Monthly Ministry Theme

We explore the monthly themes during worship and religious exploration, in Journaling Circle and in Soul Connections small ministry groups.

For more info on Soul Connections, click here.

The 2022-23 themes invite us to explore the question: What paths must we lean into and relearn as we travel together into our complex, challenging, and hoped for future? Each theme will lift up a particular spiritual path crucial to helping us birth a ‘new normal’ worthy of our hopes. The monthly themes invite us to explore The Path of…

  • September: Belonging
  • October: Courage
  • November: Change
  • December: Wonder
  • January: Finding Our Center
  • February: Love
  • March: Vulnerability
  • April: Resistance
  • May: Creativity
  • June: Delight
  • The Path of Vulnerability

    It may be that when we no longer know what to do
    we have come to our real work,
    and that when we no longer know which way to go
    we have come to our real journey.
    The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
    The impeded stream is the one that sings.

    ~ Wendell Berry

    This month is a tricky one for us UUs. Let’s be honest. Berry’s celebration of vulnerability and limits is just not our thing. We are, after ...

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  • The Path of Love

    The path of love.
    It began from the beginning,
    for most of us.
    Came in the form of family.
    A bloodline that brought us into being,
    and at its best, allowed us to bloom.
    Then sent us on our way with courage,
    and a reminder tucked into the pocket
    of our heart
    which read, “You can always return,
    no matter what.”

    Its shape then shifted, showing up as friends
    who helped us feel seen
    and sung our song back to us
    when we could not hear it
    with our ears alone.

    Then ...

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  • The Path of Finding Our Center

    When we talk of finding our center, it’s natural for calm and rest to be the first things that come to mind. Who would expect anything different? After all, the need for calm is everywhere we look. So, so many of us are tired. We’re overworked, over-busy, over-committed, overly scared. We are often so weighed down by responsibility and worry that it only takes one drop of something unexpected to tip us over. So, yes, we long for rest. Yes, we want to swirl to stop.

    And yet, helping us find peace and calm is ...

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  • The Path of Wonder

    This seems to me the main problem… How can we contrive to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home in it?… How can this world give us at once the fascination of a strange town and the comfort and honor of being our own town?

    – G.K. Chesterton

    The path of wonder seems well worn. It’s a journey that brings us down to size. Just think of those pictures which reveal that our galaxy is just one of billions more. Or think of when you’ve stared into the empty darkness of ...

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  • The Path of Change

    I wonder, particularly in a time where everything seems urgent, what the role of pause and breath is, in this season, to help us gear up for whatever this transformational moment we find ourselves in is.

    ~ Rev. Jen Bailey

    is to allow you space and time to reflect on your past, present, and future. To imagine a new beginning.

    ~ Rev. ...

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  • The Path of Courage

    Courage doesn’t always roar.

    ~ Mary Anne Radmacher

    Courageous people change the world. So many examples of that this month. October’s celebration of LGBTQ+ history month reminds us of the many who bravely moved (and continue to move) our world toward greater acceptance and affirmation. The revolutionary prophet of peace, Mohandas Gandhi, was born on October 2. Our Christian friends celebrate Reformation Day and Martin Luther’s courage that changed how we all think about religious authority. We rightly honor such giants. The problem is most of us aren’t that tall.

    Or are ...

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  • The Path of Belonging

    September 2022

    You hardly knew
    how hungry you were
    to be gathered in,
    to receive the welcome
    that invited you to enter
    entirely…
    You began to breathe again…
    You learned to sing.

    But the deal with this blessing
    is that it will not leave you alone,
    will not let you linger…
    this blessing
    will ask you to leave,
    not because it has tired of you
    but because it desires for you
    to become the sanctuary
    that you have found…

    – Jan Richardson

    Richardson begins with hunger. And so do we. Just saying ...

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