This service is from Sunday, August 17, 2025. Here is the description for the service:

It is sometimes easy to think that the most profound moments in our lives happen in our formative years as children and youth. However, we are in fact always "Coming of Age" throughout our lives. In fact, as we go further through life those thresholds of change are compounded by all of the accumulated transitions that happened earlier on the journey. As a community of all ages, we seek to be a space where we can all come of age, again and again, and support one another through it all.

William Blake suggested that "Joy and woe are woven fine. A clothing for the soul divine." In the turbulent times in which we are living, it is important to be among those who honor your joy and your woe, your happiness and your sorrow. For it is in that recognition of the "clothing" we wear that we come to honor the divine within each of us and foster an ethic of care for one another and the world. Rev. Nic will explore the sacred textile of our lives.

The theme for the 2025 General Assembly of the UUA was Meet the Moment. In every era, we must ask whether we were made for times such as these. Unitarian Universalists hold a bone-deep belief in our human capacity to rise to meet the needs of the day. However, this requires us to be deliberate in our reflection and action as individuals and a community. How might we prepare our hearts for the journey ahead? What will it take for us to truly "celebrate love and work for justice" in an increasingly polorized society and facing a more blatantly authoritarian adminstration? Rev. Nic will invite us to reflect and act in ways that help us to meet this moment together.

Charlie Wiles returns after many years to share insights from his interfaith journey. Charlie is the Director Emeritus for the Center of Interfaith Cooperation. He previously ran the Peace Learning Center. He will address identity, different faith communities, objectives, strategies and tactics for building interfaith relationships. We are honored to welcome Charlie back to UUCCI

Pet Sunday is a fun service where we celebrate our connection to animals both who live in our homes and in nature. We honor the interdependent web of all existence and will look to the special blessings pets play in making life meaningful and loving. Everyone is welcome to bring their pet (dog, cat, turtle, fish, snake, rat...) to the service. Rev. Nic will offer a special pet blessing for those who wish to participate.

Beacon Interfaith Dialogues are services that bring together Rev. Nic with a member of our interfaith community to engage in dialogue and shared learning. This Sunday, we welcome Srikanth Padmanhaban who has been a member of the Columbus community for over thirty years. He is one of the founders and leaders of the Hindu Society of Southern Indiana and was instrumental in constructing the Sri Ganesh Mandir (temple). Rev. Nic and Srikanth will discuss their faith journeys that started on opposite ends of the world, yet brought them together to foster interfaith community in the heartland of the United States.

Every year, Unitarian Universalists celebrated Flower Communion in which everyone is invited to bring a flower from their garden or the store. Rev. Nic will collect these flowers in a common space and everyone will be able to go home with a different flower symbolizing the beauty and diversity of our community and world. Join us as we retell the story of Czech Unitarian minister, Norbert Capek, and the Flower Communion.

Star Trek and other stories that explore space have opened new frontiers into our imagination and wonder about life and the great unknown. How might Star Trek illuminate the great unfolding and journey we are on today as we foster shared sacred space not out beyond the sun, but deep within our own interfaith campus where we move and make our living? Rev. Nic will invite us to travel to new planes of existence to consider how sharing space may prove a new frontier once unimaginable to be a trek worthy of taking.

Heroes and superheroes have captured the imagination of people and cultures for generations, even millennia. How does the notion of heroes shape our imaginations and sense of responsibility as Unitarian Universalists. Rev. Nic will talk about the potential superhero trap and how we can avoid it as we continue to celebrate love and work for justice in the world today.

Octavia Butler is considered the mother of afrofuturism, a genre of science fiction developed by, about, and for primarily African Americans in the United States. In her essential two part Earthseed Chronicles, Butler introduces the reader to a young girl who envisions a new religion, a new community, and a new future. Rev. Nic will reflect on the power and impact afrofuturism has played on our ability to imagine new worlds where all can not merely survive, but thrive!