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The Case for Reparations

Date:   January 19, 2025
Speaker:   Marsha Donahue
Length:   7:32

Every week during our service we speak about the importance of acknowledging those whose hard labor, while enslaved or incarcerated, built our country and made it rich. We promise to help repair those deep wounds wherever we can. This service, in honor of Martin Luther King Sunday, will talk about the losses of the African American and Indigenous people of Maine and what reparations should and are being made. Donahue's reflection ends with a video of the final two minutes of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech given the night before he was assassinated.

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Keeping Your Story Alive

Date:   January 19, 2025
Speaker:   Kathy Muzzy
Length:   5:39

Kathy Muzzy's reflection accompanied the one given by Marsha Donahue in this service. She built it on a talk given at UU Belfast late in 2024 by John Bear Mitchell. Muzzy is a leading member of the Committee on Racism at UUCB.

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Satellites and Stars

Date:   January 12, 2025
Speaker:   Rev. Andrea Greenwood
Length:   18:25

For this Sunday between Epiphany and the Inauguration, I am thinking about the light of the heavens and how we might be led into something new and unexpected. How do we explore the outer frontiers and find our own freedoms while also maintaining the connections that sustain us? > About Andrea Greenwood: The Rev. Andrea Greenwood is a retired UU minister who first served in Atlanta, GA and then was at the First Parish of Watertown (MA) in a variety of capacities between 1992 and 2019. She loves children's literature and part of her ministry involved supporting and advocating for families that included children with special needs. She and her husband, the Rev. Mark Harris, are the proud parents of four sons and one book!

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Nothing Left Unsaid

Date:   January 5, 2025
Speaker:   Rev. Mark Harris
Length:   21:38

Many of the words we hear these days are used to justify our actions but have no basis in reality, or are fabrications of truth that are said to provoke a response or lead us down a false pathway. The new year is a good time to practice listening to others to let our lives speak deeper truths of character and integrity. > About Mark Harris: Mark is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister who served three churches in Massachusetts, and was once Director of Information for the UUA. His last church was the First Parish of Watertown, MA from 1996-2019, where he served for some of that time with his wife Andrea Greenwood. He also taught UU History at a number of seminaries, most recently Boston University, and has also published a number of articles and books on UU History. He and Andrea live in Owls Head.

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Transforming Grace

Date:   December 29, 2024
Speaker:   Rev. Jacquie Robb
Length:   16:58

Artist Kim Krans wrote, “My art is not my magnum opus. My magnum opus is the constant practice of not knowing, and not having the answer, yet showing up in devotion to the search. In this way, I remain a student, trusting that one door opens the next and that more will be revealed.” As the old year transforms into the new, we look back at 2024 to reflect how divine Intelligence has led us and what we have learned about walking the path of grace, inspiration, and love. Note: Rev. Robb had the congregation discuss grace in small groups for about 4 minutes, at about 9 minutes into the talk. That discussion time has been reduced to 5 seconds here.

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Christmas Eve Service - Reflection 1: The Star

Date:   December 24, 2024
Speaker:   Margi Pulkingham
Length:   3:11

What magic, what love, what adventure, what learning, what challenge and struggle have we been getting ready for? As we sing and light candles, as we share in precious community, let us say to one another and to the fullness of our lives: Come in, Come in! This place is ready for you.

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Christmas Eve Service - Reflection 2: The Song

Date:   December 24, 2024
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   7:37

What magic, what love, what adventure, what learning, what challenge and struggle have we been getting ready for? As we sing and light candles, as we share in precious community, let us say to one another and to the fullness of our lives: Come in, Come in! This place is ready for you.

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Love = Patience

Date:   December 15, 2024
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   13:30

It’s the third Sunday in Advent and we light a candle for love. How many more ways can we talk about love, its miracle, it’s presence and practice? In this waiting time, in the work of learning how to be absolutely present to our lives, what role does patience play? What is it anyway? How do you know you have it? What does it have to do with love?

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The Honesty of Presence

Date:   December 8, 2024
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   14:18

(This service was held entirely on Zoom because of a snowstorm.) It seems like we talk often about the importance of presence ... the life skill that is being fully alive and aware in the moments we are in, and with the people we choose to spend our time with. This week I explore how true presence requires radical honesty. As we continue our deep look at advent time and this week’s focus on peace, I wonder if it is only our capacity to be completely truthful with ourselves and others that we can know the peace that comes from being fully present.

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A Little Apocalypse

Date:   December 1, 2024
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   14:34

This Sunday marks the first week of Advent. In the Christian tradition, this is the four weeks leading up to the Christmas Holiday, focusing on the principles of Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy. Something we rarely talk about in UU circles is that each year, our Christian siblings mark the beginning of Advent with a holy teaching on "ending." This feels especially appropriate this year and so in our own way let's explore together the wisdom that comes when the end is near.