Recent Services
"The Ability to Achieve Purpose"
Reverend Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
1/19/2025
The power to direct our lives and achieve our goals is essential to spiritual health. Where can we find our power? The life and work of Martin Luther King provide three answers. Natural gifts give power when matched to appropriate work. Faith gives power when we align our lives with divine aims. Righteous causes give power when inspiring dreams call us to action.
"Your Life is a Garden"
Lay Led
1/12/2025
"Your Life is a Garden" is a heartfelt exploration of personal growth, resilience, and spirituality. This message invites you to examine the conditions that either foster or hinder their growth and is an inspiring call to cultivate patience, create supportive environments, and trust the process of becoming.
"Who Am I, Really?"
Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
1/5/2025
It's easier toward the end of life to see that what we call the self is widely changeable. I'm not the person I was as a child, or teen, or young adult. My self becomes more stable as I age, but perhaps I've just given up exploring and experimenting out of laziness or have learned to accept a version of myself grown comfortable by habit. How, if I found him, would I recognize the me I was born to be?
“Faithfully Flexible"
Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
12/29/2024
The history of Hanukkah tells of people so committed to their faith that they went to battle rather than bend. Their choice is inspiring. But often we do choose to let go of cherished commitments. And sometimes letting go is the better, and even the more religiously principled, choice.
“The Christmas Story"
Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
12/22/2024
Of course it's just a story: no star, no manger, no trip to Bethlehem, no angel. But the magic and meaning isn't lost by calling it what it is: a story. Rather, the story communicates something the truth never could. Christmas isn't less because it's a story; if it weren't a good story, it wouldn't be Christmas.
“Welcome to Bethlehem” Nativity Pageant
Lay Led
12/15/2024
“Joy to the World”
Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
12/08/2024
Merry. Happy. Glad tidings. Comfort and joy. The words of the season, speak to the aspect of the spiritual life that should be filled with fun and pleasure. As the darkness turns to light with the solstice, may our spirits also turn to that which should be the goal of life in every season: joy.
“Compassion”
Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
12/01/2024
Buddhism's First Noble Truth declares the truth of suffering. Buddha's enlightenment revealed an eight-fold path that we can follow to end our suffering, our own suffering, that is, but not the suffering of others. Everyone must do the work for themselves. And so, as suffering persists, for others and ourselves, as well, we are called to compassion.
“Enough is as Good as a Feast”
Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
11/24/2024
The earth's abundance is the glory of autumn. Materialism advertises its delights, tempting us with more, more, more, but never satisfying our desire. Spiritual health recognizes not only the limits of the planet to give, but our own limits to receive with equanimity.
“Transgender Day of Remembrance”
Ru-Lee Passman-Green
11/17/2024
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. Our service today is meant to remember and honor the lives of transgender people whose lives were lost in the past year. We will say their names, show photos, and give you a bit of biographical information that we have gleaned. We’ll also have readings, music, a sermon, and other tributes brought to you by members of our Welcoming Congregation Committee.
“Some Gave All”
Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
11/10/2024
Spiritual health asks us to put aside self-interest for the good of others. A principle of our faith is that others are persons of worth as much as we are. Self-sacrifice, though, can sometimes ask us to value the lives of others more than we value ourselves, or put abstractions like honor or nation above actual human lives. Our Veterans deserve more than thanks; they deserve a careful calibration of the mark where virtue turns to tragedy.
“For Better or Worse”
Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
11/03/2024
Without exaggeration, this Tuesday's election may be the most significant any of us will ever participate in. Come next year, the consequences will be great. But it's also true that whichever way the results come out, we will remain a nation divided and with our democracy in peril. Whichever candidate takes the oath of office on January 20, our task will be the same: to remember we are citizens of the United States.
“To Be... Continued”
Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
10/27/2024
Whether this mortal life is all there is of us or if our personal experience continues in some fashion after our physical death is one of the central mysteries of existence. The play of Halloween and the celebration of Dia de Los Muertos, release our anxiety about the mystery of death but don’t resolve it. Neither do the certainties of the religious answers satisfy. And so we live, and in choosing how we live, imply our answer.
“Living Through the Practice of Invitation”
Lay Led
10/20/2024
We Unitarian Universalists pride ourselves on welcoming everyone. We affirm that people of all races and orientations are welcome here; we often state it on our website and display the rainbow symbol of pride and celebration. But what does it mean to “Live Love Through the Practice of Invitation”? We will share a sermon called “Setting a Place for Elijah,” which illustrates what it really means to be a place of welcome for all people.
“Past and Future”
Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
10/13/2024
As we mark our congregation's 81st year and the beginning of our 82nd, I wonder what we owe the past. With a present full of excitement and action, and a future open to whatever our vision calls us to be, is the past simply over, or do our founders and members from decades ago still have a claim on us? Perhaps the answer appears when we consider how we hope the future church will speak of us when we are "past" ourselves?
“Sin and Forgiveness”
Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
10/06/2024
The language of sin is foreign to the positive and encouraging faith of Unitarian Universalism. But the High Holy Days remind us that we all stray occasionally from the ideal selves we can imagine and hope to be. To deny our transgressions would be to suffer yet one more transgression against the ideal. Instead, the healthy spiritual path is to recognize where we and others fall short, and, admitting our imperfection, ask for and offer forgiveness
“Climate Revival”
Lay Led
09/29/2024
Join us for a special service as part of the larger UU Climate Revival as we grow together, ushering in a new era with love and justice at the center of our climate actions. We will be remembering our love for earth, air, fire, water. We will be tapping into our love for people, especially those first and most impacted by climate disruption. We will be celebrating all of creation and recommitting our care and protection.