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Sunday Service October 8, 2023

“Gun Violence & the Soul of America: Thoughts and Prayers are not enough”
The statistics are staggering! What is our faithful response to proliferating gun violence in communities across this country, including Sonoma County? Faith communities are far too silent and inactive on this issue. It’s not enough to help ensure the safety of our congregation alone. Do we not have a moral and sacred responsibility to the community outside our walls to work toward ending this epidemic of violence and death?
 
The theme of the message for this service may be emotionally challenging or triggering for some people. It is especially not for children.
 
Service Leaders/Guest: Rev Dave and Rev Bev Spears
Worship Associate: Judy Withee
Music: Gage Purdy & The Choir
Pianist: Roger Corman
Share The Basket: Jewish Free Clinic. Drawing on Jewish traditions of Tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (repairing the world) we offer free health care services to anyone in need, without regard to religion.
 
***The blessing of the backpacks is back! On Sunday, October 8th, children and youth are invited to bring their backpacks with them to service and RE. After Rev. Bev’s sermon that morning, the kids and youth will bring their backpacks in to receive blessings of love and safety from the members of our congregation.

Sunday Service October 22, 2023

“Lydia, an Empowered Woman in Biblical Times”
We all come from strong, generous women who nurtured us. Often not heralded but quietly doing the work of raising, nurturing, and feeding the generations, we come from these women. Lydia, in the New Testament, was one of the few powerful women who is discussed in the text. She was a successful business woman who generously welcomed and supported the apostles in her own home. This was a daring act for an unmarried woman of the time. Strong-willed women of all generations who put love before convention have been vital in moving society forward to become more just and caring. Today, we celebrate their generosity.
 
Service Leader: Rev Dave Clements
Worship Associate: Meike Mandel
Music: Gage Purdy & the Choir
Pianist: Roger Corman
Share the Basket: Project Avary.  Brings children of incarcerated parents together within the “Avary Family” Community. Within this container of deep trust and respect, children of incarcerated parents join together to heal, to grow strong, and to step into bright futures that are free from the painful cycles of incarceration.

Sunday Service October 15, 2023

“Daniel- A Trusting Visionary”
There are many themes found in the story of Daniel. Steadfastness, commitment to one’s own beliefs, and not conforming to society’s pressure. Daniel was a visionary who trusted in God. We will explore what we can learn from this story that is found in the Old Testament
 
Service Leaders: Rev Dave Clements
Worship Associate: Eric Fischer
Music: Gage Purdy
Pianist: Paul Gilger
The Basket is highlighting : Our Own Religious Education

Sunday Service October 29, 2023

“Making the Intangible Tangible: Our Ancestors as Our Heritage”
CUUPS – Service Ancestors service. For many years UUCSR has held space at the end of October for our Ancestors’ Ceremony. Please join us as we gather again this year to honor those who have left us this last year and those who were so close to our hearts that we still feel their loss every day. You are invited to bring a photo or memento to place on the altar that we will build during the service. Let us honor them during this cycle of the year that calls us to slow down and hear our Loved One’s presence.
 
Service Leader/Guest: CUUPs
Worship Associate: Richard J. Senghas
Music: John Ray
Pianist: Roger Corman
Share the Basket: North Bay Jobs with Justice, a grassroots coalition of over 30 labor and community organizations, builds people-power toward economic, racial, and climate justice.

Sunday Service September 3, 2023

“An Immigrant’s Path to United in Kindness”
Moe Jabbari will share his experiences as an immigrant from Iran and discuss his work with United in Kindness, an organization founded to address increased hate crimes, discrimination, bullying, and injustice. The United in Kindness Campaign supports and encourages all Sonoma County government agencies and residents to find ways to foster, promote, and sustain acts of kindness on a daily basis throughout the community. UUCSR is a signer of the United in Kindness Declaration of Unity.
 
Service Leader/Guest: Mohammad Jabbari
Worship Associates: Linda Lampson
Music: Sally Jones and Alan Bell
Pianist: Roger Corman
The Basket: Our Own Religious Education Program
Guest Bio:

Mohammad Jabbari has a background in engineering and business. He has been a resident of Santa Rosa since 1982 where he and his wife of 35 years raised their three children.
He served on the Board of Directors and 3 years as the chairperson of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern CA in Oakland and has been active in interfaith projects promoting open dialogs among different faith traditions in the Bay Area since 1995. Long active in social justice and human rights advocacy work, he co-founded the Interfaith Council of Sonoma County in 2005. And in 2019 he started “Sonoma County United in Kindness” Project and continues as its chair.

Sunday Service September 10, 2023

“In Gathering and Water Communion”
Let us celebrate together as we begin our church year. May we come with excitement for the spiritual awakening that awaits us this year. Bring water from a source meaningful to you to share in this annual ritual as a sign of hope and refreshment as we begin a new journey. Invite your friends, your family or just come so we can begin together in community.
 
Service Leader/Guest: Rev Dave Clements
Worship Associate: Veronica Jordan
Music: Gage Purdy & The Choir
Pianist: Roger Corman
Share The Basket: Our Own Saturday Breakfast

Sunday Service September 17, 2023

“Healing the Wounds of Colonization”
While researching my settler-ancestors and the land they took for their own in Northern California, I saw that colonization was far more violent than I had learned in school. Indigenous friends introduced me to the Native American idea of “the soul wound”–the deep and ongoing injury of colonization that affects not just the Original People but also perpetrators and the land itself. The soul wound is intergenerational and cumulative. I believe its effect on the perpetrators–where it is near-totally unrecognized–has led to the challenging environmental and social problems we face today. I have been awed and impressed with the healing underway in many Native communities, but we settler-descendants and beneficiaries of conquest are only beginning to see the painful work needed to heal with integrity from the wounds we also carry. Grief, apology, and repair must begin with the truth of what happened. Indigenous elders have said, “We don’t speak of these things without ceremony.” So, I am grateful for this sanctuary space with you–where we can begin to acknowledge the harm done in our name, reconnect with our true human goodness, and heal together.
 
Service Leaders/Guest: Louise Dunlap
Worship Associate: Judy Withee
Music: Gage Purdy and and Sally Jones
Pianist: Paul Gilger
Share the Basket: Saturday Breakfast for Our Neighbors
Guest Bio: Louise Dunlap – writer, educator, elder, and plant-lover – is descended from early settlers in Napa County, including Napa’s founder, Nathan Coombs. In addition to her book, “Inherited Silence: Listening to the Land, Healing the Colonizer Mind”, Louise has a rich and varied history as a teacher, facilitator, writer, and Buddhist activist. She is an ordained member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. Learn more about Louise at: https://louisedunlap.net/

Sunday Service September 24, 2023

“Queen Esther – The Israeli Liberator”
Introduction to the Men and Women of the Old Testament. For the next several weeks the sermons will be about the lives of exceptional Old Testament leaders and what history has recorded about them. We begin with Queen Esther who saved her people from death and came to be known as a Liberator of Israel.
 
Service Leader/Guest: Rev Dave Clements
Worship Associate: Jonathan Choe
Music: Gage Purdy & the Choir
Pianist: Roger Corman
Share the Basket: Local Santa Rosa Radio KBBF 89.1, the first bilingual public radio station in the US serving the North Bay since 1973 and streaming worldwide.

Sunday Service August 13, 2023

“NO BED OF ROSES: GARDENING AS A SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY”

Gardens provide life lessons. In them we find metaphors for life, death, change, persistence and much more. Today we explore the impact of gardens on one’s life journey.

Service Leader/Guest: Linda Lampson
Worship Associate: Eric Fischer
Music: Alan Bell & Sally Jones
Pianist: Roger Corman
Share The Basket: Russian Riverkeepers

Sunday Service August 20, 2023
“MUSIC OF THE SOUL”
We invite you to come experience music that will teach, inspire, and fill your soul.
 
Service Leaders/Guest: Rev Dave and Paul Gilger
Worship Associate: Richard Senghas
Music: Gage Purdy and The Choir
Pianist: Paul Gilger
Share the Basket: Saturday Breakfast for Our Neighbors