Sermon Archive
"Sustaining Our Vision to Flourish Together" Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx, Wy'east UU Minister
We gather to celebrate the contribution that Wy’east UU Congregation makes to our members and wider community and to ensure that we bring our support to sustain its health and vibrancy.
We will explore Equity, the final value from the proposed updates to our Unitarian Universalist Association’s bylaws, where it describes equity as follows:
“We declare that every person has the right to flourish with inherent dignity and worthiness.
We covenant to use our time, wisdom, attention, and money to build and sustain fully accessible and inclusive communities.”
First-Sunday Monthly Potluck after Service!
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
"5th-Sunday Day of Service” Project Details To be Announced
Each church year there are 4-5 months that have a 5th Sunday. As part of our lay-led ministry, we use 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.
We fulfilled our Day of Service Act by assembling Easter Baskets a bit early on March 17th in order to be presented for their Easter Dinner!
There will be NO regular service (either in-person or online) this Sunday
Please enjoy your Easter!
"Something Judges Us, Something Accepts Us” Rev. Bruce Bode
You are perfect the way you are … and you could use a little improvement,” writes Japanese Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki. Rev. Bruce Bode explores our interior sense of being both judged and accepted. This sermon was originally recorded in July 2023 at University Unitarian Church in Seattle, WA and is a second offering this month on our theme of “Transformation.”
Rev. Bruce A. Bode is Minister Emeritus at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (QUUF) in Port Townsend, Washington, from which he retired in 2018 as the Senior Minister after serving the congregation for fourteen years (2004-2018). Before coming to Port Townsend, Rev. Bode was the Interim Minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Texas (2002-2004) and the Hope Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma (2001-2002). Prior to that, he served for twenty-two years (1978-2001) as an Associate Minister at the Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a large, independent, religiously liberal congregation.
Family Service at 9:30 AM
Online (Zoom) Only Worship
Sunday at 10:30 AM
Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom
Meeting ID: 275 194 110
Phone In: (669) 900-6833
"Guarding Water Resources from the Impact of Climate Change” Speaker: Dr. Heejun Chang
As part of our Social Justice Focus on the “Climate Crisis,” Dr. Heejun Chang will talk about the combined impacts of climate change and urbanization on water resources, focusing on runoff, floods, and water quality. Drawing from case studies in the Pacific Northwest, he will show who is disproportionately exposed to climate-related hazards and explore how land-based management (including nature-based solutions) could potentially reduce the negative impacts of climate change on water resources.
Dr. Heejun Chang is a Professor of Geography and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Portland State University. He obtained a PhD in Geography from Penn State in 2001. Chang oversees college-wide research initiatives and collaborations and graduate programs. Working with diverse community partners, he has led transdisciplinary water research from a coupled natural and human system lens across the Pacific in studying future climate change impacts on water quantity and quality, flood and drought hazards, and water-related ecosystem services. Professor Chang has published over 170 peer-reviewed manuscripts with over 10,000 citations by Google Scholar. His pioneering engaged research has been recognized by the American Association of Geographers’ E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Award, AAG Fellow, and the Reuters Hot List of the world's top 1000 climate scientists.
Special Collection: ECO - Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors (www.ecologyoutdoors.org)
Listen to the Service Recording
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
Re-Imagining: Climate Justice from Side with Love
Side With Love is thrilled to announce 30 Days of Love 2024, their annual month of spiritual nourishment, political grounding, and shared practices of faith and justice. This year’s 30 Days of Love is a gift to our whole community: a love letter, a warm hug, a spiritual balm for all of the individuals, families, religious professionals, partners and communities that embody our values and work for justice and liberation year round. Each week will feature a spiritual theme overlapping with one of Side With Love’s intersectional justice priorities, and we'll share an array of offerings to help nourish your spirit and give gratitude and affirmation. This Sunday we will share from week 2: Re-Imagining: Climate Justice.
Family Service at 9:30 AM
Listen to the Service Recording Here
Online (Zoom) Only Worship
Sunday at 10:30 AM
Click here to join the virtual service on Zoom
Meeting ID: 275 194 110
Phone In: (669) 900-6833
"Transformation: embracing our full humanity” Speaker: Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx
The value that we will be exploring this month is Transformation, which the proposed Article II defines as:
"We adapt to the changing world. We covenant to collectively transform and grow spiritually and ethically. Openness to change is fundamental to our Unitarian and Universalist heritages, never complete and never perfect."
The call toward transforming ourselves from who we currently are into who we want to be comes with an embedded assumption that there is something wrong with us in our current state. In this service, we will consider how transformative it can be to approach transformation from a place of acceptance and compassion, rather than with blame, shame and judgment.
First-Sunday Monthly Potluck after Service!
Listen To the Service Recording
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
"Begin Again in Love: Practicing Covenant”, Beth Casebolt
CRE, UUA Congregational Life Staff in the Central East Region
Ours is a covenantal faith, and what binds us together are the promises we make. Just as we periodically spend time looking at our personal lives making promises to ourselves, we should also look at our promises to each other and to the communities we are a part. This service includes a reflection on covenant from Beth Casebolt, a Credentialed Religious Education (CRE) and the Operations Manager & Communications Consultant for the Central East Region of the UUA. Learn more about Beth at www.uua.org/people/beth-casebolt. We will also spend some time in this service reflecting together on the covenant we speak in each of our services and how we practice it.
Family Service at 9:30 AM
Listen to the Service Recording
Online (Zoom) Only Worship
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 Call to Heal the River", Candice Jimenez & Cassie Cohen, Portland Harbor Community Coalition
Learn about Native and Indigenous perspectives in relation to healing water, as well as hearing about ways to support a locally-based environmental justice group, Portland Harbor Community Coalition, in advocating for the cleanup and restoration of the Willamette River (Wa' lúmt).
Candice Jimenez (she/her) is a tribal citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (Wasco, Warm Springs, Paiute), Yakama and Wintun peoples of the Pacific Northwest. She joined the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board in 2013 where she supports public health policy and advocacy efforts as led by Northwest tribes; a framework rooted in tribal community values and traditional ways of knowing. As a community member, Candice values the collective expertise and lived experiences that center collaboration across land, language, culture, access and ability — a space that honors amplifying indigenous community voices in equitable policy development and collective action in wellness and healthcare, public health, and the environment.
Cassie Cohen (she/her) grew up in the Portland metro area, with a deep ties to nature. She didn't understand why she and her family were disconnected from the Willamette River until she learned about its complicated environmental condition. She serves in the executive director role for Portland Harbor Community Coalition. She has over 15 years experience working in nonprofit, education, and in the public sector. From 2009-2015, she led Groundwork Portland, an environmental justice organization led by and serving communities of color, during which time they formed the Portland Harbor Community Coalition, to bring impacted communities together to heal the Willamette River.
Special Collection: Portland Harbor Community Coalition
Listen to the Service Recording
Multi-Platform Worship (both in-person & online)
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
"Unitarian Universalism: the Good Parts Version”, Rev. Phillip Lund, UU Minister
Congregational Life Consultant for the Mid-America Region of the UUA
When we meet someone new, we often try to make a good impression by sharing the best of ourselves. The same holds true when we first share with someone the story of our faith. However, we need to move beyond the “good parts version” of Unitarian Universalism if we are going to build the beloved community.
Rev. Lund has twenty years experience serving congregations in the areas of faith formation and spiritual growth, first as a religious educator in Bloomington, Indiana, New York City, and Chicago, Illinois, and most recently as a congregational life consultant working for the MidAmerica Region of the Unitarian Universalist Association. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago and a certificate in InterSpiritual Counseling from One Spirit Learning Alliance in New York.
Family Service at 9:30 AM
" Interdependence: Practicing Mutual Care and Respect”, Rev. Leslie Becknell Marx
The value we will be exploring this month is Interdependence, which is described this way:
"We honor the interdependent web of all existence. With reverence for the great web of life and with humility, we acknowledge our place in it.
We covenant to protect Earth and all beings from exploitation. We will create and nurture sustainable relationships of care and respect, mutuality and justice. We will work to repair harm and damaged relationships."
In this service, we will explore what it means to live with a deep honoring of our interdependence with all human beings, all living beings, and all of the natural world. How do we recognize that each of us is completely unique and also part of a larger interdependent whole? How then do we live in relationship with all the other unique beings recognizing our interconnectedness and mutual responsibility for the wellbeing of all?
First-Sunday Monthly Potluck after Service!
Listen to the Service Recording
Multi-Platform Worship (both in-person & online)
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