Who are our sisters and brothers? To whom are we related? Do we believe other creatures are bereft of concern for their compatriots? Do we think only large-brained humans can enjoy beauty, can understand how to solicit help, can grieve, can display thankfulness; in short, can demonstrate many of our presumed higher human attributes? More and more […]
Tony’s sermon this Sunday will examine the development of the notion of hell, from being another word for the grave to the later notion of eternal punishment, and why our UU ancestors rejected eternal punishment as impugning the nature of God. Tony will explore why many people still believe in hell, why UUs don’t (it […]
One of the significant issues in our Unitarian and Universalist histories was rejection of the doctrines of hell and the devil. Tony’s first sermon with us this summer will deal with the idea of Satan, and how he developed in late Judaism from being God’s prosecuting attorney to being God’s great enemy. This development tells […]
Ask any ten people “What is an angel?” and you will usually get ten different answers. Joan intends to tell us about angels she has known personally. And some other stuff. Rev. Joan Shiels has a Masters Degree in Religion, another in Theology and another in Divinity. Besides all that, she’s really interested in religion […]
The well-known Unitarian Universalist musician, Jim Scott, blesses us with his song May Your Life Be as a Song. (The refrain is hymn #1056). Let us lift up song as a metaphor for a life well lived. Rev. Jim Coakley’s UU roots are grounded in the remarkable story of the Fox Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Appleton, […]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was one of the major philosophes of the French Enlightenment along with Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Diderot. He was also one of the great Romantic writers like Wordsworth and Coleridge in England and Lamartine and Hugo in France. In the last year of his life he wrote a masterpiece, The Reveries of a […]
It’s an old term — bearing your cross — and it alludes to the Christian myth of Jesus’ death. How could it possibly mean anything to us? …A meditation on sacrifice and commitment and story. Rev. Joan Shiels has a bunch of degrees in world religions. She has been bringing messages to us at UUFDC […]
As Unitarian Universalists, many of us struggle with the idea that Christ is the only path to the Sacred. Many of us come from Christian faith traditions and so the lessons and model of Christ is appealing and something we can embrace. For others it may seem limited and less inclusive and a reminder of […]
The things we love shape our lives. Rev. Ann has loved birding for 45 years. She will share insights from birding as they relate to the challenges of life today. Wisdom consists in understanding our motivations, our faults, our flights of greatness, the demands of our environment, and our place in the world. Rev. Ann […]
Jesus in his Aramaic language reveals the spiritual infrastructure of the Universe, and the path of healing our disconnect, our feeling alien on our own planet. James A. Roberts is a retired pastor. He is a co-founder of Manitoumie Center, 120 acres in Summit Wisconsin, and an activist with climate justice, and racial and interfaith […]