Sermon Archive

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.

This is our monthly spiritual practice service with Guest Minister Rev. Stephani Skalak.

The word companion literally means “one with whom you break bread.” In November, Unitarian Universalists all over the country celebrate a “Festival of Bread” or “Bread Communion.” In doing so, they acknowledge the challah of Jewish Shabbat, the wafers of Christian Eucharist, as well as the importance of breaking bread in cultures all over the world. Humans break bread in order to offer hospitality to visitors, to offer solidarity to fellow laborers, to offer gratitude for the harvest and generosity toward neighbors, and, yes, sometimes as a sacrament. This week, we will break bread together thanks to the work of volunteer bakers from our community (let Linda M. know if you would like to be one of our baking benefactors with an email to worship@wyeastuu.org)!

Unitarian Universalists draw wisdom and guidance from various sources. UU mystics often draw upon direct experience of transcendence and personal connections to the Divine. Jessica York, Director of Congregational Life at the UUA, shares why she claims mysticism as a faith path. This service is part of the 2025-26 UUA Sermon Series and was recorded earlier this fall. 

Jessica York is the Director of Congregational Life at the Unitarian Universalist Association. Previously she was the Co-Director of Ministries and Faith Development. During her fifteen plus years as a religious educator she has served on the Liberal Religious Educators Association’s Integrity Team, the MidSouth District’s RE Committee, and the MidSouth District Board, and as an advisor for the Birmingham Alliance of Gay, Straight, Bisexual, Questioning and Transgender Youth. She is the author of the Tapestry of Faith programs Signs of Our Faith and Virtue Ethics, and she is co-author of Bridging: A Handbook for Congregations, Creating Home, and Sharing the Journey: Small Group Ministry with Youth. She currently lives in her native Birmingham, Alabama.
 

First-Sunday Monthly Potluck after Service!

Cultivate Initiatives is an East Portland nonprofit walking alongside neighbors navigating houselessness to move from survival to stability. Through three core pillars—Workforce Development, Housing & Homemaking, and Supportive Sheltering—we offer low-barrier support like paid work opportunities, showers and hygiene, housing navigation, and safe village communities. Rooted in East Portland/East Multnomah County, our team (many with lived experience) builds trust, dignity, and real pathways to jobs and long-term housing—so every neighbor can find belonging, purpose, and hope close to home.

Ryan Saari is the Director of Development and Relationships at Cultivate Initiatives, a nonprofit in East Portland working alongside marginalized neighbors to build stability, dignity, and opportunity. Drawing on a background in community organizing, storytelling, and relationship-building, Ryan leads fundraising, donor engagement, and partnership development to sustain and grow CI’s impact. Ryan is passionate about connecting people—housed and unhoused alike—through creative initiatives that foster belonging, hope, and long-term community transformation.
 

Special Collection: Cultivate Initiatives

Multi-Platform Worship (both in-person & online)

Sunday at 10:30 AM

Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom

Meeting ID:  275 194 110

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833

Throughout history humans all over the world have included their ancestors in their spiritual practice. This week we are going to reflect upon the gifts and burdens we share with our own ancestors. You are invited to bring a small object for our temporary altar that represents your ancestor(s); when choosing, please feel free to consider familial ancestors, community/cultural ancestors, or spiritual ancestors. 

Multi-Platform Worship (both in-person & online)

Sunday at 10:30 AM

Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom

Meeting ID:  275 194 110

Phone In:  (669) 900-6833