Speaker: Jerry Lazzaro

The Mystique of the Female Mystic

Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
The Mystique of the Female Mystic
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Appeals to seek common ground and work toward greater unity in our nation and in our world seem at times just wishful thinking, not just in the realm of politics and government but in religious belief and practice as well. Perhaps the last best hope for common ground and unity in religion may be in … Continue reading The Mystique of the Female Mystic

Twelfth Night: Festivity, Fantasy and Foolishness on the Path to Wisdom

Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Twelfth Night: Festivity, Fantasy and Foolishness on the Path to Wisdom
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Observance of Twelfth Night, like observance of Winter Solstice, pre-dates the Christian Era by thousands of years. Both observances were appropriated by and integrated into Christian belief and practice. In the Christian tradition, Twelfth Night marks the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany, a day commemorating the viewing by the three Wise Men (Magi) … Continue reading Twelfth Night: Festivity, Fantasy and Foolishness on the Path to Wisdom

Let UUs All Be Grateful…for Healers

Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Let UUs All Be Grateful...for Healers
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Continuing in our Thanksgiving weekend tradition of extolling the spiritual practice of gratitude, this year we’ll extend special thanks to people who’ve been a healing presence in our lives. Members and friends of our faith community are invited to submit the name of a person or persons who helped them heal from significant physical, emotional, … Continue reading Let UUs All Be Grateful…for Healers

Taking ‘Em Down…for Good

Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Taking 'Em Down...for Good
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The brutal murder of George Floyd triggered not only a massive outcry for an end to police brutality, but also a worldwide call to address systemic racism and the countless injustices it spawns. It also re-animated the campaign in the U.S. to remove from public spaces the monuments to military and political leaders of the … Continue reading Taking ‘Em Down…for Good

Bringing Compassion into Play

Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Bringing Compassion into Play
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“You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” This provocative quote, widely misattributed to the great Greek philosopher, Plato, can lead us this Father’s Day to think about what we learned about or from a father or father-figure when they engaged in games and recreation with … Continue reading Bringing Compassion into Play

Annual Tribute to UU Troubadours

Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Annual Tribute to UU Troubadours
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Join us for a lively, uplifting tribute to Unitarian Universalist troubadours—singer/songwriters who help make the essence of our liberal religious faith more accessible to all and who call us to greater heights of spiritual awakening, compassion and social action. Expect reflection on how and why their lives and music nourish and inspire us. And, of … Continue reading Annual Tribute to UU Troubadours

The Prophetic Voice of Wendell Berry

Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
Thomas Paine UU Fellowship
The Prophetic Voice of Wendell Berry
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Wednesday, April 22, 2020 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day, an observance that Earth Day Network hopes will be an “historic moment when citizens of the world rise up in a united call for the creativity, innovation, ambition, and bravery that we need to meet our climate crisis and seize the enormous opportunities of a … Continue reading The Prophetic Voice of Wendell Berry

UU Faith in Action: Prominent UU Women in the Struggle for Universal Suffrage

We Unitarian Universalists should be gratified and motivated by our heritage of leadership in social, economic, cultural and political reform. Speaking truth to power and challenging inequality and injustice is in our DNA, a core feature of our liberal religious faith and spiritual practice. This essential feature of our identity manifested itself widely and deeply in the struggle for universal suffrage, a struggle culminating in the passage in 1920 of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States that accorded women in the United States the right to vote. On this first Sunday of Women’s History Month, in this the centennial year of the Amendment’s ratification, we’ll honor some prominent UU women leaders of the Suffrage Movement, among them Mary Wollstonecraft, Judith Sargent, Margaret Fuller, Lucy Stone, Mary Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, and Rev. Olympia Brown. Their work on behalf of human rights in general, and women’s rights in particular, was firmly grounded in a faith which held, as its highest ideal, the liberation of the human spirit from narrow thought, lifeless creed, and social codes that fail to serve human needs, including the deeply experienced need for self-determination and spiritual fulfillment.

Let UUs Pray

We Unitarian Universalists can be uncomfortable with traditional religious terminology. We often have difficulty, sometimes even resist, integrating language central to those traditions into our own belief system and spiritual practice. “Oh,” we say, shaking our heads, “that language come with so much baggage!” One such example is the word prayer. But building on the … Continue reading Let UUs Pray

So Whaddya’ Expect?

How often do we find that our expectations of ourselves and others haven’t been met? How many times do we wonder if we’re just expecting too much? Then, again, just how little should we expect, and how much disappointment can we, or should we, be willing and able to accept? Question like these have been asked and answered in interesting, provocative, sometimes rather discomforting ways, at least since the time of the Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium (circa 336-265 BCE), the father of classic Stoic belief and practice and the forefather of contemporary psycho-social therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Let’s take a bird’s-eye view as well as an up-close-and-personal look at ways we develop expectations and handle disappointment when expectations (inevitably) aren’t met, and how doing so can be a sustaining spiritual practice.