theme: Generosity
Services include sermons preached by Rev. Andrew Clive Millard unless otherwise noted.
April 1st: “Why so serious?”
Given its coinciding with Easter Sunday this year, April Fool’s Day has been cancelled for 2018 and will instead be celebrated twice in 2019. The change has been ordered by the Pope, according to Vatican spokesman Father Pesce d’Aprile, who has had this authority since his predecessor Gregory XIII created the modern-day calendar in 1582.
Special music for Easter will be provided by the UUFP Winds!
April 8th: “Come On In”
Welcoming the bad stuff along with the good? Seriously?! Today we explore the practice of welcoming everything into our lives — yes, everything.
Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig is the minister of the Williamsburg Unitarian Universalists. She is new to the congregation and the Hampton Roads area, having moved here last summer after serving congregations in Northern Virginia, California and Illinois. She is also a trained spiritual director. We welcome Laura to the Fellowship in her first pulpit swap with Andrew!
April 15th: “WE > i”
A congregation is a group of like-hearted people who gather in community to share the gifts of their lives with one another. One of the most important things we can do as a community is to be present, to listen to one another with deep compassion, to hear another’s pain without making it a competition, and to remind one another that no matter who we are, this is a special place where we will always be loved.
April 22nd: “Returning Home”
As seen from space, the Earth is a mosaic of continents and oceans. By day there are mountains and deserts, forests and lakes; by night there are bright beaded networks of light from towns and cities. Except for clouds, though, the thin cradle of the atmosphere is all but invisible. Yet with every breath, we’re reconnected with every living being on the planet, yet most of us breathe so effortlessly that it takes no thought or feeling, and so we give it none.
Special music for Earth Day will be provided by the ChorUUs!
April 29th: “The Antidote to Greed and Avarice: Generosity!”
What is the relationship between greed and generosity? If we are wrapped around ourselves, how will that hinder or enhance the fullness of humanity that binds us together or separates us from a world of peace and joy? When we face violence and pain in the world, what resources are available to counter the potentially destructive impulses that too easily run amok in government and private levels of human interaction?
Rev. Charles Swadley is organizer of the James River Chapter of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. He twice served as Executive Director of the statewide organization and received its Citizen of the Year Award in 2016. He has served church and community in numerous ways with a focus on meeting the needs of children and received the 2015 Faith in Action Award from the Virginia Council of Churches. A retired United Methodist minister, Charles is an inspiration of generosity.
