belief in Gods plan for the ultimate redemption and ... · back toward reunion with God. Origen...

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Universalism Toolkit Theme Person Chalice Lighting Reading Story for All Ages Sample Sermon Music Art September Origins/New Beginnings Origen “Clement’s student and successor was St. Origen (185-254), a great early Christian theologian and church father. Origen began his work in Alexandria, was ordained as a priest in Greece, and later founded a school at Caesarea, the provincial capital of Palestine. He wrote the first systematic commentary and exegesis of the entire Bible, including concordance, and he produced a Bible in six columns, showing parallel versions of the Greek and Hebrew text. His greatest contribution was to develop a comprehensive understanding of the Gospel that was based on belief in God’s plan for the ultimate redemption and restoration of all as the foundation of the Christian message. Origen died as a martyr, enduring torture at the hands of the Roman government for his faith in Christ, during a time of terrible persecution of the Christian community. Most of Origen’s copious writings have been lost or destroyed by later opponents, but what remains shows a picture of a truly deep spiritual thinker who bridges the divide between East and West in a way that few, if any, other major religious leaders of history have done. He emphasized the teaching that all souls have emanated from God, descended into realms of separation as they fell into sin, and must ascend back to the Source of All Being through a divine plan of multiple ages and trials. Origen’s belief in preexistence and reincarnation of the soul led to a great deal of controversy, as these ideas were supported by some early Christians but adamantly opposed by others. These controversial views have prevented him from being canonized in most branches of Christianity, but he is recognized as a saint in the Coptic Church.

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Universalism Toolkit

Theme

Person

Chalice Lighting

Reading

Story for All Ages

Sample Sermon

Music

Art

September

Origins/New Beginnings

Origen

“Clement’s student and successor was St. Origen (185-254), a great early Christian theologian

and church father. Origen began his work in Alexandria, was ordained as a priest in Greece, and

later founded a school at Caesarea, the provincial capital of Palestine. He wrote the first

systematic commentary and exegesis of the entire Bible, including concordance, and he produced

a Bible in six columns, showing parallel versions of the Greek and Hebrew text. His greatest

contribution was to develop a comprehensive understanding of the Gospel that was based on

belief in God’s plan for the ultimate redemption and restoration of all as the foundation of the

Christian message. Origen died as a martyr, enduring torture at the hands of the Roman

government for his faith in Christ, during a time of terrible persecution of the Christian

community.

Most of Origen’s copious writings have been lost or destroyed by later opponents, but what

remains shows a picture of a truly deep spiritual thinker who bridges the divide between East

and West in a way that few, if any, other major religious leaders of history have done. He

emphasized the teaching that all souls have emanated from God, descended into realms of

separation as they fell into sin, and must ascend back to the Source of All Being through a divine

plan of multiple ages and trials. Origen’s belief in preexistence and reincarnation of the soul led

to a great deal of controversy, as these ideas were supported by some early Christians but

adamantly opposed by others. These controversial views have prevented him from being

canonized in most branches of Christianity, but he is recognized as a saint in the Coptic Church.

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Regardless of whether one agrees with all of his specific teachings, Origen’s theology is rich and

illuminating, and has a strongly Universalist flavor. Origen understood the Biblical story of the

Fall of Man as an illustration of the way human spirits have left God, seeking earthly things of

ego, and thus have been separated from the true happiness that can only be found in God’s

Presence. He saw Christ as the firstborn Son of God, the only being in the universe who never fell

from grace, and whose eternal perfection is an example to all other humans in their progression

back toward reunion with God. Origen wrote in his De Principiis and Against Celsus concerning

the way God will restore all beings to Himself:

“God’s consuming fire works with the good as with the evil, annihilating that which harms His

children. This fire is one that each one kindles; the fuel and food is each one’s sins. … When the

soul has gathered together a multitude of evil works, and an abundance of sins against itself, at

a suitable time all that assembly of evils boils up to punishment, and is set on fire to

chastisement… [I]t is to be understood that God our Physician, desiring to remove the defects of

our souls, should apply the punishment of fire. … Our God is a ‘consuming fire’ in the sense in

which we have taken the word; and thus He enters in as a ‘refiner’s fire’ to refine the rational

nature, which has been filled with the lead of wickedness, and to free it from the other impure

materials which adulterate the natural gold or silver, so to speak, of the soul. [O]ur belief is that

the Word [Christ] shall prevail over the entire rational creation, and change every soul into his

own perfection. … For stronger than all the evils in the soul is the Word, and the healing power

that dwells in him; and this healing he applies, according to the will of God, to every man.”

From https://christianuniversalist.org/resources/articles/history-of-universalism/

Chalice Lighting: “The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.” ~ Origen

Reading:

“For as medical men sometimes, although they could quickly cover over the scars of wounds, keep back

and delay the cure for the present, in the expectation of a better and more perfect recovery, knowing

that it is more salutary to retard the treatment in the cases of swellings caused by wounds, and to

allow the malignant humours to flow off for a while, rather than to hasten a superficial cure, by

shutting up in the veins the poison of a morbid humour, which, excluded from its customary outlets,

will undoubtedly creep into the inner parts of the limbs, and penetrate to the very vitals of the

viscera, producing no longer mere disease in the body, but causing destruction to life; so, in like

manner, God also, who knows the secret things of the heart, and foreknows the future, in much

forbearance allows certain events to happen, which, coming from without upon men, cause to come

forth into the light the passions and vices which are concealed within, that by their means those may

be cleansed and cured who, through great negligence and carelessness, have admitted within

themselves the roots and seeds of sins, so that, when driven outwards and brought to the surface, they

may in a certain degree be cast forth and dispersed. [2342] And thus, although a man may appear to

be afflicted with evils of a serious kind, suffering convulsions in all his limbs, he may nevertheless, at

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some future time, obtain relief and a cessation from his trouble; and, after enduring his afflictions to

satiety, may, after many sufferings, be restored again to his (proper) condition. For God deals with

souls not merely with a view to the short space of our present life, included within sixty years [2343]

or more, but with reference to a perpetual and never-ending period, exercising His providential care

over souls that are immortal, even as He Himself is eternal and immortal. ”

― Origen, The Works of Origen: De Principiis/Letters/Against Celsus

Story for All Ages: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/river/workshop10/178655.shtml

Sample Sermon: Craig Nowak http://www.buuc.org/universalisms-origen.html

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUFz-c7ETYg

Music: Ubi Caritas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2o27qpvfUc

Art:

From https://christianuniversalist.org/resources/articles/history-of-universalism/

October

Foundations *Actual Date of Sermon September 30, 1770

John & Judith Sargent Murray

http://uudb.org/articles/johnmurray.html

http://uudb.org/articles/judithsargentmurray.html

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Chalice: “You may possess only a small light, but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more

light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women.” ~ John Murray

Reading: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=pTRfAAAAcAAJ&rdid=book-

pTRfAAAAcAAJ&rdot=1 p. 248

Or

Judith Sargent Murray Conclusion of Records of the Life of the Rev. John Murray 1816

McKanan, Dan. A Documentary History of Unitarian Universalism, Vol. 1: From the Beginning to 1899

(Pages 160-164). Skinner House Books. Kindle Edition.

Story: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/home/session12/60161.shtml

Sermon: Meg Barnhouse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYD4JPi0GHY

Music: “Preach the Gospel of Love” https://www.uua.org/worship/words/music/preach-gospel-love

Art: Video Tour of Murray Grove https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EON4D2iNTwY&feature=youtu.be

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Judith Sargent Murray by John Singleton Copley

More Resources:

Thomas Potter https://www.murraygrove.org/thomas-potter-story

https://www.murraygrove.org/thomas-potter-and-john-murray-story

John Murray https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/john-murray/

Judith Sargent Murray http://jsmsociety.com/JSM_Archive.html

November

Gratitude

Clara Barton

http://uudb.org/articles/clarabarton.html

Chalice Lighting: Long ago I added to the true old adage of "What is everybody's business is nobody's

business," another clause which, I think, more than any other principle has served to influence my

actions in life. That is, What is nobody's business is my business. ~ Clara Barton

Reading: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/resistance/workshop4/182277.shtml

Story for All Ages: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/lovesurrounds/session16/angel

Sample Sermon: Luke Stevens-Royer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxwW304zJFc

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Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZmxZThb084

Art:

December

Gifts of the Spirit

Thomas Starr King (his father was also Thomas King, his mother's maiden name was Starr, he was known

as Mr. King or called "Starr" by his family and friends)

http://uudb.org/articles/thomasstarrking.html

Chalice Lighting: “The spirit of a person's life is ever shedding some power, just as a flower is steadily

bestowing fragrance upon the air.” ~ Thomas Starr King

Reading: McKanan, Dan. A Documentary History of Unitarian Universalism, Vol. 1: From the Beginning to

1899 (Pages 347-348). Skinner House Books. Kindle Edition.

Thomas Starr King “Substance and Show” 1851

Universalist and Unitarian minister Rev. Thomas Starr King (1824–1864) was born in New York to

European-American parents. Instead of a seminary education, he learned from men such as Hosea

Ballou II, Edwin Hubbell Chapin, James Walker, and Frederic Henry Hedge. An early advocate of merger

between the Unitarians and Universalists, King served Charlestown Universalist Church before being

called to the Unitarian Hollis Street Church. King and his wife, Julia, maintained a vibrant social and

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intellectual circle of Boston’s elites, and King became a luminary on the lyceum circuit. His lecture,

“Substance and Show,” which illuminates the metaphysical underpinnings of his theology, was one of his

most popular in New England as well as in California.

Further Reading: Richard Frothingham, A Tribute to Thomas Starr King (Boston: Ticknor and Fields,

1865); Charles W. Wendte, Thomas Starr King: Patriot and Preacher (Boston: Beacon Press, 1921).

—Sheri Prud’homme

I propose to speak on the difference between substance and show, or the distinction we should make

between the facts of the world and life, and the causal forces which lie behind and beneath them....

Most persons, doubtless, if you place before them a paving-stone and a slip of paper with some writing

on it, would not hesitate to say that there is as much more substance in the rock than in the paper as

there is heaviness. Yet they might make a great mistake. Suppose that the slip of paper contains the

sentence, “God is love”; or, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ”; or, “All men have moral rights by

reason of heavenly parentage,” then the paper represents more force and substance than the stone.

Heaven and earth may pass away, but such words can never die out or become less real.

The word “substance” means that which stands under and supports anything else. Whatever then

creates, upholds, classifies anything which our senses behold, though we cannot handle, see, taste, or

smell it, is more substantial than the object itself. In this way the soul, which vivifies, moves, and

supports the body, is a more potent substance than the hard bones and heavy flesh which it vitalizes....

There is a very general tendency to deny that ideal forces have any practical power. But there have

been several thinkers whose skepticism has an opposite direction. “We cannot,” they say, “attribute

external reality to the sensations we feel.” We need not wonder that this theory has failed to convince

the unmetaphysical commonsense of people that a stone post is merely a stubborn thought, and that

the bite of a dog is nothing but an acquaintance with a pugnacious, four-footed conception....

And yet, by more satisfactory evidence than that which the idealists propose, we are warned against

confounding the conception of substance with matter, and confining it to things we can see and grasp.

Science steps in and shows us that the physical system leans on spirit. We talk of the world of matter,

but there is no such world. Everything about us is a mixture or marriage of matter and spirit. A world of

matter simply would be a huge head of sandy atoms or an infinite continent of stagnant vapor. There

would be no motion, no force, no form, no order, no beauty, in the universe as it now is; organization

meets us at every step and wherever we look; organization implies spirit,—something that rules,

disposes, penetrates, and vivifies matter.

Source: Thomas Starr King, Substance and Show and Other Lectures, ed. Edwin P. Whipple (Boston:

James R. Osgood and Company, 1877), 1–3.

Story for All Ages: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/windows/session3/143446.shtml

Sample Sermon: Arliss Ungar https://www.sksm.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/thossklecture-B.pdf

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Music: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOjHhS5MtvA King said it was

the Yosemite of music.

Art: King's statue, by Daniel Chester French, was removed from the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol

Building to make room for a statue of Ronald Reagan.

http://www.yeodoug.com/resources/dc_french/king/dcfrench_king.html

January

Atonement

Hosea Ballou

http://uudb.org/articles/hoseaballou.html

Chalice Lighting: “There is no such thing as “best,” in the world of individuals.” ~ Hosea Ballou "There is

no such thing as "best" in the world of individuals."

Reading: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/movesus/workshop3/282536.shtml

Story for All Ages: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/journeys/session2/muddy-children

Sample Sermon: Jay Wolin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0J_xxgibbA

Music: https://youtu.be/a8bBIC7QLMY

from

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https://revscottwells.com/2016/04/09/the-one-hosea-ballou-hymn-in-current-use/

Art: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/movesus/workshop3/282541.shtml

February

Universal Love

Mark Morrison-Reed

https://www.uuworld.org/articles/true-my-lineage

Chalice Lighting: “The central task of religious community is to unveil the bonds that bind each to all.

There is a connectedness, a relationship discovered amid the particulars of each of our individual lives.

Once felt, it inspires us to act for justice. The religious community is essential, for alone our vision is too

narrow to see that all must be seen, and our strength too limited to do all that must be done. Together,

our vision widens and our strength is renewed.” ~ Mark Morrison-Reed

Reading:

Suppose that funds had been forthcoming in 1911 when Joseph Fletcher Jordan asked

Universalists to support plans to add a seminary to the African American school he ran in

Suffolk, Virginia. The graduates might have fanned out across the South to preach the gospel of

the larger hope, God’s all-embracing love. They needed $6,000 for this endeavor. Jordan

traveled around the Northeast in 1911–1912 raising money, but in the end raised less than

$1,500. To put this in context, in April 1890, the Universalists began a mission in Japan. The

Japanese mission was given at least $6,000 a year, often more, eventually totaling more than

$275,000. During the same years the Universalists could not raise $6,000 for their “Mission to

the Colored People.” What does it suggest? Black lives don’t matter.

Imagine if Jackson had brought his Baptist congregation into the AUA or if Jordan had been

successful in establishing a seminary. I cannot help but wonder what our worship would have

been like. What gets emphasized when a black Universalist preaches about God’s enduring

love? Likewise, what is highlighted when a black Unitarian preaches about freedom?

…. Universalism was different [from Unitarianism] because it was difficult for African Americans

to embrace. A loving God who saves all is, for most African Americans, a theological non

sequitur. Why? In an article entitled “In the Shadow of Charleston,” Reggie Williams writes

about a young black Christian who said, during a prayer group following the murder of nine

people at Emanuel AME Church in 2015, “that if he were to also acknowledge the historical

impact of race on his potential to live a safe and productive life in America, he would be forced

to wrestle with the veracity of the existence of a just and loving God who has made him black in

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America.” This is the question of theodicy: How do we reconcile God’s goodness with the

existence of evil? In the context of Charleston, the context of Jim Crow, the context of slavery,

what is the meaning of black suffering? Why has such calamity been directed at African

Americans? If God is just and loving there must be a reason. If there is no reason, one is led to

the conclusion that God is neither just nor loving.

Hosea Ballou’s Ultra-Universalism, the “death and glory school” in which all are saved and

brought into God’s embrace upon death, is mute on this. In fact, it trivializes black suffering.

What is the meaning of enslavement if the master and slave are both redeemed? The way black

theology answers this question is that God is the God of the oppressed; that God through Jesus,

who suffered, identifies with the oppressed and will comfort and lift them up. This requires that

a distinction be made between the oppressor and the oppressed. What kind of God makes such

a distinction? A righteous, judging God: the God of the Old Testament. Surveys tell us this is the

kind of God in which the vast majority of African Americans believe. Such a belief makes sense

of their lives because it is concurrent with a nightmarish experience. What slave could look

forward to an afterlife shared with the master who owned and raped her, the foreman who

whipped him, or the Klansmen who lynched him? None.

I can only hypothesize that the Restorationists, rather than Ultra-Universalists, might have

offered an answer of sorts. Yes, the oppressors would enter heaven. When? At the end of time,

or after eons of repentance. But the only answer that would have counted would have been the

lived one—the one that would have evolved if more Universalists had stood more consistently

with the enslaved and disinherited and thus spoke of and to their experience. With few

exceptions, they did not.

Today there are elements in Universalism that could make us, as Unitarian Universalists, as

ineffectual now as in the past. The old Universalist adage “the supreme worth of every person,”

or as we now say, “the inherent worth and dignity of every person,” invites some to say, “Yes,

black lives matter, but all lives matter.” It is true, but when offered in response to “Black Lives

Matter” it means something else.

In saying “All Lives Matter” UUs telegraph that we do not really understand. It is a variation on

Universalism’s old theological pitfall. When it does not protest the systemic devaluing of black

lives it obfuscates an important distinction. Saying “All Lives Matter” tells African Americans we

do not know the difference between privilege and oppression. Hear how it echoes our religious

ancestors. They said, “God is love” and “We are all God’s children,” but with regard to African

Americans they did not act in accordance with that belief, nor did they try to articulate how it

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might speak to black suffering. Why? Because given their social and geographic location blacks

were invisible.

African Americans, however, were visible in a particular way. White UUs saw blacks when it

served their ego needs. That is to say, black lives didn’t matter—except insofar as white folks

got to feel good about themselves as abolitionists and civil rights activists. Many who went to

Selma—James Reeb, Orloff Miller, Clark Olsen, Jack Taylor, Fred Lipp, and Gene Reeves, for

example—had close relationships with African Americans, but the majority did not.

“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me . . .,” writes Ralph Ellison in

Invisible Man. “When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or

figments of their imagination—indeed, everything and anything except me.” That has been the

black experience within Unitarian Universalism.....

The time in Unitarian Universalism when black lives didn’t matter has passed. Nonetheless,

change is generational, incremental, and bruising. It comes, but not necessarily on our time

schedule. We have fallen short and will again, and when we do we need to pause and pray and

ask, “What does love demand of me?” and then stand up and try again. Impatience is not what

sustains us, but rather dreams, hope, work, and companionship—the chance to pour out one’s

life for the faith, principles, and people whom we value.

~ Mark Morrison-Reed, “The black hole in the white UU psyche,” UU World, 10/2/2017 | FALL 2017

Story for All Ages: Mark tells a story about how Jeffrey Campbell found the Universalist Church (around

1919) and it is basically a theology of snack. He told it when he preached at the First Unitarian Church of

Oakland in 2017.

Sample Sermon: Mark Morrison-Reed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vTqF3xLnrg “Dragged Kicking and Screaming into Heaven” 4/19/2015

Music: Jason Shelton “Love Break our Hearts”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9JT97PH1ZA

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church UU choir in Charlottesville sings "Love, Break our Hearts". Rev.

Jason Shelton wrote this song for Charlottesville after the events of August 12, 2017. (White

supremacists invaded our town with guns, sticks, torches, and tear gas, resulting in the death of 3

and the injury of dozens of others.) Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. delivered the sermon at TJMC-UU

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the day the choir sang this song. The choir is directed by the nationally recognized music scholar

Scott Deveaux.

Art:

From the website https://www.meadville.edu/library-and-archives/special-collections/sankofa-special-

collection/:

“The Sankofa Special Collection serves as a repository of archival materials, biographies, worship

resources, and images that tell the story of Unitarian Universalists of Color. It celebrates the experiences

of leaders and laity of African American, Native American, Asian and South Asian, Pacific Island, and

Middle Eastern descent; members of the African Diaspora; and those who identify as multiracial and/or

multicultural.

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The purpose of the Sankofa Special Collection is

reflected in its name. Sankofa means looking to the past in order to move forward into the future.

Sankofa looks into the silences and absences created by white supremacy, to amplify what has been

muted and to recover what has been obscured. Sankofa brings to the present the history of the People

of Color who have made a home in Unitarian Universalism. It looks into the future to preserve and make

accessible the substantial and ongoing impact of Unitarian Universalists of Color. Led by the

communities it serves, the Sankofa Special Collection creates policies and methods of organization so

that People of Color can locate their identities and experiences within Unitarian Universalism.

This special collection is meant to evolve. Our goal is for it to be a resource and a repository for the

study and exploration of Unitarian Universalism’s relationship to race and culture. As the past is

unearthed and new related resources are developed, they will find a home here. As new history is made

every day, it will be preserved and made accessible here.”

March

Reconciliation

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Olympia Brown

http://uudb.org/articles/olympiabrown.html

Chalice Lighting: Adapted from a plaque

Olympia Brown

Preacher of Universalism

Disrupter and Champion of Women's Citizenship Rights

Forerunner of the New Era

The flame of her spirit still burns today.

Reading:

https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/ethics/workshop6/191917.shtml

Lyn Cox https://www.sksm.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/olympiabrown.pdf

Story for All Ages: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/toolbox/session7/olympia-brown

Sample Sermon: Laurie Carter Noble http://olympiabrown.org/OLYMPIA_BROWN_SERMON.html

Beth Dana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8UZ0eefaio

Music: Sister Suffragette from Mary Poppins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds8cKgPdE6M

Art:

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April

Inclusion

Quillen Shinn

http://uudb.org/articles/quillenhamiltonshinn.html

Chalice Lighting: “From this time forth, brethren, let our watchword be, 'Go forward!' or 'Come

forward!' and all up and down your great rivers and scattered over your broad prairies will be set the

beaconlights of our holy faith to light up with hope and joy the coming years.” ~ Quillen Hamilton Shinn

Reading: “Quillen Shinn Universalist Circuit Rider” by Kimberly French, UU World, 10/15/2007 Fall 2007

https://www.uuworld.org/articles/quillen-shinn-universalist-circuit-rider

https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/quillen-hamilton-shinn/

Story for All Ages: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/river/workshop16/178924.shtml

Sample Sermon: Paul Sprecher “The Curious Case of Quillen Shinn”

https://fpuubridgewater.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2019-05-05-The-Curious-Case-of-Quillen-

Shinn.pdf

Music: “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”

https://hymnary.org/text/come_thou_fount_of_every_blessing

Art:

https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/river/workshop16/178931.shtml

May

Multireligious

Kenneth Leo Patton (He was ordained a Unitarian minister but the story of the Charles Street Meeting

House is so compelling https://www.sksm.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/patton.pdf and )

http://uudb.org/articles/kennethpatton.html

Chalice Lighting: ““The arts are the voices of humanity. Through sculpture, painting, music, literature,

the dance, drama, and architecture, [we] communicate [our] most profound thoughts and emotion to

one another.” ~ Kenneth Patton

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Or

“Our task is to be who we are, in every way we can be; our salvation proceeding in putting ­ourselves

back together after each tumble...We irridesce, shine, and radiate. We exclaim and roar: we are.” ~

Kenneth Patton

Reading: Erik Walker

http://a-ministers-musings.blogspot.com/2006/05/temple-meeting-house.html

Vincent Silliman’s Berry Street Essay in 1977

https://www.uuma.org/mpage/BSE1977

Story for All Ages: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/home/session13/60163.shtml

Sample Sermon: Kenneth Patton “Art and Symbols for A World” two parts

http://www.uuchurch.org/worship/sermons/historic-sermon-recordings/

Music: The Earth is Home, words by Kenneth Patton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1GfhPuJq_M

Art:

http://nyscu.org/Publications/CSUMH_poster.html

June

Salvation

Joseph Jordan (pronounced JER-dun)

http://uudb.org/articles/josephjordan.html

Chalice Lighting: “The spirit of Love will be intensified to Godly proportions when reciprocal love exists

between the entire human race and each of its individual members. That love must be based upon

mutual respect for the differences in color, language and worship, even as we appreciate and accept

with gratitude the differences that tend to unite the male and female of all species. We do not find

those differences obstacles to love. ~ George de Benneville

Reading: Darkening the Doorways by Mark Morrison-Reed pp. 92-97

Story for All Ages: https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/youth/virtueethics/workshop4/building-respect

Page 17: belief in Gods plan for the ultimate redemption and ... · back toward reunion with God. Origen wrote in his De Principiis and Against Celsus concerning the way God will restore all

Sample Sermon: Patrick Murfin (really a blog)

http://patrickmurfin.blogspot.com/2014/06/joseph-jordanpioneer-black-universalist.html

Megan Lloyd Joiner

http://www.usnh.org/sermon-a-visionary-faith-a-practice-and-promise-sunday/

Music: “We’ll Build a Land”

Art:

More General Resources on Universalism:

THE UNIVERSALIST HERITAGE: Keynote Addresses on Universalist History, Ethics and Theology (1976 -

1992) Published by The New York State Convention, Second Edition

http://nyscu.org/Publications/Universalist_Heritage.pdf