian Universalists "get religion"?

But that hesitancy has a cost. It can keep us from claiming a vision for religion of our own, or contending with what our religion asks of us — personally, and together.

Our new vision statements are built to change that. The first words are the frame for everything that follows: we claim Unitarian Universalism as a religion. A religion with its own claims on us. Its own invitation to promise — and to keep promising — to ourselves, to one another, and to our world.

This Sunday we begin a seven month long examination of our three vision statements with the underlying question: What happens when Unitarian Universalists get religion?

Ask most of us whether we have anything to confess and we'll say "no". Not defensively, just accurately, as far as we can tell. We were right to walk away from religion that called us broken. But we didn't just leave the shame behind. We left behind the practice of reckoning honestly with our lives together, and the kind of room where truth and grace can hold the same person at the same time. For the last Sunday in our Reclaimed series, we take on sin and confession, and ask what it would take to build that room again.

In these hot, dry days of summer, we all know what it feels like to long for water. Literally. Metaphorically.

Last Sunday, that longing found its home in our annual Water Ceremony, as together we explore and practice the next word in our Reclaimed series….Ritual.

Here's your invitation. Find a little water from somewhere that means something to you. A river. A tap. A lake. Bring it with you.

For forty-five years, Unitarian Universalists have gathered this way - pouring what we carry into something we all share. All ages. All stages. One community.

Come with your longing, as we weave together that deeper belonging. 

Let’s begin again.  

No other word causes us UUS quite the same discomfort as "church". In certain circles, we can stay closeted for years about going to church on Sundays — afraid to claim the word as our own — even while loving the experience of our church.

This Sunday, we continue our Reclaimed Series by looking  directly at this word, why it stirs up such a strong reaction in so many of us, and whether (or why) it's still worth reclaiming.

Last Sunday we experienced Heads, Hearts, & Hands - our annual Question Box Sunday. This is a service where it’s all up to those gathered to bring their honest and direct questions about our thoughts, spirits, and work as Unitarian Universalists, and the ministers answer them on the spot. 

Question Box always manages to get just the right amount of silly, and at the same time, is a moment to freely bring your hardest stuff. The faith-shaking, assumption-rattling, keep-you-up-at-night questions, knowing our questions and uncertainties aren't problems to solve, but invitations to grow.

Where do you go to find out whether something is true? Not as in a simple fact you could look up, but the harder kind of truth: whether you're handling this right, whether it meant what you think it meant. 

Nobody works those things out alone. We never have, and in this sermon Rev. Sean looks at who we've been asking...and yes, we will be talking about ChatGPT!

When it comes to religious baggage, I'm not sure there's anything that causes more pain than the realization of longstanding hypocrisy — the awareness that someone's stated beliefs completely contradict their actual behavior. Ironically, railing against hypocrisy was one of the most common threads of Jesus' ministry. If we can't count on someone's beliefs shaping their behavior, then what good are beliefs, anyway? And what does this mean for a faith like ours, where we gather not based on beliefs, but on promises for behavior? Do we get to be exempt from hypocrisy? Or would that just be hypocritical?

Join us for a playful Sermon on a serious topic.

Do you have feelings about the word "God"? Who doesn't?! Of course we do — it's a word meant to describe a reality that's uncontainable, indiscernible, an ultimate mystery. The closer you get to believing you understand it, the further away you probably are. In this episode, we'll explore the word, the idea, and the gifts of believing — and not believing — in God.

Some of the most atheistic people we meet absolutely love the hymn Amazing Grace, despite not believing the theology that birthed it. There is something in the song that names an experience that goes beyond belief, and names it: grace. But what is grace? It's a word our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors reclaimed and recast, generation after generation. Maybe it's time for us to do the same.

Rev. Sean explores the word "Grace", looking not only at what it means to the Unitarian Universalist faith, but why it's such an important part of it. 

This Sunday, guest minister Reverend Karen G. Johnston, Senior Minister at First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, asked: How do we connect with the interdependent nature of the universe? 

Unitarian Universalism in the 21st century (at least so far) guides us to name Interdependence as one of our core values. That's cool - But it's also kinda weird because Interdependence is not just a value, it's the very essence of reality. 

One answer is to reclaim a practice of prayer. Whether you currently pray with not a smidge of ambivalence; whether you grew up praying and left it behind; whether prayer has been used as a weapon against you and you want to keep your distance: this service is an invitation to go beyond an intellectual or cultural concept of interdependence, and explore whether prayer might be the practice you choose to not just value Interdependence, but affirm it and groove with it.