Category: Archives

12/21/2014 This morning, Rev. Nancy reminded us how people have always understood this season in story.  Today in the US, many point to one particular story of the reason for this season (and many more define ourselves in part by how we view that story).  However, there is a rich, diverse history throughout the world…

12/14/2014 At our service this morning, Rev. Mike and Patt Behler got us into the holiday spirit, singing lots of Christmas Carols.  Some of them were childish and some were overtly Christian, but it was an opportunity to reconnect with the holidays’ childhood sense of fun, and perhaps to reconnect too with some of the…

12/7/2014 This morning, Kathlene Woodruff of the local YMCA addressed our Fellowship about the work of her organization, particularly their Respite Care events, which provide a safe, supervised place for foster children and give their foster parents some needed time for themselves.  Although “YMCA” stands for “Young Men’s Christian Association,” through its long history the…

12/1/2014 Sunday morning, Courtney Waters, Teen Librarian of Missouri River Regional Library, visited us to talk about Banned Books.  Thankfully we don’t live in a country where books are banned nationwide, and even the local bannings that remove books from schools and libraries are not very commonly enacted (although they are very commonly proposed).  So…

11/23/2014 This morning, Katherine Connor led a special service and our own Alexis Engelbrecht-Villafañe delivered a message based on the quote, familiar from Theodore Parker down to Martin Luther King: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” A glimpse of such a majestic arc can comfort us in times…

11/23/2014 This morning, Katherine Connor led a special service and our own Alexis Engelbrecht-Villafañe delivered a message based on the quote, familiar from Theodore Parker down to Martin Luther King: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” A glimpse of such a majestic arc can comfort us in times…

11/16/2014 Today, Rev. Mike Adamek brought us a message about the ways we relate to the past, history, and tradition. He argued that there is a crucial difference between Memory that engages the complexity of the past to inform a living present, and Nostalgia that flattens the past into simplistic images and imposes those images…

11/3/2014 We had a great turnout Sunday morning for our Adult Forum, where we discussed issues and races in the coming election. Maybe we were a little too much “of like mind,” but we still found we had a lot to teach each other, and I’m glad everyone enjoyed coming together to help each other…

10/26/2014 This morning, Bob Boldt led our Adult Forum in reflections on the Day of the Dead. The observance calls on us not only to remember those who have gone before us and the loved ones we’ve lost, but to get beyond our fears and our impulses to pretend it away and remember death as…

10/19/2014 Today, we were reminded of our UU commitment to flexibility and open-mindedness — our speaker canceled at the last minute. However, our own Katherine Connor graciously stepped up and read us a sermon by Rev. Jane Rzepka, a crash course in UU history. Modern UUs draw on diverse traditions that taught the unity of…