October 18, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar
Melinda McGucken, Worship Associate
David Blazer, Director of Music
Our year-long sermon series exploring some of the world religion sources of our Unitarian Universalist spiritual way begins with Hinduism. Our study text is Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions: The 50th Anniversary Edition. The book is available at your local bookstore, at Amazon, and other outlets. Reach out to Rev. Makar directly if you are unable to afford purchasing the book. As preparation for the sermon, please read the chapter on Hinduism (pp. 12-81) before the service.
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October 11, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar
Christine Salontay, Worship Associate
David Blazer, Director of Music
We are needing some sweet silliness in these difficult, emotionally-heavy days. So, join us for a worship service full of sweet silliness. Even the very serious and intense philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, "If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done." Writer Richelle Goodrich adds, "It's okay to be absurd, ridiculous, and downright irrational at times; silliness is sweet syrup that helps us swallow the bitter pills of life."
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October 4, 2020
by Reverend Renee Ruchotzky
Elizabeth Gerencser, Worship Associate
David Blazer, Director of Music
Even when diversity and inclusion are aspirations for a community, living into such a community can be fraught with misunderstandings and hurt. How might we hold one another in love and covenant as we build a beloved community together?
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September 27, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar
David Blazer, Director of Music
You can be the best and most careful driver in the world, but if there’s no system of traffic lights, signs, and laws already in play (or one that’s confusing and/or insufficient), you’re guaranteed to crash into someone else. We have amazing individual leaders at West Shore, but how are we doing in terms of shared understandings about how to work together? What does our system of “traffic lights” look like? Today, I want to explore with you a plan for how we can all share in the work of ministry, in a way that expands the range of people’s involvement in deciding and doing and improves communication, coordination, and morale across the board. This plan was developed in the 2019-2020 program year by the Organizational Development Committee of the Board, and the Board of Trustees has formally approved it.
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September 20, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar
Melinda McGucken, Worship Associate
David Blazer, Director of Music
Did you know that the history of our faith - its journey across time - can be told using the Six Sources? Come hear Rev. Makar tell our story in a way you may never have heard it told before!
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![Ingathering 2020: The Story of Mr. O]()
September 13, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar
Judy Montgomery, Worship Associate
David Blazer, Director of Music
Regular life is in upheaval, as the pandemic reigns. Around this time of year, we would be returning from summer travels away or "staycations" closer to home. We would see kids going off to school or to college. Fall favorites like college football would be gearing up. And so on. But none of that is in the cards for us, in this strange year of 2020. For this reason, it becomes even more important to practice spiritual disciplines that help structure our lives and give them meaning. One of these practices is observing time cycles, which includes endings and new beginnings.
This is what our annual Ingathering service is all about. It signifies a new beginning for our collective life together. The service, appropriate for all ages, draws from the classic story, The Cello of Mr. O by Jane Cutler and illustrated by Greg Couch. Some things our children might listen for, and to think about as this service unfolds, includes: (1) Have you ever felt afraid of being hurt, if not by war than by COVID-19 or a bully at school, or something else? (2) Why do you think people fight? (3) Life is scary and hard these days, so it is especially important to remember that we are not alone, and there is hope. What gives you hope and courage when you are afraid?
Ingathering is also the time when we celebrate our annual Water Communion ritual, a beautiful ceremony of the celebration of life! Be sure to have a small container of water near you, and a bowl to pour it into, as you, with hundreds of your West Shore friends, simultaneously engage this ritual. It will be different this year, but that doesn't have to mean it will be less meaningful.
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September 6, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar
Grace Durfee, Worship Associate
Joe Schafer and Abby Rosu, Guest Musicians
When COVID-19 pandemic struck, it was as though we all crossed a line in time. There had been "before the pandemic," or BP, and now it is "after the pandemic," or AP. But whether it's BP or AP we're talking about, there has always been a need for downtime, time off, time away--sabbath time. This is the spiritual dimension of the Labor Day holiday, which is side-by-side with its more social-political dimension of support for the working class and labor unions. Today, we take a closer look at that more spiritual dimension.
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August 30, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar
Judy Montgomery, Worship Associate
David Blazer, Director of Music
Do you believe in reincarnation? Unitarian Louisa May Alcott did. She once wrote, "I think immortality is the passing of a soul through many lives... such as are truly lived, used, and learned, help on to the next, each growing richer, happier, and higher, carrying with it only the real memories that have gone before." Echoing this is Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, "The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew. It passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal." Today, we take a closer look at this ancient spiritual perspective.
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August 24, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar
Elizabeth Gerencser, Worship Associate
David Blazer, Director of Music
Early on in his amazing Ware Lecture, given before a whole host of Unitarian Universalists at the 2015 General Assembly, Cornel West says "unequivocally" that "I am who I am because somebody loved me, somebody cared for me... Any serious talk about struggle for freedom and struggle for justice has to radically call into question any conception of ourselves being self-made." Today, we talk about the role of love and being loved in our activism.
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August 16, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Jeff Modzelewski, Worship Associate
Back in 1878, the Unitarian Lydia Marie Child once imagined "an eclectic church of the future which shall gather forms of holy aspirations from all ages and nations." She imagined this at a time when our congregations were still very much Christian-centered. But now, all these years later, we embody Lydia Marie Child's dream and are fully pluralistic. How did we get from there to here? What do we need to know, going forward?
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August 9, 2020
by Reverend Michelle Ma and
Vicky Warden, Worship Associate
Why go to church? What do we get out of it? What is church for? Rev. Michelle Ma has some ideas: at church, we build a new world, one that doesn't play by old rules.
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August 2, 2020
by Reverend Michelle Ma and
Jeff Modzelewski, Worship Associate
Fred Rogers has seemingly been elevated to sainthood these last couple of years. Rev. Michelle Ma didn't grow up watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, but she has nonetheless come to see him as a role model, and the Neighborhood as a form of Beloved Community.
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July 26, 2020
by Reverend Michelle Ma and
Barbara Walker, Worship Associate
Have you ever been asked why Unitarian Universalists have Sunday morning services? Or why we worship at all? Maybe you're one of those people who grits your teeth every time you hear the word "worship." Rev. Michelle Ma offers some context for Unitarian Universalist worship and what that's all about.
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July 19, 2020
by Reverend Michelle Ma and
Judy Montgomery, Worship Associate
One of the things you learn as a hospital chaplain is how to listen: not just to the content of someone's words, but to the feelings those words are signaling. Unitarian Universalists are famously a really cerebral bunch, but that doesn't mean we are without feelings. What would happen if we listened to our and each other's feelings?
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July 12, 2020
by Reverend Michelle Ma,
Elizabeth Gerencser, Worship Associate and
David Blazer, Director of Music
What is your greatest gift? Is it your cooking? Is it your public speaking skills? Is it your green thumb? Spoiler alert: it's none of those things. You'll have to tune in to find out what Rev. Michelle Ma thinks our greatest gifts are.
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July 5, 2020
by Reverend Michelle Ma and
David Blazer, Director of Music
You're going to be seeing something different and new in the Sanctuary: a minister preaching while wearing a mask or a face shield. Rev. Michelle Ma is going to explain why, and how it all comes back to the Seventh Principle..
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June 28, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar
Worship Associate Ryan Rosu and
David Blazer, Director of Music
Join Rev. Makar in his exploration of some of the happiest facts of all time.
In these “happy facts” we will hear hope’s tune.
Hope Is The Thing With Feathers
“Hope” is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops - at all.
-Emily Dickinson
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June 21, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
June is Pride month! Join us for a celebratory and thought-provoking service where we lift up the GLBTQ+ community. Our focus will be RuPaul, who is arguably America’s most famous drag queen. Since 2009, he has hosted and produced the drag queen reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race, for which he won an Emmy 2016. He is whip-smart, sharp, wise, and worth getting to know better!.
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June 14, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
By now, it may feel cliche to say that the times we’re living in are unprecedented. It’s been said already so often. And, it’s just true. Our times have seen an unprecedented pileup of crises, one after the other, in a mere five-month period: Trump’s impeachment and governmental disarray, the coronavirus pandemic, the economic crash, and most recently, intense protests against racism and police violence in the wake of George Floyd’s murder on March 25. Some say it’s like 1968 all over again. Is it? What is the meaning of the fire this time? What do we do? Today, we will also honor our high school graduates with a Bridging Service.
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June 7, 2020
by Reverend Renee Ruchotzke and
David Blazer, Director of Music
Instead of a world where exploitation and extraction rule, there is a world of interconnection, beauty, and resilience that we yearn for. How might Unitarian Universalists be partners with indigenous and other marginalized communities to live into a transformed way of living that invites all of humanity to participate?
Rev. Renee Ruchotzke serves local congregations as a part of our larger Unitarian Universalist Association. She serves on the LeaderLab design team and as Dean of the UU Leadership Institute. She lives in Kent, OH, where she and her spouse Randy spend their free time outside in their Permaculture food forests garden.
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May 31, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
In light of recent events, Rev. Makar has written a different sermon for tomorrow: The Bigger the Break, the Bigger the Opening
We are seeing things break in the horrific death of George Floyd from police violence and the sick way this same sort of thing keeps on happening over and over again in America.
We are seeing the break in the protest fires of Minneapolis and smashed windows of Atlanta and the thrown bottles and the pepper spray which all represent, as Dr. King once said, “the language of the unheard.”
We are seeing the break in our President’s despicable tweet where he urges the violence on, saying, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
We are seeing the break.
But you know what? The bigger the break, the bigger the opening, and the bigger the possibility for transformation.
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May 24, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
He has been called “our most distinguished and indispensable grouch” and “a satirist with a heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion, a cynic who wants to believe.” He is 20th century author, humanist, and Unitarian Universalist Kurt Vonnegut. Come and experience his presence among us, as I share my personal letter to him.
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May 17, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
Pre-corona vs. post-corona. Old normal vs. new normal. The world changed on us with shocking swiftness, and now that we are several months in, perhaps it is time to take stock. What are our new responsibilities to each other? What is the new normal we are entering into?
May 10, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
Growing up, maybe you had two dads. Maybe you had a mom, but she adopted you at some point, or she’s a stepmom. Fact is, “motherlove” is not tied to any specific biology or family structure. No one owns sunlight. Sunlight shines free. We all need the light of motherlove. And we can all give it. Let’s take a closer look.
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May 3, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
American poet William Carlos Williams once wrote, “It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” Today, we explore the salvific power of art, with an emphasis on the visual arts. As a German proverb says, “Art holds fast when all else is lost.”
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April 26, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
For those of us fortunate enough to have homes in which to self-quarantine and space enough in which to social-distance, these are the times that try men’s souls. Or people’s souls—I am amending that classic line from American patriot Thomas Paine to make it more inclusive. These are the times that try people’s souls. Today, let’s talk about one of these trials: that of cabin fever.
April 19, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
We don’t know how long it’s going to take to get back to normal. But especially in a time filled with challenges and grief, we must do things that nurture our spirits. Spending time in nature is a way to do this. So is spending time with our animal companions: our cats, our dogs, our rabbits, and so on. Even mere videos of cats and dogs and other animals just being themselves feel sustaining. In honor of Earth Day coming up on April 22 (the 50th anniversary of it!), today’s worship celebrates the animal companions we love. If you have an animal companion, be sure to take a picture of it and post it for all to appreciate.
![Now More Than Ever]()
April 12, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
Easter is tough for everyone. On top of that, Easter poses special difficulties for Unitarian Universalists. Even so, we need Easter. We need Easter now more than ever. Why? Come join us to find out.
Flower Celebration Ritual for this Easter Sunday!
For this upcoming Easter morning, our greeting time will draw from a powerful and beautiful tradition coming from the founder of Unitarianism in Czechoslovakia, Dr. Norbert Capek. This tradition is called The Flower Celebration. The first one was held in late spring, June 4, 1923, in Prague, and Dr. Capek asked each member of his congregation to bring a flower to church. That flower was meant to represent their uniqueness. They would bring their flower to church and place it in a common bouquet, which was meant to represent the community as a whole - a community of unique and wonderful individuals, gathered as one. At the end of the service, everyone was asked to take a flower home with them as a gift of love from a fellow congregant.
When we are back to worshiping in face-to-face fashion, we will observe the Flower Celebration again. But for this Easter morning - in these times we’re living in - we need the comfort and the inspiration of our spiritual heritage.
So bring a flower - perhaps a live one, perhaps one you drew on paper or crafted in some other way. Bring your flower and, at a certain point in the service, I’ll ask you to place it near your chalice. If you want to take a picture of it and post it, that would be appreciated by everyone.
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![Befriending Fear]()
April 5, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
These are fear-filled days, for lots of reasons. But is there a way of making peace with fear? How might we deal with this difficult emotion more effectively and gracefully in our lives?
The Special Greeting Time in This Sunday’s Service
Rev. Makar will invite us to a special greeting of those among us who are currently serving as medical personnel - nurses, doctors, and the myriad of other professionals whose ministry is to the health of our bodies. In this time, their ministry is especially stressful, especially daunting. We do well to send them our loving energy.
- Mary Aulisio
- Karen Collins
- Elizabeth Cooper
- Danielle Crockett
- Matt Crockett
- Jerry Devis
- Charlie Farrell
- Bruce Kafer
- Kevin Keefe
- Michelle Ma
- Tina Miller
- Barb Mishic
- Drina Nemes
- Natalie Palmieri
- Debbie Rosu
- Jay Shah
- Lisa Shaw
- Michele Tarsitano-Amato
- Caleb Thibeault
- Martie Travis
Rev. Makar will also acknowledge family members and friends of West Shore members who serve on the “front line” of caring for our bodies in this time, and we are filled with both love and worry for them, too.
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March 29, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
David Blazer, Director of Music
One of the best-loved prayers of all is the Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. This is a great prayer to pray in our time. Let’s take a closer look.
One more thing. During this Sunday’s service, when Rev. Makar lights our West Shore chalice, he will at the same time invite you to light something in your home—anything resembling a chalice will work. This will symbolize our solidarity. The physical distance does not matter if our spirits come close together.
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March 22, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar
The joke that's circulating is how introverts were born for this time of social distancing. Being one myself, I get it; and yet I'm still struggling. So what must it be like for the extroverts among us? We all need to stay at home as much as possible to do our part in reducing community transmission of the coronavirus - and it's not easy! So how do we do this? How might we engage this from a more spiritual perspective? One more thing. During this Sunday’s service, when Rev. Makar lights our West Shore chalice, he will at the same time invite you to light something in your home— anything resembling a chalice will work. This will symbolize our solidarity. The physical distance does not matter if our spirits come close together.
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March 1, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Ryan Rosu, Worship Associate
“Pay It Forward” is about a way of being kind in a world that needs kindness. It’s about putting your time and energy and money in service to Love. Come and find out how you might take part in this. There will also be a surprise that you simply won’t want to miss!
Music: Wonderful, Beautiful People by Jimmy Cliff Free Spirit Band; Laird Wynn, lead vocal
You Can Get It If You Really Want by Jimmy Cliff Free Spirit Band; Bill Hudson, lead vocal
February 23, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Victoria Warden, Worship Associate
If a “foodie” is someone who has refined tastes in food and drink and tends to seek out new food experiences, a “soul foodie” is someone who is like that in the religious realm. Today we talk about how Unitarian Universalism invites people to be soul foodies and what we need to be aware of in order for our worship to be hospitable to that.
Music: I am Resilient by Rising Appalachia, sung by Margaret Gardner and Ally Jagoda
February 16, 2020
by West Shore Youth Group, Worship Leaders
Once every year our youth prepare and deliver a Sunday morning service for the congregation. The services provided by the youth are typically heartfelt, engaging, and inspiring. This year’s service is on the theme “Community.” The Youth will be sharing what it's like to grow up and GROW in a Community; whether that community is church, family or another type of community.
Music:
The Times They are 'a Changing by Bob Dylan Performed by The Byrds
Blowin’ in the Wind by Bob Dylan Performed by Abby Rosu & Seth Wanner
Changes by David Bowie
February 9, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Christine Salontay, Worship Associate
Feeling like you belong is a two-way street. Part of it has to do with how others treat you—whether they are being invitational and hospitable. But an equally important part of feeling like you belong is your own openness to that, and things you do to enhance your sense of belonging. As Care of the Soul author Thomas Moore says, “Belonging is an active verb, something we do positively.”
February 2, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Elizabeth Gerencser, Worship Associate
The experience of shame is so intense that often the result is lashing out at the very person whose love we crave. But what would it mean to allow another to love us in our shame? What happens to us if we truly embrace our vulnerability?
Music: Shame by Avett Brothers
Performed by: Free Spirit Band; Laird Wynn, lead vocal
Music: Hold Your Head Up by Rod Argent
Performed by: Free Spirit Band; Bill Hudson, lead vocal
January 26, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Marty Blachly-Cross , Worship Associate
Courage is key. Maya Angelou calls it the “the most important of the virtues because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” As for Winston Churchill, he said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Let’s talk about courage today.
January 19, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Jeff Modzelewski, Worship Associate
When we lose touch with our heroes’ stories, we lose touch with our own powers and potentialities. We hear a call to leadership, but our response can be, Who, me? Yet the message of the life of every hero who has ever gone before us, or who may be in our midst right now, is that you don’t need to be perfect to have a dream. Today, we explore some of Dr. King’s story and how it speaks powerfully to our own today.
January 12, 2020
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Ryan Rosu, Worship Associate
Hearts hunger to be a part of Beloved Community, which is a place where people feel enlivened and vital and loved. So what’s involved in creating Beloved Community, and then sustaining it? How might you help?
January 5, 2020
by Reverend Chris Long and
Judy Montgomery, Worship Associate
West Shore is known throughout Greater Cleveland for its justice-making. The work that our congregational Task Forces and our Social Action Committee continues to do, with a few highly dedicated members and friends of the congregation, is astounding. We will reflect on our individual and collective journey over the last year with our justice efforts at West Shore and beyond. Rev. Long will also share some of his experiences with our Interfaith Community Partners and other organizations in Cleveland. He will also include details regarding his faithful journey with our denominational efforts in becoming a living tradition striving to become an “anti-racist, anti-oppressive, multicultural” faith movement as we lean into 2020. This holy work needs more of us in it!
Music: I am Resilient by Rising Appalachia, sung by Margaret Gardner and Ally Jagoda
December 29, 2019
by Martha Blachly-Cross and Ryan Rosu, Worship Leaders
Vicki Warden, Worship Associate
For the shortest, darkest weeks of the year, human beings have, from the beginnings of time, created festivals of light to brighten their days. Christmas, Hanukkah, Epiphany—each anticipates the longed-for return to spring, each has its rites, symbols and above all stories. For the holidays, then, a reading list. Chaucer urged, “To read and drive the night away.”
December 22, 2019
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Gerry Meader, Worship Associate
The Christmas Story involves any number of fascinating figures: Joseph and Mary, the wise men, the animals in the stable, the angels, King Herod, and so on. There’s more to each than meets the eye. This year, I will share my personal letter to Mary.
December 8, 2019
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Vicki Warden, Worship Associate
What do spirituality and money have to do with each other? Everything! Come and find out about how we might relate to money (and talk about it!) in healthier ways.
December 1, 2019
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Michael Miller, Worship Associates
Religions around the world honor the gift of tears and have found ways to ritualize it. During the Passover Seder, when Jews remember their escape from Egypt, they bring salt water to their lips to symbolize the tears of bondage. In ancient times, when a person died, mourners put their tears in bottles and sometimes even wore them around their necks. Over the ages, the weeping of tears has been a sign of the mystical experiences of saints and repentant sinners. These transcendent moments go beyond what the mind can comprehend; tears are a response of the heart. Today, we explore the role that tears might play in our Unitarian Universalist faith life.
All songs are played in their entirety at the end of the service
November 24, 2019
by Reverend Anthony Makar,
Judy Montgomery and
Ryan Rosu, Worship Associates
In this time of unprecedented migration all around the world, what does it mean to find home? This Sunday we invite people of all ages to experience a powerful Thanksgiving service centered around Eve Bunting’s story, “How Many Days to America?” While acknowledging that some will show up to this holiday time with celebration in their hearts, others will be feeling emotions that are decidedly mixed. Come to a service that makes room for all of this and will send you out into the world inspired and hopeful.
November 17, 2019
by Reverend Michelle Ma and
Gerry Meader, Worship Associate
Unitarian Universalists talk a lot about "living our values" and "building a beloved community.” West Shore strives to be a radically inclusive, multicultural, anti-oppressive community, and so does Denison UCC. We are two very different churches with different ministries and very similar goals. Affiliated Community Minister Michelle Ma will talk about her work with Denison UCC and how and why West Shore should get involved.
November 10, 2019
by Reverend Anthony Makar and
Ryan Rosu, Worship Associate
This past September, Jonathan Franzen wrote an article in The New Yorker entitled, “What If We Stopped Pretending?” His essential argument was that the destruction of the plan-et by human-induced climate change is inevitable and that environmentalists and climate change activists are delusion-al for trying to stop it. This is just one example of defeatism about the environment, and defeatism these days is pervasive. But is defeatism truly reasonable? Is it possible to affirm hopefulness as a more rational position?
