Sermon Archive

Each church year there are 4 months that have a 5th Sunday. As part of our lay-led ministry, we will be using these Sundays to offer an alternative to traditional worship. In lieu of holding a service, either in-person or on Zoom, we will be organizing a group service project we can do together instead.

In the spirit of community care, we are planning our 4th Hollywood Neighborhood Cleanup for this last Sunday of May. Members Larry Burt & Diane Ingle are again coordinating with SOLVE to provide organization and supplies. Our goal is to help make the area a safer, cleaner, more pleasant area to visit and build community spirit among our members. Volunteers will pick up litter in the Hollywood neighborhood business area surrounding our meeting place. Please meet behind the Center for Positive Aging. Come dressed for the weather.

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

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

How do political realities shape our bodies and spirits? This service explores how chronic stress and overwhelm are not personal failures, but deeply human responses to sustained threat. Rooted in our UU values of interdependence, this message invites us to rediscover community, care, and connection as sources of resilience and spiritual resistance. This is the May offering in the UUA Recorded Sermon Series.

The Rev. Jami A. Yandle (they/them/theirs) serves as the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Transgender Support Specialist, ministering in the office of the Vice President for Programs and Ministries.

In this role, Rev. Yandle provides spiritual support and direct care for the trans and non-binary community within and beyond the UUA.

Rev. Yandle is a non-binary minister and board certified chaplain currently residing in Texas. Their portfolio includes service on multiple social justice campaigns, parish minister, hospice chaplain, and as a coach on the UUA Hope for Us Conflict Engagement Team. Rev. Yandle is an amateur mobile photographer who enjoys spending time with loved ones, especially their family’s beloved lion-headed bunny named Jasper.

In the words of Rev. Norbert Čapek, “We affirm the dignity of every individual and the beauty that emerges when we share our gifts together.” Join us May 17th for Flower Communion, a beloved Unitarian Universalist tradition that celebrates the beauty of diversity and our shared life together. Each person is invited to bring a flower—garden-grown, wild, or store-bought—and place it in a common vase, where our many individual blossoms become one radiant whole. All ages are welcome to this joyful, sensory worship service honoring connection, renewal, and the sacred worth of every person.

Amy Geoffroy is Director of Communications and Impact at FACT Oregon, a nonprofit that empowers families, youth, and communities to navigate disability systems and advocate for disability justice and policy change. Our goal is that people with disabilities have what they need to thrive at home, in school, and in their communities.

As a parent of a young woman with Down syndrome, Amy will share key concepts in disability rights, her journey as a mom trying to forge a positive trajectory for her daughter, as well as how FACT Oregon supports families and what you and your community can do to help build networks of belonging.

Special Collection: FACT

In a time when power is increasingly centralized and voices are silenced, Unitarian Universalism insists on a different way: shared authority, covenant, and participation. The way we govern ourselves, with power held by congregational members matters.  It is a spiritual practice that calls each of us into responsibility, relationship, and collective courage.

This service invites us to consider what it means to belong, to participate, and to shape the community we long for—together.

First-Sunday Monthly Potluck after Service!

Drawing on the spirit of April Fools, we will play with improvisation. Let's explore how deep listening, presence, and playful curiosity can become spiritual practices that help us navigate uncertainty and build beloved community.

Led by Rev. Leslie and member Ruth Jenkins, we can discover together presence, trust, and the healing power of shared laughter and imagination.

In honor of Earth Day, we gather to explore the theme of Ultimacy and our place within the interconnected web of life. Please bring a small object or photograph that symbolizes your personal bond with the natural world. During the service, there will be a dedicated time to share how these treasures ground you and remind you of our deep interdependence with all living things. Join us as we honor the sacredness of Mother Earth and reaffirm our commitment to the great, beautiful whole that sustains us all.

From our humble beginnings a half-century ago to the present, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, PFLAG Portland, has been a safe harbor for those of us who love and cherish the LGBTQIA+ people in our lives – and for queer individuals themselves.

The two Portland couples who founded Parents of Gays in 1977 – the forerunner to our PFLAG chapter – opened their living rooms to like-minded parents at a time when gays and lesbians were more likely to be shunned than embraced. These days, we hold our chapter meetings in a nondescript room on the campus of a gender-affirming church in Southwest Portland.

Our journey remains the same, even if our paths differ greatly from one another. And in a world that can sometimes make us feel discouraged or lonely, we take comfort in knowing there are people who “get us.”

Special Collection: PFLAG

Listen to the Service Recording

We will gather to celebrate the renewal of Spring and the power of Love. Jesus refused to answer violence with violence. In our Unitarian Universalist faith, we honor this as a story of enduring love—one that rises again in us when we choose compassion, justice, and hope, even in the face of oppression.

First-Sunday Monthly Potluck after Service!

Listen to the Service Recording

Each church year there are 4-5 months that have a fifth Sunday. As part of our lay-led ministry, we will be using these Sundays to offer an alternative to traditional worship. In lieu of holding a service, either in-person or on Zoom, we will be organizing a group service project we can do together instead.

Our project for March 2026 is a supply drive for the 13 Salmon Shower Project. We will gather at 10:30 on Sunday, March 29th at the Center for Positive Aging for snacks, song, & fellowship. Project Coordinator, Larry Burt will collect your supply drive contributions. See the details below for more information about needed items. 

The 13 Salmon Shower Project

Based at First Unitarian downtown, the 13 Salmon Shower Project is open on Wednesday and Thursdays from 11 to 4 and offers unhoused individuals  a free and secure space to shower, rest, enjoy a warm drink and snack, get clean clothing, and experience refuge from conditions on the street. Based on compassion and an ethic of mutual care, the project seeks to build relationships between the church and our unhoused neighbors.

They are seeking the following items:

• Men's clothes, especially jeans/pants/sweats (30 - 36)
• Hoodies, sweatshirts, coats, and rain gear
• Boxer briefs - NEW (M, L)
• Women's underwear - NEW (S, M)
• New Socks

There will be NO regular Worship service this Sunday. We are gathering in-person for fellowship and to gather our supply drive contributions. There will not be an opportunity to join via Zoom.