Stuart Twite, Director of Religious Education
Time passes inexorably but a life fully lived in each moment is eternal. How can such a life be lived? 

As the Jewish community celebrates the Passover holiday, remembering the story of the Israelites liberation from slavery, we will contemplate the ways that we are enslaved in our own lives, and also confront the reality that slavery is still very much of our global economic system in the 21st century.

Why are crossroads such magical places? Why have they been regarded with such respect and even fear by travelers, been used as the burial grounds for criminals, guarded by impressive deities like Hekate and Mercury, and used as the location for magickal spells? Why are crossroads also the place where travelers since ancient times traditionally put aside all suspicion and advised and supported one another no matter where they hail from? What does it mean that this congregation stands together at a crossroads?

The Easter event in the Christian year is a big, dramatic, knock-you-off-your-seat miracle: life out of death, an empty tomb, and timid, terrified followers of Jesus becoming out-and-proud messengers of a crucified and risen man’s liberating gospel. Easter in our own lives, however, does not always come with a "wow" but with a whisper. And those whispers can be just as miraculous and transformative.

Because human beings as a species have tended to prefer comfortable, received truths and conformity of belief and behavior, heretics have been unpopular through all ages and cultures. Yes, some of them have made great art, brilliant theology, raised amazing children, made celebrated discoveries, and become rich, famous and adored. More often than not, however, they are reviled, silenced, censored, imprisoned, crucified and remembered by posterity as villains or madmen and women.

As the Pastoral Caregivers and I work together to train them to “walk the parish” as spiritual caregivers and friends, we talk a lot about the power of attentive listening and presence. When someone is really suffering, what can listening do? It’s so passive! Can I really be a healing presence when I’m doing nothing but listening?

Many of us are raised with the idea that we have to earn love; an emotional belief that we carry into adulthood with very serious consequences for physical and emotional health. We will turn to our Universalist heritage for spiritual insights regarding the unlimited love of God/Universe, a teaching that is meant to better equip us for inner life and the life of relationships, and to prepare us for an easier, more compassionate transition into old age and death.

We place a tremendous amount of value on the sense that we're in control of things, events and relationships in our lives. Buddhism teaches that all control is an illusion. Are we ready to consider that? How might it heal our lives to do so?

On this anniversary of the gathering of our congregation in 1642, we will celebrate the use of the democratic process in our religious lives, considering it in conjunction with our Fifth UU Principle, "The Right of conscience and the use of the democratic process in our congregations and in society at large." Don't think that voting is a spiritual issue? Come and hear the minister argue otherwise.

Dressed in period costume and speaking in character, the Rev. Richard M. Fewkes portrays Theodore Parker.

Our Partakers volunteers ask you to consider this: there are hundreds of men and women prisoners who would like to participate in the college behind bars program. Their goal this year is that each team take at least one additional visitor from our congregation into the prisons to see what it's like, and to learn more about Partakers ministry.

The heart and soul of ministry is presence or is it? Self-importance is an illusion and it traps us very early. We are all treasured in our presence, but perhaps we are also useful where we are not. Looking forward to and planning for my sabbatical. (available only as podcast)

Our fourth Unitarian Universalist Principle offers us total freedom to pursue the quest for truth unencumbered by creed or doctrine. It all sounds like a great ride until the search takes the seeker somewhere surprising and profoundly uncomfortable. What do we do then? Is there room in Unitarian Universalism not only for seeking but for arriving?

In the context of Veterans Day, we will look at our second Unitarian Universalist Principle, "we covenant to affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations." How is justice different from charity, the old biblical virtue? And what's the subtle difference between "equity" and "equality?" (available only as podcast)

Rev. Janet Bowering, Guest Minister

In Reverend Bowering’s words: "A Sermon outlining individual contributions to group activity isn’t necessarily biographical. I’d like to share anecdotes, both serious and funny, about folks who have enriched congregations I have known."