Each month we feature a spiritual theme (see below) which we weave into Sunday worship, Religious Exploration and many of our small groups and gatherings. Each month’s theme is also highlighted in the aesthetic elements of the sanctuary. We send out the theme resources found here (eadings, spiritual exercises, and reflection questions) in an monthly worship email so you can explore the theme on your own or with your family members and friends. These theme resources come from the Soul Matters Sharing Circle,  a UU theme-based program with more than 140 UU subscribers.

Social Justice Monthly Plate Partners

Each month we introduce our Plate Partner , an organization whose work and mission are connected with our UU social justice mission and values. Rev. Sara and the Social Justice Council often explore additional opportunities through collaborative programming (ex: book discussion, arts opportunity, issue forum, workshop etc). For more information about the plate partners below, please visit our plate partner webpage.

February 2025 Spiritual Theme:

Living Love Through The Practice of Inclusion

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

Jan Richardson begins with hunger. And so do we. Just saying the word “inclusion” conjures it up: The primal hunger to belong; the longing to be let in. No one likes standing outside the circle. No one likes leaning against the locked door listening to everyone else laughing inside. From the time we are little, inclusion and belonging is the thing we seek. It’s the hoped for Holy Grail. The promised resting place.
But Richardson will have none of that. To belong is only the beginning. That’s what she wants us to know. One minute she’s wrapping us in comforting words about settling in and allowing ourselves to finally breathe. The next she’s shaking us awake and telling us to get up and go.

That shaking should tell us something.
Or to put it another way, hers is not a gentle invitation. It’s not some sweet reminder to think of others. It’s a warning: Beware of the kind of belonging that only wants to bless you!

Deep down we know this. The hard part is to remember it. To use Richardson’s language, if we find ourselves being invited to linger rather than leave, alarm bells should go off. We need to be weary of those who welcome us with a members only card and a soft couch. They may have let us in, but soon they will enlist us into the work of keeping others out. There will likely even be a part of us that wants to keep others out. After all, closed circles don’t just set us apart, they also sit us above.

But they also keep us small. Maybe this is why Richardson’s blessing is so intent on not leaving us alone. It knows that we only grow when the circle does. Circles that keep others out also keep the air out. No one inside a closed circle truly sings; they only suffocate, slowly.

It’s all one big reminder that the true blessing of inclusion is not that you get to come inside the circle; it’s that you get to participate in expanding it. As the circle grows, so do we.

Plate Partner: BUUF Racial Justice Ministry

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

The mission of the Racial Justice Ministry is to: raise awareness and understanding of and engagement with race and racism. This includes our individual and collective opportunities to achieve racial justice.
We are also guided by the UU 8th Principle, which asks us to: affirm and promote journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.

WAKE UP COFFEE CIRCLE

These unstructured conversations are open to all interested individuals and offer opportunities to talk about recent events or personal experiences, related to racial justice, and to support one another. Drop in any time, stay as long as you want.
Day and Time: Every Wednesday, 9:00 to 10:30 MT
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85271927329?pwd=V3VkeXYrSzF5OVdkaEFOT29vV1dSUT09