This service will focus on:  How music let's us offer up praise, how singing helps us hold on to ourselves and our deep beliefs, the physical and physiological benefits of singing, and finding something positive in troubles through song.

Come join us for a service celebrating all our connections, especially those of the virtual variety! We'll talk about the joy of interconnection, you can live-tweet the service (or learn what that means!), and we'll live-stream the service, too.

In this service for all ages, we will hear the story of Nasruddin's coat, sing harvest hymns, and give thanks and praise as we share in our annual cornbread and grapes communion.

We welcome our former Interim Minister, the Rev. Greg Ward, back to the pulpit for the honor and joy of ordaining Zackrie Vinczen to the Unitarian Universalist ministry. Zackrie served this congregation as Intern Minister and later as Acting Director of Family Ministry before being called last spring to serve the Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church in Bainbridge Island, Washington. This occasion represents the culmination of Zackrie's years of study and sacrifice and, in keeping with our congregational polity, was affirmed by a vote of our congregation. Clergy and seminarians are invited to arrive at 2pm in the Fireside Room to robe. A reception with refreshments for all will follow the service.

Mr. Rogers famously taught that play is the work of childhood, but what about later in life? This week in worship we will leave work behind and tap into the power that play has to offer us at all ages.

So much of our lives are spent working and sleeping, so how we spend our time apart from work and home is important both for our well-being and to the fabric of our wider communities. On this day when many of our members will be representing our church at Albany and Berkeley's Solano Stroll, we will reflect on our role and impact as a "third place" in the lives of our members, friends, and beyond.

The famous labor slogan calling for a fair workday should still ring in our ears today: Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for what we will. We will explore what we are called to do in those precious moments: relax, spend time with our loved ones, change the world, all of the above?

In the United States we have spent lifetimes destroying our sense of connection. Disconnected from everyone, we are awash in a sea of poor substitutes for feeling alive. How can we honor the lessons and legacy of organizing, of connection, of knowing that what we cannot do alone, we can do together?

In the midst of these defining times, in the midst of tumult – societal, political and climate related – Unitarian Universalism offers a powerful message of both compassion and interdependence. How can we live these values in bold, courageous ways that have the power to make a measurable difference today and for the future?

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray was elected President of the Unitarian Universalist Association on June 24, 2017. Prior to her election...

As Unitarian Universalists, we hold a belief that there is a spark of star dust, a holy divinity within all people. Please join us in this service to think about the spark within those among us that violate the norms and laws of society. Where is the spark in those who do great harm? Where is our spark as we choose to engage or not? BIOGRAPHY - Rev. Dr. Rodney Lemery currently serves as the Interim Minister of Prison Ministry at the Church of the Larger Fellowship as well as a volunteer chaplain at the Solano County Jail. He lives in Hercules, CA with his husband, a human-resources professional, and their fur-baby Basil. Rodney and his husband are members of the Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church in Walnut Creek, CA. Like lawyer and activist Bryan Stevenson, Rodney believes that “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” His relational theology requires him to serve those in the margins of society where connection and love saves!