Studies have shown that more choices make people less happy, and yet, as a people of possibility, we cherish freedom. The relationship between freedom and boundaries can be a paradox, seemingly contradictory and yet potentially mutually reinforcing.

Join us for this worship where we will explore the paradox of choice and how to swim in the sea of possibility.

They say that opportunity only dances with those who are on the dance floor. Last summer I happened to be camping up north during the Perseid meteor showers, so I chose to stay up late and lie on the dock star-gazing. Getting out on the dance floor with the meteor showers was worth the lost sleep. Being a person of possibility means that I try to approach life like a “choose your own adventure” book. Being a people of possibility means approaching life in community as planned happenstance.

Free will is a concept that religions have been grappling with since Eve bit into an apple and led us out of blissful animal ignorance.

How we use our freedom to live into rather than away from our knowledge of suffering in the world, and also our knowledge of joy, is a religious question. And it is as hard of a question today as it has ever been.

Lynne Jacoby gives a perspective on how commitment to a liberal religious community can help. A story about a truck happens to be featured.

Although being a UU means coming together with people who want to ask questions, sometimes not knowing the answers can be anxiety-provoking.

We have a variety of individual reactions to mystery, from fear to humility to control to relief to wonder, we need communal practices to increase our tolerance for ambiguity.

Join us as we name the pain of ambiguity, and explore shared spiritual practices for managing tolerance to it.

When changes take place, we often respond by moving quickly past the change into a new space. This quick movement may alleviate initial anxieties but often produces more confusion in the long run.

Michele Grove, a Unitarian Universalist interim religious educator, will explore difference between change and transition. What gifts come when the entire congregation stands still and reflects on the value of learning within the mission and vision of the congregation?

You are invited to come and stay still for a short while we reflect on this question as a community.

Our Unitarian Universalist congregation is a place where reason and spirituality come together, where people of different beliefs hold shared values. We are people who are both searching and found. What is the relationship between the known and the unknown, doubt and faith, reason and mystery? How can we live together when one or the other end of the infinite eight circling the concrete and the intangible holds us? What gifts might that infinite relationship bring, slipping in the edges between the known and the unknown?

We struggle to find hope in a world where hard work and integrity does not create a flourishing life for all humankind.

Deeply rooted in our American values is the belief in a work ethic that one should and can work their way through any hardship. Being of use is an ethic we share, and often our identity and worth are wrapped up in the products of work.

Let us examine the human need to believe in hope, our relationship with work, and our ideals as Unitarian Universalists, who aspire to uphold the worth and dignity of every person.

This Sunday, November 18th, 2018, the Reverend Jennifer Nordstrom, the Reverend Dena McPhetres, and First Church member Noreen Gilbertsen acknowledge the 20 years of service of Director of Administration Jean Johnson.

While eye-witness testimony is notoriously unreliable, we still depend on narrative as central to knowing.

When we remember together, however, we begin to weave individual narratives into a collective story of what happened, making the collective memory into history. Through story-telling, we create truth, pass on tradition, and become a community.

Join us in this service where we explore collective memory, and how shared stories create community.

Memory is a vehicle we board to travel through time, stopping at our favorite destinations to relive significant events, describe them to others, and tell stories about what those memories mean to us.

Aging, “chemo-brain,” and dementia make time travel challenging, especially to recent memories.

Who are we without memory?