Category: Archives

5/4/2015 Yesterday morning, our Adult Forum tried to engage our Fifth Unitarian Universalist Principle (“The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large”), as we discussed whether to create for ourselves an Adult Forum Policy.  While the members present felt that we didn’t need a formal…

5/31/2015 This morning, our own Alexis Engelbrecht-Villafañe brought us a message harking back to the great Romantic poets and thinkers, from William Wordsworth to Henry David Thoreau.  Alexis reminded us that the Romantics were not fluffy, nature-loving sentimentalists, but rebels in the age of the Industrial Revolution.  “The world is too much with us,” wrote…

4/27/2015 Yesterday, Essex Garner, a retired National Guardsman and professor of Art Education at Lincoln University, visited the Fellowship to talk about his award-winning paintings of the Buffalo Soldiers.  In an engagingly personal talk, Garner described how existing images of African-Americans in the military just didn’t cut it for him as a black man or…

4/19/2015 This morning, Rev. Nancy brought us a message about “The Cost of Spring.”  Nature nurtures the softly sculpted petals, the delicate vibrant colors that we see emerging all around us, but Nature also brings the battering rains and the harsh summer sun.  Nature is both nurturing and implacable, and we are no exception.  Will…

4/12/2015 Spring is here, plants are growing, and that means it’s time to start tending our gardens.  At today’s service, our own Bob Boldt and local farmer Mike Oney came to talk about the NEEED Project’s Heart of Missouri Gardens, a community garden that last year supplied fresh produce to local senior centers.  They’re looking…

4/6/2015 Happy Easter! Yesterday, when Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus, Rev. Mike brought us a message exploring the Christian roots of Unitarian Universalism, and what part of that Christian inheritance we might embrace as universal.  We can take universal lessons from Jesus’ teachings about how to treat one another, but Rev. Mike argued that…

3/29/2015 Today, retired reporter Bob Priddy visited the Fellowship to talk about the largest religious revival in Jefferson City history.  Invited by an alliance of what were then the four main Protestant Churches in town, a renowned revivalist preached for more than a month in 1915, urging repentance from such sins as drinking, cigarettes, card-playing…

3/22/2015 Today, Rev. David Avery, a retired Disciples of Christ minister, visited our Fellowship to give us a talk about Light and Darkness.  So often, our language equates light with goodness and darkness with evil and fear (and what does that do to the way we view dark-skinned people?), but Avery encouraged us to embrace…

3/16/2015 Sunday, Rev. Nancy brought us a message about “Intelligent Sensibility” — about the challenge of opening ourselves to awe and mystery while also keeping a responsible grip on our critical faculties.  The senses, the intellect, and the realms of mystical experience can all be gateways to that awe and mystery, if we resist the…

3/8/2015 Today, Dr. Serese Smith-Haxton, OB/GYN of Capital Region Medical Center, visited our Fellowship to talk about “Empowerment of Women.”  In her work, she sees that most immediately in the area of healthcare, where she said women have more opportunity than ever to take charge of their health in critical ways.  Advances in technology allow…