UUSLO

Freedom, reason, and tolerance have been identified as central characteristics of Unitarianism. But...does that sufficiently capture our highest aspirations? How is freedom the same as liberation? And how does it differ?

Is there life after death? How do some of the world's religions and wisdom traditions speak to this question? How do beliefs about life after death affect how we live in this life? "Some beliefs are like walled gardens," writes Sophia Lyon Fahs. "They encourage exclusiveness, and the feeling of being especially privileged...Other beliefs are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies."

Puritan John Winthrop told the early colonists that their community would be "as a city upon a hill," hearkening back to some words from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. That phrase has been used throughout American history...what does it mean?

Compassion is often about empathy; feeling with, understanding. But can compassion exist without the benefit of shared experience? What about those things that are beyond our capacity to fully comprehend?

Sometimes known as "compassion fatigue," we can become overwhelmed at the number of injustices, inequities, and sorrowful circumstances calling for our attention. How do we renew our commitments when the temptation is to give up?

"The first step to building an antiracist America is acknowledging America’s racist past. By acknowledging America’s racist past, we can acknowledge America’s racist present. In acknowledging America’s racist present, we can work toward building an antiracist America…" Ibram X. Kendi

The Letter to the Hebrews in the Christian Scriptures says, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it" ["angels unawares" in the oft-quoted version).

Memory is a powerful tool, one that can lend itself to healing or harming. How do we choose to use it? And what are those things we forget to remember?

...cross this door. That's the rest of the line in the very first hymn in one of our hymnals. But how do we go about refusing evil entry?

Looking at the tragic (and unnecessary) suffering that pervades our world, we can understandably feel guilty for all that we have not done to alleviate it, losing faith in ourselves and in humanity at large. How might we approach this feeling of hopelessness as a threshold, inviting us to summon the courage to change the things we can.