Our annual remembrance service is a time to name those we have recently lost in our church community and in our own lives. We share our grief with one another and hold it tenderly through readings, songs, and candle lighting. You can have candles near you to enhance your participation in this worship service. Music offered … Continue reading November 28, To Say Their Names
How do we grasp the swift and terrible changes that humans are causing to the Earth’s climate, while maintaining hope and channeling our fear and our hope into action? How do we take care of the climate and restore it to how it’s been for thousands of years so that it can continue to take … Continue reading April 18, Protecting the Earth, Our Home: Climate, Hope and Action
This Easter Sunday shares its date with the anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. As we begin a new worship theme of “Becoming” for the month of April, we will honor the roles Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Alberta Williams King played in their sons’ risings and in their everlasting legacies.
On this Good Friday of the Christian liturgical calendar, Rev. Joan and the worship team will offer a Tenebrae-style service that invites us to sit with the difficult realities and suffering of the world before the arrival of resurrection and hope on Easter morning. This service of “shadows” and “darkness” will include readings, contemplative music, … Continue reading April 2, Good Friday Service of Lamentation
In Discovering Black Vermont, researcher and writer Elise Guyette discovered that the percentage of African Americans in Vermont in the 1800s was larger than it is today. What lessons can we glean from the historically black community of Hinesburg, Vermont? What messages do these early Black Vermonters have for us in these times? Let us … Continue reading February 21, Tales from the Hill
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. imagined a world beyond the injustices of his day. He and many other prophetic leaders proclaimed futures that seemed impossible. Today, as we continue to grapple with racial injustice and white supremacy, we draw upon our prophetic imaginations to envision and make real a world rooted in love and … Continue reading January 17, Another World is Possible
Born out of a desire to unify the country during the Civil War, the Day of Thanksgiving is surrounded by a tangled web of stories about race, spirituality, and revisionist nationalistic history. With all of its complicated layers and history, the Thanksgiving holiday still endures as a focal point of ritualistic gathering. In the midst … Continue reading November 22, Soul Food: The Healing Power of Gathering
As people, we naturally gravitate toward those similar to ourselves. It is simple, easier, and it is comfortable. As we celebrate “National Coming Out Day,” and “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” what inspirations and awakenings can we glean from deeply listening to voices of the marginalized. View or download order of service (published by 5PM Friday). You are … Continue reading October 11, Listening to Voices at the Margins
250 years ago, the Rev. John Murray preached his first Universalist sermon in North America due to a shift in the wind that prevented him from moving on. He would go on to found Universalism as a denomination in America. The wind has shifted yet again. Are we hearing the message? View or download the … Continue reading September 27, A Shift in the Wind
