On many a Sunday morning Joan drives by the Lutheran and Catholic churches and notes that their parking lots are large – and full. When she arrives at UUFDC she notes that their parking lot is small and seldom crowded. She wonders at this. Most churches, she concludes, do a very good job of recounting […]
I came really close to naming the two recently-hatched bald eagles at the National Arboretum. Sunlight and Shadow. So perfect, I thought. But then, I probably should have noticed when the contest closed. I console myself with William Blake’s wisdom: [We were] made for joy and woe Then when this we rightly know Through the world we safely go. Joy […]
Drowning in today’s raucous stream of words, how do we find a way to speak that is courteous yet truthful? In the Samyutta Nikaya, the Buddha addresses this issue: “And what, bhikkus, is right speech? Abstinence from false speech, abstinence from divisive speech, abstinence from harsh speech, abstinence from idle chatter: this is called right speech.” […]
This question has been asked and debated for thousands of years. When I first talked at UU on October 30, 2011 my topic was “Our World of Wonder.” I suggested then that an appropriate human response to the fact that we exist at all would be an attitude of wonder, awe, gratitude, and humility. This […]
For more than a decade, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County has devoted one Sunday each April to poetry. In each of the last five years, 10-12 poets who are either members or friends of this fellowship have written and read poems on a theme (e.g., the equinox, justice, the earth). This year, on April 24th, they […]
This service will feature Katie Dahl and Rich Higdon singing and performing songs about our earth, the seasons, and stewardship. This is an opportunity for the entire family to sing along with them. Come and join the celebration of our beautiful earth! Katie Dahl and Rich Higdon live in Door County year-round. Dahl is a singer-songwriter and […]
Some argue that possibilities for a world without war, environmental destruction and inequality are limited by “human nature.” My remarks will dispute this notion and argue that human nature is neither biologically nor divinely determined. Furthermore if we see it as our task to alter human nature as it seems to manifest itself today, we can […]
Whether we are 26, 66 or 96, one thing is certain, and that is that our lives have held a LOT of change. Events come and go, relationships come and go, hobbies, passions and desires all come and go. We seem to navigate the vast majority of these “releasings” without much fuss; they are just […]
To honor our founders who served, and continue to serve with grace, the current UUFDC Board and staff will share ideas and inspirations from the book, Serving with Grace: Lay Leadership as a Spiritual Practice, by Erik Walker Wikstrom. According to one review of the book, “Meditation, ritual and prayer are the glamorous side of […]
There is an emerging public debate about the ways that our nation should address poverty. Proposals to reduce poverty put forth across the political spectrum are rooted in very different understandings of “responsibility”. Is it an individual responsibility or a community responsibility? A societal responsibility or a healthy combination of all three? Dr. Robert Kraig will […]