Summer of Collaboration!
Unless otherwise noted, services include sermons preached by the Rev. Andrew Clive Millard and take place on Sundays at 11am via Zoom: https://uuma.zoom.us/j/920676087 or you can dial-in to 646-876-9923 (Meeting ID: 920 676 087)
July 4th: “Inclusion, Care, Consent, Covenant”
Unitarian Universalism calls us into mutual relationships. Recognizing this, the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Congregational Life Staff recommends that, particularly when making decisions that impact our community as a whole, we intentionally practice that mutuality. UU congregations are life-affirming and life-saving because — at our best — we live our interdependence in these ways. Rev. Andrew will reflect on what that means for us as we make our way back from the pandemic.
July 11th: “Sharing Ministry: Our Hearts, Our Hands, Our Spirits”
While ordained ministry plays a professional role of leadership in our congregations, lay people also do ministry. The Rev. Gordon McKeeman said, “Ministry is: a quality of relationship between and among human beings that beckons forth hidden possibilities, inviting people into deeper, more constant, more reverent relationship with the world and with one another.” How do we do effective shared ministry?
The Rev. Amy Russell retired in June from her ministry with the UU Community Church of Glen Allen after twenty years of ministry in Maryland, Ohio and Virginia. Raised Episcopalian, Rev. Amy was introduced to Buddhism while a student; searching for a spiritual home, she found that Unitarian Universalism allowed her to weave together the best threads of the two traditions.
July 18th:“The Humanist Manifesto: From Imagination to Reality”
The 1933 Humanist Manifesto had thirty-three signatories, and fifteen were Unitarians. How did that come to be at a time of religious conservatism and rising fascism? Who were the “imaginists” whose visions laid down the philosophy and values of religious humanism? Though there have been two revisions, the original Humanist Manifesto was an inflection point in Unitarian history that had an impact on the world.
The Rev. Doug McCusker has just completed his sixth year of ministry with the UU Fellowship of Fredericksburg. He also leads a prison ministry with the Humanist Group at the Coffeewood Correctional Center in Mitchells VA. Rev. Doug’s spiritual practices include forest bathing, mindful meditation, hiking and reading the Tao Te Ching.
July 25th: “Sharing, Hearing, Holding”
Fellowship Circles are small group ministries that offer spiritual and personal growth. In these circles, we: practice listening to each other; think deeply about our lives; help each other share troubles and joys; strive toward spiritual maturity; and nourish our inner selves through the kind of personal sharing that seldom occurs in everyday life.
Participants from the 2019–21 round of Fellowship Circles will share their experience and the importance of this program in their lives. New circles start this Fall!