Sunday Topics

Our Sunday worship is a hybrid format: both in person in the sanctuary and via Zoom* meeting software.  (See below for more details about how to attend on line and in person services).

Upcoming Speakers and Topics 

Sept. 6: Many Ways to Tell Our UU Story. A sermon is not the only part of worship that expresses our UU uniqueness and unity. The carefully-chosen readings and our hymn lyrics and music also explore justice-seeking, history, and values and bring us together.

Family service with children in the sanctuary for the first part. Potluck picnic outside after the service.

Sept. 13: Rev. Dr. Susan Rak. Consider Joy. James Baldwin said “Hope is invented every day.” And part of this reinvention, in the face of despair, is joy. Acknowledging and claiming joy feels more important than ever now. We just have to let ourselves do it.

Sept. 20: Rev. Dr. Paul Britner. Resilience. Water is one of nature’s great teachers. It can be gentle enough to rest quietly in the palm of your hand, yet powerful enough to carve canyons and reshape landscapes. When it encounters an obstacle, it moves around it, flows beneath it, gathers strength, or patiently finds another way forward. Water can teach us about resilience: not as the ability to remain unchanged by life’s difficulties, but as the capacity to adapt, persist, and discover new paths. Potluck Lunch after the service

Sept. 27: Mark Bernstein. Willing to Be Little. Practicing humility in our congregation and in our lives is the way in which we live out our Unitarian Universalist principles. Do we have the courage to live lives of humility? What would our congregation, and our world, look like if everyone did?

Oct.4:  Rev. Dr. Sandra Fees. True Belonging. To be ourselves—boldly, courageously, vulnerably—is to tap into the deeper reality of our own soul. Not who we should be and certainly not an idealized perfect version of ourselves, but who we are as our most authentic and genuine self.   Family service with children in the sanctuary for the first part.

Oct. 11: JD Stillwater. Flowers & Romance—An Evolutionary Love Affair. Flowers, and the animal pollinators who consummate their unions, are a living testament to the diversity and communion of life. The deep cooperation and vulnerability inherent in sexual reproduction provides for the living Earth’s vibrant complexity, offering lessons for all of us and for our sexuality.

Oct. 18: Rev. Dr. Paul Britner. Religion Without an Afterlife. Unitarian Universalists hold a rich diversity of beliefs about what happens after we die. Yet amid all these different perspectives, there is something we can say with certainty: whatever may come after death, we all have lives before death. This message explores what it means to cultivate a spiritual life grounded not in promises about another world, but in the wonder, relationships, struggles, and possibilities of this one. Potluck Lunch after the service.
Oct. 25: Mark Bernstein. Balancing the Egg. A sense of balance is required in order for us to remain upright and steady. This applies not only to our physical selves, but our spiritual selves as well. How do we maintain an equal balance between our secular and our UU lives so that one does not overwhelm the other and cause us to fall?

 

How to Attend Our Worship

Please log in to Zoom or be in the sanctuary around 10:30 a.m. so you can enjoy the pre-service music.
Our services end around noon and are followed by refreshments and time to chat.

To attend a service via Zoom, you need the new log in link and password, which are emailed each week on Friday.  

If you aren’t receiving the link, email worship@uuhagerstownmd.org by Thursday to be added to the worship log in list.

*If you have never used Zoom, check out the Zoom Basics Page.

 

Covid Safety Precautions: We continue to focus on being together in person again but Covid precautions change. Be alert for on-going adjustments.  
  • People are asked to mask while singing hymns.
  • Except while singing, masks are now optional for fully-vaccinated and boosted people. Some fully-vaccinated people continue to mask for additional safety; others do not.
  •  If you are NOT fully-vaccinated and boosted, we ask you to mask to protect yourself and others.
  • If  a family member or you are feeling ill (cold, flu, etc.) or have been exposed to Covid, please stay home and attend via Zoom.
  • Please be thoughtful with your greetings. Many people are not ready yet for hugging and other close contacts so always ask.

  • Improved Air Quality  The new HVAC system installed in 2020 in both the Martin House and sanctuary should keep us safer as well as warmer and cooler. The new system includes an air purification system in the HVAC ductwork. According to the EPA, the combined use of filtration and germicidal UVC light is an effective means of preventing the distribution of airborne viruses in occupied spaces. Our system has a high intensity dual-light system: one light controls bacteria, viruses, and mold spores; the other oxidizes and removes  noxious  odors.  The air goes through the purification system eight times an hour.

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *