Sermon Archive

The 2023 UUA General Assembly took place at the end of June and Wy’east sent two delegates, Linda Macpherson & Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx.  This General Assembly featured some significant decisions that will impact our broader Unitarian Universalist faith for years to come. Join us to learn more about the proposed new Article II and the selection of a new President for the association. 

Family Worship 9:30 AM

Join Our Virtual Service Sunday at 10:30 AM

This service will be offered ONLY as a virtual service.

Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom

Meeting ID:  275 194 110

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

A covenant is a set of promises that we make to one another, in a Unitarian Universalist religious community, in light of something larger than ourselves. A covenant is a commitment to the relationships we have with one another and to making, maintaining and strengthening those relationships, a religious practice, even when and especially when times are difficult. As we make that commitment to relationship, because together we can achieve something important that we could not achieve by ourselves. Because these religious communities we form matter not only in our own lives, but in the lives of people we have never met and may not ever know.

Multi-Platform Worship Sunday at 10:30 AM

This service will be offered as BOTH a virtual and an in-person service.

Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom

Meeting ID:  275 194 110

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

Join us as we welcome the shift in season and the new beginning spirit of September – a new “church year!” The second Sunday in September is the traditional date for our annual Water Communion and Ingathering. Join us joyfully in person or virtually on Zoom with a small amount of water representing your summer or your current position on your life journey. Come, let us gather together and refresh our shared commitment to our beloved community. Service led by Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx.

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When our 3rd principle says, “encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations,” what does it mean? Does it apply only to individuals, or to the entire congregation? If Unitarian Universalism is to remain relevant, perhaps it’s time for us to embrace the spiritual discipline of love and move from a spirituality of “me” to one of “we.”

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 3rd) and 2nd Sunday (September 10th) are switching formats. Our Monthly potluck will be next Sunday – the 10th.

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A blessing is a wish of gratitude or happiness towards a person or animal or thing. In this service we will acknowledge how our lives have been blessed by our animal friends and express our happiness and gratitude that they make this so. Please invite your animal companion to attend with you or bring a photo of a beloved animal companion who is no longer with us. Rev. Leslie will share our story and lead the pet blessing. 

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From the ancient cobblestones of Palestine, whether in Gaza, the West Bank or Israel, it is one interconnected struggle for justice!

The new Palestinian generation has buried the ghosts of the past and moved on. And now, they are ready to speak and fight for themselves. Jenin, the most recent battle between Israel and a new generation of Palestinians, is just the start. And for Jews, where we stand on this issue and whether we are in solidarity with those who struggle for freedom is one of the most critical issues of our lives.

Ned Rosch was raised in an observant Jewish family that strongly identified with Zionism, and named after a great-uncle killed in the Holocaust, Ned Rosch grew up with a deep connection to Israel where he worked on a kibbutz and studied at the Hebrew University. As he developed friendships with Palestinians, he became increasingly conflicted about his Zionist upbringing and his growing understanding of the Nakba, the dispossession of 750,000 Palestinians from their land and the ensuing Palestinian struggle for liberation. He ultimately came to understand that tribal loyalty must never trump a commitment to justice. With this realization came a burning passion to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and a belief that his own liberation as a Jew will never be complete until there is justice for the Palestinian people.

Ned traveled to Gaza with Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility two months after the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza. His recollections of that experience - teaching yoga to people in refugee camps and bombed out apartment complexes who had lost loved ones and so much of their lives - are chronicled in his chapter in Stories of Personal Transformation: Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism, https://www.interlinkbooks.com/product/reclaiming-judaism-from-zionism.

Ned returned to Gaza in 2020 and hopes to go back again in September of this year.

Multi-Platform Worship Sunday at 10:30 AM

This service will be offered as BOTH a virtual and an in-person service.

Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom

Meeting ID:  275 194 110

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

(Virtual field trip to the Tri-Cities, Pasco, Washington)

One of the ways we expanded our connections during the pandemic was to share services with other area congregations. We will travel virtually on this Sunday by joining the Zoom Service of our sister congregation in the Tri-Cities -- the Community Unitarian Universalist church in Pasco, Washington

The US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has named our current social challenge as an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” He also speaks movingly about the truth that love is our birthright, and our need to rebuild our connections. We’ll explore his wisdom in this service, and also welcome back our choir after their summer break.

Join Our Virtual Service Sunday at 10:30 AM

This service will be offered ONLY as a virtual service.

Join the Zoom Meeting from the Community Unitarian Universalist Church

https://zoom.us/j/96103198990?pwd=VmtFUFgyOGIrYmdhTnJBNXNKN3lNUT09

Meeting ID: 961 0319 8990
Passcode: 450755

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It's not easy to be a Unitarian Universalist. We are the ones who move away from the well-trodden path to make our own way. Rev. Leslie will share about our roots as UUs and her own roots as a Unitarian Universalist and minister . Please come and reflect on your own path as a UU -- what holds you close and what sets you free?

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Each church year there are 4 months that have a 5th Sunday. As part of our lay ministry and to offer respite to our Worship Committee, we are using these Sundays to offer an alternative to traditional worship, our "5th-Sunday Day of Service". 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.

This month we will be supporting the Center for Positive Aging with some sprucing up and cleaning of the space we share with them. We will be meeting on the back side of the Senior Center at 10:30AM and will be doing general cleaning tasks that will be finalized early next week. Work stops at Noon. Complete details of the tasks to be performed will be posted as soon as possible. For any questions, please connect with Ron Thurston.

There will be NO Service, but please join us joyfully at the Center for Positive Aging for a morning of fellowship and service.

Ava Collopy grew up in Oregon and often attended Wy'east with her father as long as fifteen years ago. She then moved to Ireland, where her family originates from, and she currently resides in Arkansas, near other relatives. Ava has taught in Europe, and is still doing that in the southern US. Given that she is a friend of our Wy'east family who has both stayed in touch and visited, we invited her to speak on what it's like for her to live and teach where she is now, in Another America. 

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