Category: Archives

10/12/2014 Today, UUFJC hosted Rev. John Bennett and Rev. WT Edmonson for a dialogue on racial justice. They spoke about their backgrounds — one grew up in an all-white “sundown town,” the other watched white neighbors abandon the local school after integration — and about experiences that shaped their commitment to social justice. They reminded…

10/5/2014 Today, Rev. Mike brought us a message whose title tells the story: “Tough-Minded Optimists are Needed Now.” Our stereotype of optimists is of naive Pollyannas who always look on the bright side, but Rev. Mike argued that a truer picture is of optimists as problem solvers — it’s not that they see nothing wrong,…

9/28/2014 This week, Tom Durkin was here from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office to talk about Missouri’s Sunshine Law and the importance of providing open access to public proceedings to secure citizens’ rights and build their trust.  The law applies to public bodies, but represents a standard of good practice for private organizations as well. …

9/21/2014 Today, Rev. Mike brought us a message about the increasing militarization of police forces throughout the US, both in tactics and in equipment.  The results can be frightening for the health of our communities and for our civil rights, as we have recently learned once again from the events in Ferguson, Missouri.  However, pitting…

9/15/2014 This Sunday, educator Lorie Steele spoke to our Fellowship about Montessori Education, which Wikipedia describes as “an educational approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori and characterized by an emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological, physical, and social development.”  Lorie’s description of the mixed-age environment…

9/7/2014 This Sunday was our annual Water Communion.  With the summer travel season wrapping up, we gathered our members and friends back to our Fellowship home bearing water from many moments and places, and we brought the water together on our altar to mark another year in our Fellowship’s journey together. This week, our Fellowship…

8/25/2014 Our members continued to watch events unfold in Ferguson, Missouri last week, and in our service Sunday we remembered that beyond looking at the events there and the wider patterns of racism and politics they represent, we must look to our own community.  Kevin Rome, President of Lincoln University, addressed the Fellowship and was…

8/10/2014 This morning, our own Don Love brought us a message about his experience in Unitarian Universalist Religious Education in the 1950s.  Some of the lessons have stayed with him to this day, like a lesson about the story of the Blind Men and the Elephant.  A story from another culture highlighted a universal truth:…

8/3/2014 Dear UUFJC Members and Friends, This morning, Rev. Nancy brought our attention to the “Verdant, Chaotic Green” of the Summer season and recalled the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who called us to be truly alive to the wonder of the world around us. Part of being alive to that wonder is being mindful…

8/31/2014 At our service this morning, Seth Bauman of the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association addressed the Fellowship on the ways our juvenile justice system disproportionately impacts youth of color.  People are doing good work, moving the system toward a focus on restoration and rehabilitation, but progress is needed at every stage of the process, from…