‘And the angel(s) said to Mary…to Joseph…to the Shepherds…do not be afraid’ (From the Christmas stories recorded in the Gospels of Matthew & Luke.) The fears of our ancient brothers and sisters were real. The Angelic promises of hope and peace was incongruous to the terror facing impoverished people living in an occupied land. The […]
These days mindfulness is promoted everywhere from TV shows and major magazines to the website of the Mayo Clinic. However, it’s a subtle construct that many people find difficult to grasp and even harder to practice. This talk will dissect what mindfulness really means, discuss recent research on why it’s valuable, and offer a few […]
Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in Western Civilization for more than 2000 years. It’s a fact we sometimes forget in our liberal religious tradition. Many of you do not consider yourselves Christian. It is not a term you would use to describe your personal religious view. Some of you grew up in […]
“A Thanksgiving Visitor” by Truman Capote presented in a reader’s theater format Adapted by our own Joan Mead and assisted by Cyndy Stiehl, we learn about an 8-year-old Alabama boy in 1933, his best friend, and his bully. Join our local actors for this touching and inspiring presentation.
This is a short, miscellaneous collection of things Joan thought everybody knew. She recently learned that not everybody does not know them–she but thinks they should. Included in this miscellaneous collection; How to Solve a Problem and How We Die. Rev. Joan Shiels has been bringing messages to the UUFDC for 16 years. The focus […]
I wish to focus on what I believe is the most fundamental essence of who we are and how we navigate this world. One of the most influential books about this question of what is driving me and you, what makes church appealing is Ronald Rolheiser’s book, The Holy Longing, published in 1999. Rolheiser is […]
Halfway between the fall equinox and the winter solstice, when the ghosts and ghouls of Halloween appear on our doorsteps, is a time regarded in many cultures as one when the veils between this world and the next are thin or even lifted. We will mark the occasion, known variously as All Souls or All […]
With so much focus on immigration today, what might we learn from the efforts of many today to secure and lock down our borders? What happens in that lock down, on our physical borders or the borders of difference and identity? Who gets locked in and who is locked out? And who holds the keys? […]
My title does it, but why do I put poetry and prayer together? Are they similar? How so? Very good questions. And by the way, can you define what poetry is, or what a poem is? Or for that matter, what constitutes a prayer? We all think we can recognize them when we see them, […]
How many people do you really know? Do you agree with Joan Chittister? Who has written, “…We are becoming a world of cardboard figures, entombed in technology, living in hermetically sealed personal planets. We don’t really know anybody anymore, and nobody really knows us.” We will take a close look at a world famous individual […]