A MONTH OF SERVICES

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

Online worship service: Sundays @ 9 am

Summer Schedule: In-Person & Online Sundays @ 10 am

MAY 6 & 7 TRANSCENDING MYSTERY AND WONDER

Our tradition has a deep vein of skepticism running through it. We lift up reason as one of our spiritual values, and value the insights of science. At the same time, mystical experience and an openness to wonder that we cannot neatly explain is also very much a part of our lineage as Unitarian Universalists. How can we resolve this contradiction? Or is it a contradiction at all? This weekend will include New Member Recognition ceremonies at all three services, and a Child Dedication on Sunday at 9 am. Music this week is “Choir’s Choice!” For their final worship service of the program year, the singers of Meeting House Chorus have chosen their favorite anthems from the year: Mark Miller’s “Draw the Circle Wide,” Bobby McFerrin’s “The 23rd Psalm (Dedicated to my Mother),” our own Drew Collins’s choral arrangement of Jim Scott’s “The Oneness of Everything,” and Jason Shelton’s choral arrangement of “Blue Boat Home.”

MAY 13 @ 4:30 PM COMING OF AGE SERVICE

This annual rite of passage celebrates the accomplishments and learnings of our Coming of Age youth who spend the year learning about Unitarian Universalism, their own beliefs about faith, and its place in their lives. This service is their own beautiful creation, representing the journey they have been on together and they will be sharing their growth through words and music. We hope you will join us in this recognition and celebration of our Coming of Age youth.

MAY 14 @ 9 & 11 AM THIS I BELIEVE

This weekend when we listen to the Coming of Age youth share their belief statements with the congregation, we recognize that what is good for youth—having to think about and share what they believe at the moment—is also good for adults. This service will celebrate this truth by featuring members of the FUS community sharing what they believe. Music this week is “Choir’s Choice!” For their final worship service of the program year, the singers of Society Choir choose their favorite anthems from the year to sing again. Hear Aaron Copland’s “At the River,” Eric Whitacre’s “Sing Gently,” Andre Thomas’s setting of Langston Hughes’s “I Dream a World,” and Johann Geissler’s “The Fruit of the Spirit is Love.”

MAY 20 & 21

100 YEARS OF FLOWERS: CELEBRATING THE CENTENNIAL OF THE FLOWER CEREMONY

The first Flower Ceremony was held in Prague, in June 1923, led by Rev. Norbert Čapek. For decades, this beloved tradition and its powerful history have provided meaning to hundreds of UU congregations. This ritual which celebrates beauty, human uniqueness, diversity, and community, also celebrates our partnership with the Transylvanian Unitarian parish of Nagyajta. Through story and song and the exchanging of flowers, we will honor the radical act of getting to know one another and recognizing the beauty to be found in relationship. Please bring a flower or two to share with another. On Saturday, the Teen Choir will sing. On Sunday, Cherub Choir and Choristers will sing.

MAY 28 @ 10 AM*

THE JOY & POWER OF CREATIVITY: A SERVICE FOR ALL AGES

We all know what it feels like to be creative. Some say that it is the power of creativity that makes us human. The ancients believed that the creative impulse was a sacred and magical force for us to interact with to find meaning and purpose in our days. We feel depleted when creativity falls out of our reach. So why don’t we seek it out more? We will explore some ways to pull the creative impulse back into our reach experiencing the blessing creativity brings into our lives.

*This begins our summer schedule of one service per weekend, Sunday morning at 10 am. Our regular program year schedule will resume the weekend of September 9 & 10, 2023.

May

May, and among the miles of leafing, blossoms storm out of the darkness— windflowers and moccasin flowers. The bees dive into them and I too, to gather their spiritual honey. Mute and meek, yet theirs is the deepest certainty that this existence too— this sense of well-being, the flourishing of the physical body—rides near the hub of the miracle that everything is a part of, is as good as a poem or a prayer, can also make luminous any dark place on earth.

Mary Oliver, 1983