Sermon Archive

The space between. That is where the change happens.  Yet how often do we simply move from one thing to another, neither giving farewell nor greeting to our rich life experiences? We often carry things along, not laying them down, not being fully present. Or we just plow forward, missing the joy of welcoming the next thing into our life. Let’s consider these thresholds in a new way, a fully conscious way, an aware and purposeful way.   

Jean DeVenney is an active congregant of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene, where she serves as a Worship Associate and lay leader, Small Group Connection Circle and book group facilitator, and co-facilitator of an Aging and End of Life series.  When living in a small town in Alaska she felt the need for a spiritual community, so advertised in the weekly newspaper for “open minded, liberally religious and/or spiritually curious others”.  People showed up, so in her living room began the Kenai Peninsula UU Fellowship.  

Now retired, she spent most of her career as a college counselor and instructor, focusing on returning adults and student development.  When not traveling, camping, or kayaking, Jean is taking art classes, reading mysteries, exploring the concepts of the Enneagram, and aspiring to learn pickleball. Her volunteer work includes her church’s food security programs, the local shelter for her unhoused neighbors, and serving on the Eliot Institute Board of directors for UU family camps. She is a trained SoulCollage® practitioner and facilitates workshops in her community and online.

The turning of the year invites both honesty and intention. In a time of profound uncertainty, this service centers the spiritual practice of staying with what is—grief and gratitude, fear and love—without turning away. Through shared ritual and reflection, we remain resilient by choosing, again and again, to meet the present moment together. Grounded in Unitarian Universalist values, we recommit to becoming what this moment asks of us, holding fast to our vision of a future with love at the center.

First-Sunday Monthly Potluck after the Service!

Special Congregational Meeting after the Service: Proposal for Planned Partnership with Y.O.U.TH (Youth Organized and United To Help)

Singing in worship unites our voices, moves our spirits, and touches our hearts. The two printed hymnals we have been using are from 1993 and 2005 respectively; they contain many beloved and meaningful songs. Do you have a favorite? 

Earlier this year, the UUA launched the newest hymnal project -- an online only one -- called Sing Out Love. How do we find and learn new hymns that will become future favorites? In this service, Linda will explore a bit about the role of music in worship and invite you to think about the songs that move you. Ellen will be taking requests and supporting us in exploring the music that touches us.

For the first time since 2019, we will gather for a "traditional" Unitarian Universalist Christmas Eve Service at 5pm.  This will be a sweet, intimate, and intergenerational service filled with stories and singing and candlelight. We will not offer any childcare or religious education and there will not be a formal social hour. This service will also only be offered in-person and will not be on Zoom. Service led by Wy'east Members.

Special Collection: Minister's Discretionary Fund

This service will be In-Person Only, at 5:00pm

Join us for a Burning Bowl Ceremony — also called Fire Communion — where we celebrate the Winter Solstice. We will share some stories, release burdens to the fire, and reflect upon our hopes for the coming year.

Our Annual Celebration of Light returns in its traditional form again this year! All children and youth are invited to participate in our Winter Pageant, which features them in creative costumes acting out the solstice stories of varied religious traditions. This Wy’east creation celebrates finding meaning in the darkness of winter, no matter which stories are told and which holidays we observe. This pageant is being coordinated by our new Director of Religious Education and Anders Liljeholm.

Special Collection: Hand Up Project (Q Center Food Bank)

Intentional curiosity is a brave way to meet another. This service invites us into practices of open-hearted questioning, empathetic presence, and compassionate truth-telling to deepen connection even in the midst of conflict. 

How do we expand our circle of care to include those we disagree with—or even fear? Through mindful compassion and heart-centered listening, we’ll explore practical tools for seeing the humanity in everyone we meet.

First-Sunday Monthly Potluck after Service!

In months where there are five Sundays, we gather together in community and take some kind of social justice action in the world. The fifth Sunday in November 2025 falls on Thanksgiving Weekend. Our action project has two parts:

Winter Clothing Drive – 11:30 - 12:00

Bring your donations for Blanchet House & Rose Haven to the Parking Lot behind the Center for Positive Aging. Anne Wagner will collect and deliver all that we gather. Click here for details on donation needs.

AND

Winter Card Gathering 11:30 - 12:00

We will be gathering Holiday cards at the clothing drop off behind the Senior Center this coming Sunday from 11:30-12:00. More Winter Card making next Sunday, December 7th.

AND

Lunch at Laughing Planet Hollywood – 12:00 - 1:00ish 

Let us gather in community in support of a local business – Laughing Planet – who has been offering free “SNAP” meals in these times of SNAP uncertainty. We can share some joyful fellowship and show solidarity with a neighborhood business living our shared values. 

5th Sunday Day of Service, 10:30 AM - 12:00 Noon

There will be NO regular service (either in-person or online) this Sunday.

We were never meant to carry sorrow alone. Grief and gratitude are not opposites—they are companions on the path of love. When we gather to honor what has been lost, we also remember what still connects us: our shared humanity, our breath, our belonging to the living Earth.

In this service, Grief Tender and Death Doula Alyssa Rose Ackerman invites us into an ancient remembering—that grief, when held in community, becomes medicine. Together we will explore how welcoming both sorrow and gratitude can restore intimacy with ourselves, with one another, and with life itself. For it is only by honoring what we have lost that we discover what cannot be taken from us.

Meet Alyssa Rose Ackerman (she/her)
Alyssa Rose walks with those navigating life’s most profound transitions. As a Grief Tender and Death Doula in Portland, Oregon, she bridges ancient ritual practices with modern somatic therapies to create sacred spaces for those facing loss, death, and deep change.

Drawing from her work with hundreds of families and communities, Alyssa’s approach to grief care honors the somatic, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the grieving process. She is devoted to restoring a grief-literate culture—one resilient and compassionate enough to hold us through life’s challenges and uncertainties.

Through her work, Alyssa reminds us that grief is not a problem to solve, but a practice of love—and that in community, what breaks us open can also connect us more deeply to life.

In a world that urges us to tighten, defend, and despair, we Unitarian Universalists affirm that Love is at the center. Choosing love over fear is a radical act. Play can be protest. Joy can be defiance. Trust can be revolutionary. Together we’ll explore how putting love at the center calls us to embody freedom through laughter, creativity, and connection. This service lifts up play as a spiritual practice that keeps our movements for justice alive, human, and whole.