A Month of Services

In-person worship services: Saturdays @ 4:30 pm & Sundays @ 9 & 11 am Online worship service: Sundays @ 9 am

OCTOBER 1 & 2

A VERY NARROW BRIDGE

Rev. Kelly Asprooth-Jackson, Co-Senior Minister Courage is often imagined as the absence of fear—a spirit which presses forward, heedless of any consequences. But fear can also be viewed as something to live with or even appreciate—so long as we do not let it overwhelm us. On this weekend between the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—the Days of Awe, traditionally a time of critical introspection and even a potentially healthy sort of fear—join us for a service about living with our fear and acting anyway. Linda Warren will play piano solos by Marvel, Cotter, and others.

OCTOBER 8 & 9

THE COURAGE TO HOPE

Rev. Kelly Crocker, Co-Senior Minister The poet Ellen Bass writes, “The thing is to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it....” In a world that is messy, full of contradictions, and which routinely breaks our hearts, how do we hang on to hope? Living with a sense of true hopefulness for what can be, not with a pollyanna sense of ignoring what is wrong or what needs change, yet not becoming hard or cynical, takes a great deal of courage. We will see how we can hang onto hope, together. On Saturday, Teen Choir will sing. On Sunday, Choristers and Cherub Choirs will sing.

OCTOBER 15 & 16

THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT NOTHING

Rev. Kelly Asprooth-Jackson, Co-Senior Minister Zygmunt Baumant wrote, “Most fearsome is the ubiquity of fears.” Sometimes the hardest sort of courage to recognize or to summon in ourselves is the courage to move beyond fears so common that they have become accepted. In this service, we’ll continue to explore the interplay between courage and fear, reflecting together about what fears have power over us and what we might wish to replace them with. Sacred Breath Choir of James Reeb UU and Meeting House Chorus of First Unitarian Society combine forces to sing music of Eric Whitacre and Rollo Dilworth.

OCTOBER 22 & 23

COURAGE: NEARLY 23 YEARS A UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST, IN COMMUNITY

Rev. Chris Long, Guest Worship Leader As we all continue to make sense of the world before, during, and now as Covid lives with us for some time to come, what does “courage” mean in your life and living, and here in Madison during these ever-uncertain times? Join Reverend Chris Long, and our other worship leaders, as he shares of his nearly 23 year journey being a Unitarian Universalist—a journey which began here in Madison at the James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Church.

Rev. Chris Long was born in Memphis, TN, in 1968, and became a Unitarian Universalist in 1999, here in Madison. Within five years of becoming a UU, he was called to ministry, and graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley in May 2009 and ordained by the First Unitarian Church of Oakland in June 2009. He currently serves as Minister of Congregational Life at the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge in Louisiana.

OCTOBER 29 & 30

THE DEAD WHO LIVE IN US

Revs. Kelly Crocker & Kelly Asprooth-Jackson, Co-Senior Ministers On this weekend of remembrance, when we honor All Souls Day, we reflect on those lives which, though ended, continue to shape our own. They are the stories which our own journeys serve as sequels to. This weekend we will call the names of all those members of FUS who have died in the past year and remember the names of members’ loved ones. Music for solo harp by Berkey, Kirchoff, Bligh, and Hasselmans.