​What does it mean to be part of serving and leadership in a congregation like ours? Is it a duty or obligation? A necessity for the congregation to function? Part of your spiritual practice? A chance to connect with others? A headache some days and a source of fun on others? We'll reflect on what it means to serve with more grace and less frustration and burnout, and how we can nurture ourselves and one another as we continue to build a meaningful community together. 

​This, the Sunday after Valentine's Day, we invite you to bring a poem or story to share in the spirit of love, friendship, and connection. Let's celebrate the many kinds of love in our lives. You are also invited to bring chocolate to share. 

In October, I spoke about "paying it forward" as a spiritual practice, and gave out envelopes of cash with the invitation to use them and/or share them as you feel so called. In this follow up service, I'll share stories from the fall and we'll consider what it means for us to share the gifts of this congregation with others beyond our walls. And so I invite your stories - what did you do to "pay it forward," and/or what other opportunities have you taken to share an act of kindness or generosity with a loved one or a stranger? Please send your reflections to me at cgaylor@uuma.org and indicate whether you're comfortable with me sharing them - I can do this with or without naming you. I look forward to hearing from you!

An important question in our lives is not how we avoid community, it is how can we bring community into our lives delightfully.

We hear "nobody's perfect" often enough. We know it's as true for us as it is for our closest friends and family, just as it is equally true for all the people who make magazine covers and win awards and appear to have it all together. And yet we can sometimes fall into the trap of expecting perfection from ourselves, other people, or both, and inevitably being disappointed. Today we'll explore how to accept imperfection, lean into failure, and look for wisdom in our vulnerability and frailty.

A powerful, personal & heart wrenching story. Craig is a Native child who was placed in foster care then was adopted by a white family. He now works for the Mississaugas of Scugog Island as a professional speaker - Educating the public about native issues.

What does it mean to be part of serving and leadership in a congregation like ours? Is it a duty or obligation? A necessity for the congregation to function? Part of your spiritual practice? A chance to connect with others? A headache some days and a source of fun on others? At the beginning of a new calendar year, we'll reflect on what it means to serve with more grace and less frustration and burnout, and how we can nurture ourselves and one another as we continue to build a meaningful congregation together.

On the first Sunday of the new year we will be using flash paper and burn it (it is perfectly safe). Thus, the name fire communion. This is a multi-generational service, so the children will remain for the service. We will be setting intentions, healing, creating new beginnings, imagining new possibilities, and delivering our hopes.

Our lives are shaped by many practices and traditions, including ones that we may not think about very often. One of these traditions is the practice of keeping the Sabbath, observed in Judaism from Friday evening to Saturday evening, and in Christianity on Sundays. Unitarian Universalist congregations generally meet on Sunday mornings as a result of our heritage in these traditions. Yet the meaning of the Sabbath goes much deeper than this - it is rooted in an understanding of time as a way of touching the sacred. This Sunday we will look at what it means to dwell in sacred time.