Light in the Darkness
Dr Davies will offer reflections on the effectiveness of non-violent action in a world of darkness.
Archives
Celebrations with Light
Many fall/winter celebrations before the end of the year are called a “Festival of Lights”. Others are celebrated by lighting candles even if the title is not formal. Today we are going to explore the celebrations that are held in late fall, early winter and how light plays a staring role.
We Are All Santas
It is literally impossible to avoid Christmas in our culture, so the Worship Team decided to embrace it ~ heavenly flavored with doses of Unitarian Universalism. Come join in a Red River UU Christmas; singing some carols, hearing some familiar (and not so familiar) readings and stories, and touching on an assortment of meanings woven into Christmas by various religious and secular influences.
Know Your Status
Christopher Grimes
Next Saturday, December 1st marks the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day, where people from all faiths, sexualities, and social status can remember and honor those who fought a courageous battle with HIV/AIDS while celebrating the advances that have been made in the fight to end HIV. On Sunday Christopher will speak about the Callie Clinic, their work in the community and about World AIDS Day, where we’ve been and where we find ourselves today.
Christopher Grimes is the Outreach/Prevention Supervisor and a Case Manager at The Callie Clinic. He provides education on HIV and other STD’s and offers free and confidential HIV and Hepatitis C testing, so people can know their status. Serving the community helping HIV positive people live healthy and happy lives has become his life’s work.
Ag Life and You
Did you know that there’s a service available in all 254 counties in Texas and in Oklahoma that offers programs, tools, and resources to help you grow better tomatoes, live more healthy lives, protect the environment, strengthen our communities and enrich youth? Neither did the worship team! On Sunday, Joyce White from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will give us an overview of how they can help people everywhere.
Joyce grew up in the 4-H program and her mother was a leader so you can say that she has spent most of her life in Extension in one way or the other. Her Bachelor’s degree is Secondary Education – Home Economics major and her Master’s degree is in Education with an emphasis on Curriculum & Instruction.
And Crown Thy Good
Jerry Harris, Jim Holmes, L.D. Clark, and Bruce Cameron
Armistice Day was first observed November 11th in 1919, on the anniversary of the armistice with Germany. The tradition continued informally. Then President Coolidge called for national observations on Nov. 11 with appropriate ceremonies; F.D.R. signed it into law as a holiday; Eisenhower renamed it Veteran’s Day. L.B.J moved it to the 4th Monday in October via the Uniform Holiday Bill and President Ford returned the date to November 11.
The next time Veteran’s Day falls on a Sunday is in 2029 which led the worship team to ask four veterans in our congregation to speak. The topic? Veteran’s Day. Come listen to four perspectives on this holiday which has been tinkered with by more presidents than most other national holidays.
Becoming Great
What would it take for members of the human community to become great in relation to each other and the rest of life on our planet? What cultural, economic, social, and spiritual paths might help lead us to become one of the greatest generations for each other and the earth as a whole?
The Rev. Dr. Mark Y.A. Davies. Mark is the Wimberly Professor of Social and Ecological Ethics; Director of the World House Institute for Social and Ecological Responsibility; and Executive Director of the Leadership. Education, and Development Hub North America for the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry at Oklahoma City University where he has worked in both teaching and administration for 22 years. He is a United Methodist minister and holds a Ph.D. in Social Ethics, from Boston University.
Mark engages in advocacy and activism in the areas of peace, social justice, and ecological sustainability. Locally this is expressed through his work with the Human Community Network, which works to create non-violent systemic change for a just and flourishing human and ecological community through collaboration, education, innovation, and action.
Study. Learn. Question. Die.
We trace the origins of our Unitarian heritage to the mid sixteenth century to one man. After years of study he concluded the theological basis for the Holy Trinity was mistaken and said so in his book On the Errors of the Trinity. Pretty ballsy given the ironclad hold religion had on the world. Both Catholics and Protestants branded his anti-trinitarian writing heretical. He was burned to death 465 years ago yesterday, Oct. 27,1553. Fortunately for us, one copy of his book did not go up in flames. If it had, Unitarianism might never have been permitted to exist.
This I Believe – Credo Sunday
We all have a foundation upon which we build our religious philosophy. It is nestled deep in our soul rather than printed in any brochure and hungers to be shared. It comes from the depth of our own thought and heart. It is the core of our individual spiritual path. Credo literally means, “I give my heart and loyalty to…” Astute credos marry the gifts of both intellect and spirit. Credos spur presenters to select highlights from their religious odyssey, highlighting those affirmations that sustain them during the happy and hard days and nights of life.
The worship team invited a few members once or twice a year to offer their credo statement. They are asked several months in advance because writing out what you give your heart and loyalty to takes some thought.
Following the morning assembly, everyone is invited to tarry for lunch, catered by Dickey’s Barbecue Pit and remain for the Fall Congregational Meeting which starts at 1 pm.
Holding it Together While You Ride Out the Storm
Those storms are never in the forecast. They pop up and knock you off course in an instant. My storm began like a flash of lightening – a quick misstep off a curb – but it blew up into a full cyclone, pulling my whole life into its whirling spin.
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