Sermons- Guests

Guest Sermons

Wisdom from Our UU College Students - January 22, 2006
     Impermanence (Karen Spangler)
     Lessons from College (Erika Malinoski)
     Finding Self Compassion (Maia Dedrick)

Out From the Ashes (Laura W. Spencer, DRE) - August 21, 2005 (Download MP3 file, about 8 MB)

In Egyptian mythology the phoenix is a bird that lived in the desert for 500 years and then consumed itself by fire, later to rise renewed from its ashes. In all of our lives we at some time confront a time when we too find ourselves surrounded by the ashes of our dreams and must renew ourselves and rise again. Whether it occurs due to a crisis or through normal life passages and transitions our approach and focus can have a significant impact on how we carry forth.

Around the Disco Ball: Lessons from our Universalist Heritage (Laura W. Spencer, DRE) - Aug 10, 2003

Our Unitarian Universalist faith was created by the merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America. Often it is the Unitarian side of our history that gets the better press. But our Universalist side has much to offer, much for us to be proud of, and many lessons to teach us.

Listening for God (Laura W. Spencer, DRE) - Aug 25, 2002

Either the inclusion of God talk or the omission of it can cause static in our
conversations around truth meaning making it hard for us to hear and hard for
us to be heard. Like the guy in the cell phone commercials who says "Can
you hear me now?" we may feel that our conversation is getting garbled.

'Tis a Gift to be Simple...If You Can Unwrap The Package (Sonya Montana)

To simplify life seems to be a remarkably complex task. To understand life seems to be a puzzle. To know how to live seems to be an elusive and ambiguous quest.

Living In A Shifting Reality (J. W. Gilmore)

I had a dream one night about a Goddess. This was very strange considering that I was a dedicated Pentecostal at the time and didn't even know that there was any such thing as a Goddess. In my church everything was male. The only place that females existed was on earth, and in the animal kingdom. They were something only created for males on the material plane, and were not beings that existed on the heavenly, spiritual plane.

Black and White (Laura Spencer)

We all have our own unique perspective on life. We each have different families, experiences, feelings, values, dreams or aspirations. We each bring with us a different set of background information. All of these things influence who we are, what we believe to be true and how we behave. I am a member of the racial group we call Afro-american. I am also part of the group called biracial. My views on race or any other issue are mine and not those of either group as a whole. I nor any other member of either group can profess to speak for all members of that group, just as your opinion is your own and does not represent all in your race. What I may have to say has value in that it adds another piece of information to your information base. In the same way your opinion and attitudes can add to mine. The dialogue between people of different races, religions, nationalities, or any other grouping can then only help to build a sense of understanding of humanity in general. We can find a way to live together as we must ultimately do in one way or another. I believe that we are all tied together on this earth. What we each do or choose not to do may effect a far wider scope than we can imagine. It is in this framework that I share how I became aware of race and developed my understanding of its influence and importance.

Why I Want To Be a Unitatian Universalist Minister (Valerie Mapstone Ackerman)

This is a harder question to answer than I thought it would be. As I first mused over what I might say, I thought, "well I certainly know the answer to that question - piece of cake." But as I have pondered more, I realized that it is not so easy to put down in a few paragraphs what is in my heart and on my mind and moving in my spirit as I have undertaken this journey.

What is Right with the Right (Valerie Mapstone Ackerman )

I was once a member of the Right to Life and Operation Rescue.
Well, not really a full member, but rather a spy for Planned Parenthood. I attended meetings, participated in trainings, got onto mailing lists. I wanted to find out what was going on, to keep tabs on the anti-abortion activities.