Sermon Archive

Falling in Love with a Wounded World: How Poetry Can Help Us in Dark Times - Paulann Peterson (Virtual Visit to Eastrose UU Fellowship)

Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate Emerita, will—using a handful of poems—talk about the role of poetry in these fraught times, how poetry can help us grapple with the crises and catastrophes that seem to be daily occurrences now.

Watch the live stream of this service on Sunday, July 24th at 10:30 on YouTube and then join Wy’east for a post service social hour on our usual Zoom Link (around 11:30).

Click HERE to stream the Eastrose Service Live on YouTube 

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

Meeting ID:  275 194 110 

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

Click here to join the virtual post-service social hour on Zoom

Meeting ID:  275 194 110

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

Taylor Stewart graduated from the University of Portland in 2018 with a degree in Communication and a Master’s in Social Work from Portland State University in 2021. Taylor started the Oregon Remembrance Project in 2018 to help communities unearth stories of injustice and engage in the necessary truth telling and repair required to reconcile instances of historical harm. His work connects historical racism to its present-day legacies in order to inspire contemporary racial justice action. In what started as simply a way to memorialize a man named Alonzo Tucker, the most widely documented African American victim of lynching in Oregon, Taylor has grown to see the power of reconciliation to rectify further instances of historical injustice. “How do you reconcile a lynching?” applies the three r’s of reconciliation -- remembrance, repair, and redemption -- to the lynching of Alonzo Tucker. After working with the community of Coos Bay, OR on remembrance, Taylor invites his audience to join him in repair to help bring a semblance of redemptive justice to the lynching of Alonzo Tucker.

Multi-Platform Worship Sunday at 10:30:

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

Listen to the Sermon

Using laughter as a way to remain optimistic and available through the ups and downs of life, Linda Kalb Hamm, M.Ed. will share how Laughter Yoga can lead to a path of good health, mindfulness and service.

Linda Kalb Hamm is a certified Laughter Yoga teacher and leads groups in the Sacramento area and around the world.  She is an entrepreneur, teacher, and artist residing near Sacramento, CA.

She can be contacted here: Laughing My Angst Off: Laughter Yoga

Listen to the sermon

Our annual tradition of gathering in a park the first Sunday in July continues with our July 3rd Interdependence Day Picnic. This joyful in-person gathering is in lieu of our usual Sunday Worship Service. We will not be meeting virtually this Sunday.

The picnic will be at Creston Park (Area D) from 10:30 - 1:00. As is our tradition, this will be in lieu of our usual Sunday virtual gathering. Please bring your own picnic and supplies such as chairs, blankets, etc. Please bring a mask and be respectful of the needs of others and be ready to put on your mask and social distance as needed.  

There will be no regular worship this Sunday.

The largest annual gathering of UUs joining in worship is happening in Portland! All are welcome to join in person at the Oregon Convention Center (details below) but if you would prefer you can join this powerful, communal worship experience virtually. It will stream on Sunday, June 26, 2022 at 9:30 Pacific. Join fellow Wy’east members and friends for a virtual post service coffee hour around 11:00am.

Click Here to Stream the Virtual Worship

Click Here to Join the Virtual Post-service Social Hour

Meeting ID:  275 194 110

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

Members of the public are welcome to view the service. In-person attendance to this service will be complimentary and open to visitors who are fully vaccinated and who are pre-registered no later than 24 hours in advance.

In my last sermon as your half-time minister, I’ll tell a Father’s Day story and reflect on just what it is that I’ve been trying to help us all build at Wy’east for the past six years.  

Multi-Platform Worship Sunday at 10:30:

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

Click here to RSVP for the in-person service at the Community for Positive Aging (1820 NE 40th Ave). You must RSVP to attend in person

Democracy, Alive!

Governance, often and unfortunately used interchangeably with democracy, is a vibrant, multidimensional practice of how communities make decisions about their communities. Governance practices and structures can tell someone  about a community's agreements, values, boundaries and goals. In this worshipful space, let's imagine systems of governance that echo equity, care and imagination. 

Sara Green here—your youth and young adults program manager. I am a southern, cis/queer/poly, Black femme minister living near Nashville, TN. I imagine liberation/salvation/beloved community as communities that have the ability to eat good food together, experience pleasure in our bodies and regularly put their hands in soil—all the while free from fear and violence by way of all of the cultural and legal changes that must happen in order for this world to exist. I understand myself as part of a legacy of cultural workers, healers, maroons and creoles, southern queer freedom fighters and artists trying to shape god. And I feel so blessed to be doing this work now. Learn more about Sara and her work on her website: https://www.theosophiapodcast.com/

Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom

Meeting ID:  275 194 110

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

Rev. Moro will share that secret with you this morning, to the best of his ability. But he’ll also have the help of both the philosopher Plutarch and a famous comic-book “guru” from the 1960’s and 70’s. Please be sure to share this secret later with anyone who misses out today!

Multi-Platform Worship Sunday at 10:30:

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

Click here to RSVP for the in-person service at the Community for Positive Aging (1820 NE 40th Ave). You must RSVP to attend in person

We will travel virtually to the Mid-Columbia UU congregation in Hood River this Sunday for a collaborative service exploring our faith’s complicated relationship with Memorial Day. This lay-led service will feature live music from Nancy & Ray Brungard of CUUC (Pasco) and contributions from members of Wy’east, Eastrose and Mid-Columbia. Please note the special zoom link for this service.

Virtual Worship Sunday at 10:30 - hosted by Mid-Columbia UU in Hood River

This service will have a special zoom link: Click Here to Join

To join by telephone, dial (253) 215-8782 and enter the meeting code
767376780 followed by the pound sign

(this service is hosted by Mid-Columbia UU Fellowship, therefore a recording will not be available)

Wy’east UU is a “Welcoming Congregation” and our commitment to this program calls on us to put this promise into action.  One of the five practices of renewing our pledge to this program is to dedicate worship services that uplift themes of LGBTQ+ / TGQNB* welcome and inclusion. Wy’east members and a special guest will explore the connections between action and environment when it comes to being welcoming.

In addition, we will be holding our annual special collection for our Sustained Partnership with the Q Center.  Ian Morton, Executive Director of the Q Center, will give us an update on the Q Center's current work and operations.  

*TGQNB stands for Transgender, Genderqueer, and Non-Binary

Listen to the Service

The special guest at this service was the showing of a short documentary film created by two Franklin High School Seniors named Finn Zelinsky and Avi Israel-Davis. This film was not captured as part of our recording of the sermon, but is available for viewing here:  https://youtu.be/AI6jT0HmnGM