"Soul Matters” theme: Thresholds
Unless otherwise noted, services include sermons preached by the Rev. Andrew Clive Millard and take place on Sundays at 11am via Zoom.
May 3rd: “That I Might Know Your Mind”
In this time of physical distancing, we are called to connect with one another more carefully and more intentionally than before. When we can’t get together in person, we need to find other ways to check in with one another, to learn how our friends are doing, and to remind ourselves that we are still held in the promise of Beloved Community.
May 10th: “Radical Acceptance”
American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer is a personal request for “the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” For most of us, courage and wisdom are reasonable and worthy, but accepting our limits is easier said than done, especially when it feels like giving up!
May 17th: “Life Calls Us On”
Since the turn of the century, prognosticators have metaphorically looked toward 2020 as the year in which we would be able to see into the future with 20/20 vision. The first few months of 2020 have been like nothing we have ever experienced. All predictions are off. We are moving through uncharted waters with no personal protective equipment to shelter us from what’s ahead. Let’s explore how we can move forward into the future without clear direction, without confidence of conviction, and without a guide to lead us on.
Annette Marquis
Annette Marquis is the Operations Director for the Living Legacy Project, Inc., an organization that educates people about the enduring lessons of the American Civil Rights Movement. Previously, she served the Unitarian Universalist Association as LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Director and as District Executive for the Southeast District. Annette is the author of Resistance: A Memoir of Civil Disobedience in Maricopa County. Her writing has appeared in various journals and anthologies including Coming Out in Faith: Voices of LGBTQ Unitarian Universalism and The Women of Katrina: How Gender, Race, and Class Matter in an American Disaster. Annette lives with her wife, Wendy, in Richmond, where she is a member of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond. With Anita Lee, Annette is co-founder of the Richmond Pledge to End Racism.
May 24th: “Living into Covenant”
From 1648’s Cambridge Platform connecting New England’s congregational churches to the Principles and Sources of today’s Unitarian Universalist Association, our religion has responded to the challenges of interdependence through covenant rather than creed. As such, this is not only our preferred response but the defining feature of our faith.
May 31st: “Let’s Get a SHIFT On!”
It sounds like the set-up for a joke: “How is a church like a family?” Many of us, in talking about what it means to us, compare our congregational home to a family at its best: loving, comforting, encouraging, caring. Let’s explore just how a group of people with a shared identity will behave in many of the same ways that a family behaves.