AGING, DEMENTIA AND THE GOOD COMMUNITY John and Susan McFadden, co-authors of Aging Together: Dementia, Friendship and Flourishing Communities (John Hopkins, 2011) who are known here and abroad for their friendly approach to aging, will speak about  how “senility haunts the landscape of the self-made man” when fear and anxiety...

PROMOTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS PICUM (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants) promotes respect for the basic social rights of undocumented migrants, such as the right to health care, the right to shelter, the right to education and training, the right to minimum subsistence, the right to...

PRACTICING YOUR OWN RELIGION Religion at its best is always revolutionary and dangerous. We have too long been accustomed to the idea that religion should be solacing and comforting. Fundamentally religion has never been that, certainly not in its classic periods or at its heights. It has been disturbing. Its primary...

THE WISDOM IN THE TAPESTRY A tapestry of symbols representing seven religious traditions is affixed to the wall at the front of our fellowship hall. This message is a short lesson of the wisdom (in Joan’s quirky subjective opinion) revealed in each of these religious traditions. The Rev. Joan Shiels has...

WHAT ARE FATHERS FOR? In the Dick and Jane version of life in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, they and Baby Sally would have exactly one father, two grandfathers, and four great-grandfathers. It’s different today.  This Father’s Day we remember our fathers and ponder what it means to be a...

RELIGIOUS, SPIRITUAL, OR BOTH? I am sure everyone has heard someone say they are spiritual but not religious. This negative view of religion may be due to the limited and compartmentalized definition our culture works with. This sermon will explore how expansive and all-encompassing religion can be so that we...

ENTERTAINING THE POSSIBLE In the days prior to this Sunday, Karen Gustafson will facilitate a series of conversations around some questions central to the life of UUFDC. This morning she will share her impressions and observations on the present and future possibilities for the fellowship. Karen Gustafson retired as Associate Minister...

THREE (PLUS 1) VIEWS OF GOD AND RELIGION By some measures the USA is the world’s most religious country.  Yet, Americans are the least religious now than they have ever been.  We will briefly examine the views of three exceptional people – a famous preacher, a famous scientist, and a...

BAD GIRLS OF THE BIBLE OR WELL BEHAVED WOMEN SELDOM MAKE HISTORY Most people assume that the women in the Bible were good Jewish girls: obedient, courteous and docile.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  Willful and wise, trampled and triumphant, they used sex, subterfuge, chicanery and charm to...

PLATEAUS AND CLIMBS, THEN IT’S TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN I’ve often told people new to Unitarian Universalism that many of us alternate periods of resting on plateaus when we are experiencing congruity between what we believe and how we live our lives.  And then…we depart from the comfortable plateaus...