Transforming the Revolving Door

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One in four Americans will experience a mental health disorder in their life time. It is a human issue that affects us all. So, too, the myths about those with mental health issues who are no more likely to be violent than anyone else, but they are much more likely to have contact with the criminal justice system. Nearly half the inmates in county jails have mental health issues.

On Sunday, our guest will talk about some collaborative programs that have reduced recidivism among those with mental health issues from 67% to 11%. These programs are transforming the revolving door.

Whitney Redden, a graduate of Austin College, earned a MA in Counseling Psychology at TWU, and is a licensed professional counselor. She has worked with the Battering Intervention program, Children’s Advocacy Center and now is at the Texoma Community Center. She currently is the president of the local National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter and is an adjunct professor at SOSU.

Building Racial Unity: Conversations and Relationships

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In 2016, our congregation realized we were unintentionally practicing Isolationism. We were a white congregation in a white suburb, living in a “bubble” but feeling genuinely troubled by the growing chasm between black and white people. We decided to reach out intentionally across the color line to meet each other, to talk, to create friendships, to learn and to walk in solidarity with one another in the community. I would like to share our story with you: by building relationships we build racial unity.

Jeanne is a recently retired, married, mother of two teenage boys. Her faith tradition is United Methodist and she is a member at Trietsch Memorial United Methodist Church in Flower Mound, whose motto is Open Minds, Open Hearts and Open Doors. Jeanne is passionate about meeting new people, building relationships and learning new things.

Water Communion Sunday

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Water is required for all living things to exist. Given this fact, it is an enigma why human race permits some to pollute, poison, steal or hoard this very essence of existence. This year’s water communion will focus on our collective treatment of water: one global, one national, and one local.

Bring a small container of water with you whether it comes from an actual place you’ve been, or from a virtual location – some place you’d enjoy visiting. Together we’ll look at ways to be better stewards of streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans, so our great grandchildren will not parish.

Coexistence is Not Enough

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The challenges of our time are too great for people of different faiths to simply get along. The urgency of now requires people of all faiths along with people of no particular faith to move beyond coexistence to work together in the human community for the transformation of the world towards peace, justice, and sustainability.

Applied Hope in a Warming World

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Hurricanes, floods, fires … what kind of world will we be facing in 20 years? What will you need to know and do? And how do you find the hope and inspiration needed to keep moving forward when the earth is undergoing such massive, global change?

Acquiring a Spiritual Life Through Alcoholism

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Stewart B. tells his story of a journey from a standard-issue, somewhat functional life into alcoholism, and from there to a life that is happily, usefully whole.
Stewart B. is a retired toolmaker. He has been a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous since January of 1988. He has taken A.A. meetings into jails and prisons, has given talks to groups on the Twelve Steps of A.A. and on the Twelve Traditions (the organizational principles of A.A.), and has held several service positions in the fellowship. Mr. B.’s curriculum vitae is filled with accomplishments in stamping dies, zinc and aluminum die casting, and jig & fixture work. Stewart is married, and he and wife Jane have six children in their blended family.
He was a “service brat” growing up, but has now resided in the same house for twenty-two years, which he finds amazing and rather nice. Aside from a penchant for examining nearby objects to see how they were made, he has no quirks or oddities. Really. Nothing you’d notice right off, anyway.

Poetry Sunday

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Back again to share with us some of his poetry is Ron Wallace. He is an Oklahoma Native of Choctaw, Cherokee and Osage ancestry and is the author of seven volumes of poetry published by TJMF Publishing. He is a three-time finalist in the Oklahoma Book Awards. His work has been recently featured in “Oklahoma Today”, “The Long Islander”, “Concho River Review”, “Cybersoleil journal”, “Cobalt”, “Red Earth Review”, “Dragon Poets Review”, “Sugar Mule”, “Cross-timbers”, “Gris-Gris” and a number of other magazines and anthologies.

Monarch Waystations and the 7th Principle

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As Unitarian Universalists, in our 7th Principle, we promise to respect the interdependent web of all life on earth. At our 2018 Spring Meeting we voted to create a micro-habitat for the threatened Monarch butterfly by creating a registered, certified Monarch Waystation. I will discuss the plight of the Monarch and what we can do in our own yards and communities to ameliorate the ongoing loss of native prairie, the Monarch’s habitat.

Hope Lives Here

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Grayson County Shelter, our neighbor at the end of the block, is a homeless shelter that is always open (24/7) and welcomes displaced families and singles from Grayson county and beyond (in both Texas and Oklahoma). The shelter is not a government agency of any ilk and relies on the goodwill donations of car-ing people, along with grants and sales from The Crowded Closet – that well named resale store next door – to cover all operating expenses.

Four times annually our congregation provides a home-cooked dinner for the residents and staff and in odd months, our Share The Bowl donations are contributed to the shelter. Many among us support The Crowded Closet with items no longer needed and regularly shop there. On Sunday we’ve invited Annette Limoges to come and tell us about the hope that lives around the corner from us.

A Beloved Community of Resistance and Resilience

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Recently the chances have increased exponentially that the United States will go down in history as the worst global offender in abdicating its moral respon-sibility to preserve a livable planet. This greatest of all moral failures will be its most well-known contri-bution in the shortened history of human civiliza-tion, unless we do all in our power to stop it. It will take sacrifice, empathy, and loving kindness for all life; and it will require the formation of beloved communities of resistance and resilience.

Rev. Dr. Mark Y. A. Davies 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. 

He and his wife Kristin live in Edmond, OK in the United States, and they have two teenage daughters.