Service Leaders: Rev. Kurt Kuhwald, Aphrodite Bellochio,

Music by: Sadie Sonntag & the Choir, Roger Corman

Share the Basket: Breakfast For Our Neighbors

There is a new and exciting story emerging about what it means to grow into our 60’s, 70’s and beyond.  Counter to the ageist narrative dominating our society, many elders are claiming an emboldened empowerment of spirit, intellect and humanity. Aging consciously, Elders are creating a global movement that benefits all ages, transforming our very understanding of the human journey.

Bio:

Rev. Kurt A. Kuhwald has served 7 congregations and 3 Community Ministries as a UU minister.  Working with a community of active and conscious elders in the North and East SF Bay Area, he is excited about the emerging vision of elders because it offers a new story of human development and transformation for these challenging times.  He is Co-facilitator of an Elder Salon in Oakland 

Service Leaders: Rev. Chris Bell, Cathy Read

Music by: Susan Panttaja & the UUsual Suspects, Roger Corman

Share the Basket: BLUU: The Black Lives of UU

 

America has so many diverse cultures within it that it can leave us reeling as people at times, as we strive to transform our land away from the supremacy of white people toward the supremacy of all good people. It’s impossible to be even vaguely “competent” about all our differences, but a little self-awareness about our own culture, and curiosity about others, goes a long way toward building the Beloved Community.

Service Leaders: Rev. Chris Bell, Andrew Hidas

Music by: Sadie Sonntag & the Choir, Nancy Hiyashibara

Share the Basket: The California Physicians Alliance

On the other hand, there is an argument to be made against humility, per se, if it keeps a person from expressing their true self, or fulfilling their destiny, or contributes to their oppression. We’ll hear from Nietzsche, and Muhammad Ali, and Nancy Hayashibara as we try to find the middle way of maximum happiness, helpfulness and humility.

Service Leaders: Rev. Chris Bell, Joe Gabaeff, Deb Mason
Music by: Robert Howseman & the UUsual Suspects, Roger Corman
Share the Basket: The Peace and Justice Center

The theme of the month of March is humility. We’ll begin our series by considering the vital role of failure, and our response to it, in our social and spiritual development as individuals and as a people. Sometimes you’ve got to be dragged all the way down in order to find the way up.

Service Leaders: Rev. Chris Bell, Scott Miller, Deb Mason
Music by: Sadie Sonntag & the Choir, Roger Corman
Share the Basket: Breakfast for our Neighbors

The final line of our Covenant calls us “to keep our focus on our Mission,” which, as everyone knows, is to “celebrate life, empower people, care for one another, and help to build a better world.” We’ll look most closely at the challenges and rewards of keeping our focus in an era of the briefest spans of attention, and discuss how that can make both our individual souls, and our community, stronger and more resilient.

Service Leaders: Rev. Chris Bell, Aphrodite Bellochio, Deb Mason
Music by: Eric Skagerberg & the UUsual Suspects, Roger Corman
Share the Basket: Fence at the Top

Our Covenant next calls us “to acknowledge our shortcomings and be quick to forgive them in others.” It is impossible to have loving relationships without the capacity to forgive, and forgiveness is necessary for health, but it is not an easy task. Facing our own shortcomings can be frightening, and granting forgiveness is frequently much easier than asking for it. And just how quick is “quick,” anyway? Today we’ll consider this profoundly liberating practice and its challenges.

Service Leaders: Rev. Chris Bell, Sharon McCarty, Deb Mason
Music by: Sadie Sonntag & the Choir, Roger Corman
Share the Basket: Senior Advocacy Services

The second and third lines of the UUCSR Covenant call us “to welcome and respect divergent opinions and beliefs” and “to listen to one another with open hearts and minds.” The importance of such a practice, and the cost of not pursuing it, is as clear as the next morning’s headline from Washington, D.C., but we’ll keep the inquiry closer to home. How are we doing in really welcoming divergent opinions? And, divergent from what?

Service Leaders: Rev. Chris Bell, Eric Fischer

Today we’ll begin a month of close examination of our Congregational Covenant as an expression of love and as a tool for becoming spiritually awake.

Service Leaders: Rev. Lindi Ramsden, Susan Panttaja, Deb Mason
Music by: Sadie Sonntag & the Choir, Roger Corman

In an era of profound change in so many aspects of our lives, what will our ministry be?  How can we cultivate the ground of justice? A good farm builds soil over generations, yet also knows the urgency of the harvest.  Justice too, requires the long view, and powerful work in the ripe moment. 

 

Guest minister: Rev. Lindi Ramsden, Director of Partnerships and Emerging Programs at Starr King School for the Ministry.

Service Leaders: Rev. Chris Bell, Izzy Fischer, Deb Mason
Music by: Robin Rogers & the UUsual Suspects, Roger Corman

The issue that won the greatest support at the North Bay Organizing Project’s Issues Assembly was housing. Particularly in the light of the fires, we must be vigilant in protecting tenant’s rights, advocating for low-income housing, and getting our most vulnerable citizens off the streets. There must be a roof and a bed everyone who wants one in the Kingdom of Love we are building together.