As a new Gregorian year begins, let us set our deepest intentions not to meet the demands of oppressive systems or please those who could not care less about our personal and collective well-being.

“Breathing in, I calm my body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.” wrote Buddhist Monk, Peace Activist, and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. In this season of tradition and resolution, how might we spend some time together with our breath and our bodies to find strength and peace?

We gathered for our Annual Candlelit Christmas Eve service, filled with lessons and carols.

“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day” wrote artist Vincent Van Gogh. In this sometimes-difficult season of the longest nights, of winter, and of Solstice, how might we find new vitality and deeper dimension in our lives?

This Sunday, we will look at some Holiday traditions and Light as a physical element and iconic symbol found in major religious traditions. What is your relationship to Light and Darkness as days become shorter and nights get longer?

When political crises descend or holidays arrive, the feelings of loneliness or helplessness can overwhelm or immobilize us. And yet, as Rev. Wayne Arnason reminds us, we know that deep down, there is another truth: we are not alone. We gather this Sunday to ground ourselves in our connectedness.

Around the world and throughout time, there have been people whose lives are lived in the in-between spaces and the both/and places of their cultures, including transgender and non-binary people. As we face a political climate where so many of our core values are at risk, what can we learn about survival and resistance from those who have always lived at the overlaps and the edges?
* note: following the Time for All Ages in this service, and in our Transgender Day of Remembrance and Resilience Vigil after service, there will be mention of death by suicide.

In times of grief and rage, times we feel helpless or hopeless, times when our values feel publicly cut down and our identities publicly under threat, how do we endure? Regardless of who sits in our elected offices, the work to restore our souls and build a world awakened to love and justice always rests in our hands. Join us this Sunday as we look to find a way forward together.

Let us gather to honor our dead, our martyrs, our saints and celebrate our ancestors throughout space+time. Death is as sacred as birth and the only unavoidable experience for living beings. Why is death so increasingly banalized and natural death inadmissible instead of being honored?

“Not for ourselves alone are we born” wrote Marcus Tullius Cicero over 2050 years ago. When we gather together in community, our imprint on the world becomes magnified beyond our comprehension. What does it mean to put ourselves in service of something much greater than our own lives?

In a country of nearly 350 million people, it can often feel like our individual voice, or our individual vote, does not matter. Yet the power in democracy is not in 350 million isolated voices, nor even in the offices of elected officials; it is in ‘small groups of thoughtful, committed citizens’ working together persistently to change the world. How will we use our power?

How can our liberatory practices within the context of community and personal spiritual disciplines evoke lightness within our beingness?