UUCS Sunday Sermons

From a humanistic perspective, each of us is morally responsible for developing our fullest potential, as well as for clearing the path for others to do the same. This latter point means that everything we do ought to be for this purpose, including business. In the sermon, we’ll consider the role of businesses, industry, and corporations in aiding the common good.

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In this guest presentation, Karl Boettner, Megra Flatman, and Haris Kight-Moore will present information about the work of Assisting Families Impacted by (ICE) detention, a newly formed group that is assisting families of those detained at immigration centers with the risk of deportation. They state: “The work of Assisting Families Impacted by Deportations is not confrontational – it’s mutual aid. We’re volunteers who believe in justice and the inherent dignity of all human beings. The violence inflicted by our US immigration system is a distraction designed to paralyze us into inaction. Forming community is how we resist.”

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It’s easy to fear the future we don’t want. We can see so clearly and imagine it barreling toward us. What’s hard is imaging and believing in the kind of future we do want. But if we can’t envision it, and if we don’t believe it’s even possible, we’ll never do the one thing that might make it a reality; roll up our sleeves and get to work making it happen. In this sermon we’ll explore the mindset that holds a positive future back, and the mindset we need to create the kind of future we want and need.

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There’s been a lot of recent news about increased attempts to ban certain books from public spaces. So it might surprise you to learn Banned Book Week was first launched in (October) 1982 by the American Library Association, in response to “a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools.” Some things, sadly, never change. But what has changed, at least in recent years, is the number of those professing to be liberals who engage in the suppression of books, speech, and ideas that they disagree with. In this sermon, we’ll turn the mirror toward ourselves as a reminder of what it means to be liberal and the ways in which we do and don’t engage in our disagreements with others.

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Each of us comes into this world already opened and with no directions. We must initially attempt to figure out who we are and why we’re here by observing and listening to others. Inevitably this means we end up being put into a box others have made for us. In this sermon we’ll consider some of the tools and steps necessary to more fully unfold as individuals and as human beings.

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In this guest presentation, UUCS member, Luba Johnston, will discuss the challenges facing immigrants and share her personal story of immigration. Luba will discuss how immigration provided invaluable lessons she wouldn’t have gained without taking the risk of starting a new life in a new country. She says, “By a stroke of good luck I came to the U.S. at the right time, to the right place, where the UUCS community helped me to navigate and adjust to a new culture.”

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UUCS wisely operates under Policy Governance, a mysterious and misunderstood term for many. Yet, as Unitarians, who are supposed to value freedom and democracy as much as anything else, it is the only way we ought to share power amongst ourselves. In this sermon, we’ll consider the meaning, purpose, and value of this vital form of governance, and how its principles should be the foundation of all we do as religious liberals.

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Rational thinkers hold a questioning attitude toward claims of knowledge, requiring sound evidence before believing them. Yet there are some who reject almost any argument, sound or not, in order to maintain their skeptical mood about life and the world in general. Could such an attitude be but a defense against disappointment? Or reflect an undue fear of being fooled?

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Rev. John H. Deitrich, our Spokane congregation’s minister from 1911 to 1916, went on to become known as the Father of Religious Humanism. In his wish to reawaken us to this seminal figure’s relevance today, Rev. Eklof will continue his series of occasionally reworking and delivering one of Dietrich’s historic sermons. In this particular sermon, given in 1921, Dietrich considers if morality must necessarily be tied to religion, although many consider religion the source of morality. He ends up turning the table by concluding that morality ought to be the source of religion.

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In this guest presentation, Cathy Spokas, the Education Coordinator for the Spokane Water Department through the SpokaneScape program, will share her expertise in water conservation and creating water-wise landscapes. Ms. Spokas will offer practical tips for creating sustainable landscapes while conserving water.

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