It is hard to imagine much of anything positive being possible  without some level of trust. At the same time, experience teaches us to be wary, So how do we find balance?

World Religion Day began 70 years ago, but is relevant today as we consider what unites us. Dr. King encouraged us to fulfill the principles of respect and justice. What do we have in common with other faith traditions that could make greater harmony possible?

An expansive sense of possibility could be a springboard into a new year. But if we envision any meaningful personal transformation, we’re more likely to succeed by starting there, then moving on to a specific commitment, choosing from among our possibilities, and prioritizing.

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The winter solstice brings us into direct encounter and inescapable awareness of the rhythms of nature — within which the sacred circle of life turns and turns.

 

 

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Do you carry with you religious baggage — assumptions or bitterness about religion or religious people that weigh you down? Is there anything in such memories, or residual ways of thinking, that we can appreciate, even as we let go of the bulk of it?

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Each of us have had moments in which we became conscious that an ethical value was important to us, was a principle that we wanted to live out in our own lives. What is your earliest memory of being conscious of such a principle?

Today we will honor those who have shaped our lives, and also to honor our Transylvanian Unitarian ancestry. The service will include a short, silent, ritual, enacted with our multi-generational birth-month cohort, in which we’ll remember how someone important to us has impacted our lives.

We’ll consider the ways to create and honor the many forms of sanctuary that can comfort and inspire us, including places, art, words, music, and silences that have shaped us. And: How might we create for ourselves private and shared places and forms of sanctuary?