Sermon Archive

In December 2020, the Portland City Council convened an independent Charter Commission to review and recommend amendments to the City of Portland Charter (City's Constitution). After a year and a half of research and public listening sessions, on June 14, 2022, the Charter Commission resoundingly approved a proposal significantly changing Portland’s form of government and method of electing representatives. On the November 2022 ballot, voters in the City of Portland will get to decide whether or not to pass this amendment. As part of our Social Justice Speaker Series on the Health of Our Democracy, Dr. Melanie Billings-Yun will share with us some of her insights and experience in working on this project.

Dr. Melanie Billings-Yun (PhD, Harvard) is past co-chair of the Portland Charter Review Commission. Professionally, she is an international negotiation consultant and professor, having taught for 16 years at Portland State University, as well as at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Georgetown University, and colleges overseas. The author of Beyond Dealmaking: Five Steps to Negotiating Profitable Relationships, Melanie has worked throughout Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East, to help organizations and individuals resolve disputes and build more cooperative relations. For her work in bridging cultural differences, she was awarded the 2020 Simon Benson Alumni Achievement Award.

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Each week we practice love by reading our covenant together which begins with the line, "We covenant with each other as a community of Love." This Sunday, Wise Heart Pdx founder, LaShelle Lowe-Charde' invites us to explore "Love AS a practice."

LaShelle Lowe-Charde' found Wise Heart with a mission to help make a shift in consciousness about how we relate to life. She dreams of a world in which we value and thrust the quality of connection with ourselves and others as the primary way to build and maintain a thriving life for all. Learn more about her and Wise Heart at www.wiseheartpdx.org.

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Wy'east worship services and many public gatherings open with a statement acknowledging the ancestral and territorial lands of first peoples. In this lay-led service falling the day before Indigenous People's Day, we will explore the practice of land acknowledgment through the lens of personal experience and inquiry about how we move this practice from statement to action.

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The mainstreaming of psychedelic medicines, from psilocybin to MDMA to ketamine, holds promise for treating mental health conditions, easing end-of-life anxiety, and augmenting personal growth and exploration. What does this conversation offer to communities and people of faith, even those with no plans to personally try these medicines? What does this modern research and ancient wisdom tell us about consciousness, mystery, spiritual practice, and right relationship? 

Rev. Miranda Kepler (née Mickiewicz) is a UU minister and a Zen Buddhist student based in rural northwestern Oregon. She currently works offering organizational support to a Native American drug and alcohol recovery center. Mira’s training includes many years of teaching and leadership at outdoor schools and camps, a Master’s of Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry, and a residency as a hospital chaplain. She is passionate about rites of passage, trauma healing, birth and death work, and tending land and family.

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Understanding the political orders we have been through, and are now in, are crucial to getting a perspective on the future of American Democracy. The City of Portland has changed a great deal through the evolving national political order. From the New Deal and Neoliberalism, to the Presidential policies of Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Obama, and Trump, we will explore those changes with a particular focus on homelessness.

Lenny Dee is a long time Portland activist. He was instrumental in developing and passing the Portland Clean Energy Initiative. In addition, Lenny led the first campaign against Urban Renewal in Portland, played a key role in building a region-wide coalition that positively impacted regional development, and published a journal that won one hundred awards from the National Society of Professional Journalists.

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As civic life in America grows more and more polarized, many of us struggle with how to bridge the gaps in our communities and sometimes even our own families. How can we "call in" those we disagree with, rather than merely calling them out? 

Stephani Skalak is a Master of Divinity student at Meadville Lombard who is currently an Intern Minister at UUC Willamette Falls in Oregon City. In her career to date she has been an educator, an artist, and an activist. She has more than fifteen years of experience teaching media literacy and video production to youth and adults alike, encouraging them to use their voices for change. Earlier in her career, she worked for the Peace Corps both as HQ staff and as a volunteer in West Africa. Her undergraduate degree is in International Relations from The American University in Washington, DC. Stephani has experience in small group ministry within the UU tradition and has had a life-long love of learning other cultures. She lives in Portland, with her love, Mark, and their two teenage children, Kai and Seneca. 

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The second Sunday in September is the traditional date for our annual Water Communion and Ingathering, and marks the beginning of our "church year." Join us joyfully in person or virtually on Zoom and bring with you a small amount of water that represents water that was important to you this summer: water from somewhere you traveled or from your own backyard. Come, let us gather together and refresh our shared commitment to our beloved community. Service led by Wy’east member Linda Macpherson.

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This Labor Day, we'll hear from two participants in our local labor movement: Becca Ryan Roberts, crisis line worker and union leader at Lines for Life, and Hannah Sloane-Barton, long-time union activist and organizer with AFSCME. They'll share, through stories and song, about the experiences and values that led them to become union activists and about their recent successful campaign to win union representation at a local crisis nonprofit. 

Normally, the 1st Sunday Service is Multi-platform and the 2nd Sunday Service is Virtual only, but due to the Labor Day holiday, the 1st Sunday (September 4th) and 2nd Sunday (September 11th) are switching formats. 

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Description:  “Cake and Covenant”  Rev. Judy Zimmerman, with Adam Pope, celebrant. Some of us have been fortunate enough to inherit treasured recipes for baked goods. Perhaps we’ve even improved on one of those recipes, making them taste better than before. As a religious tradition where members are linked to one another by covenant, rather than creed, what might cake baking have to teach us about our faith? Our friends at Wy’east UU Congregation in Portland will join us. 

This is an online-only service. 

THIS SERVICE WILL BE AT 10:00AM, coordinating with Mid-Columbia UU’s schedule. 

Click HERE to stream the Mid-Columbia UU Fellowship Service 

To join by telephone, dial (253) 215-8782 

and enter the meeting code 767376780 

followed by the pound sign (#).

Click HERE to join our Family Service at 9:30-10:00

Meeting ID:  275 194 110 

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

Poetry is nice and all, but what is it really for? The same question might be asked about religion. Rev. Dr. Lynn Ungar, who is both a poet and a UU minister will offer her thoughts on what poetry and religion might have in common. Learn more about Lynn and her work on her website at www.lynnungar.com

The Eastrose Fellowship will be joining us for this service.

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