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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.

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Bread and Cider Communion

Date:   November 24, 2024
Speaker:   Linda Buckmaster
Length:   8:02

Linda introduces the ritual of Bread and Cider Communion. This Sunday before Thanksgiving we take time to acknowledge generosity, gratitude, and the complicated nature of this holiday. We honor the stories of our Wabanaki neighbors and look for paths forward and into right relationship. We open ourselves to wisdom in order to repair the evils of the past in whatever small ways we can. Through ritual sharing of bread and cider we invoke the spirit of interconnection and hope. We mourn and lament. We sing and are joyful.

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Remember and Repair

Date:   November 17, 2024
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   13:51

The Belfast Unitarian Universalist Church turns 30 years old this month, this year. We honor that anniversary with joy and gratitude. We also explore how old wounds, hard relationships, difficult journeys, and challenging moments can be healed simply through the process of remembering. Remembering through story, through connection, through witness, through pictures, and prayers, and painting.

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Now What?

Date:   November 10, 2024
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   12:51

On this first Sunday following the 2024 presidential election I’m sure we’ll have some things to talk about. No matter what the result is, or how it is being handled the question still exists. Now what? How will we integrate the theme of Living Love through the Practice of Repair into the world as it is in this moment? What does our UU Theology have to say about repair in these times? How might we continue to bring more healing and safety into our relationships, community, and country?

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Remembering the Beloved in the Other

Date:   November 3, 2024
Speaker:   Jane Morgan
Length:   12:14

How can we find the capacity to not see others as the enemy or an opposing view, but as a beloved who is just beyond our capacity for empathy?  And how we can change that perspective? (Presented two days before the presidential election of 2024.)

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Listening to ... God?

Date:   October 27, 2024
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   17:22

Rev. Amy delivered two reflections. This recording begins with Reflection 1, then a reading by Margi Pulkingham at 8:24, and Reflection 2 at 10:38. The message is a call to do a different kind of listening -- about prayer and inner wisdom, about the concept of "kin-dom" and the responsibility we have.

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Listening to Our Wabanaki Neighbors (Telling Stories)

Date:   October 20, 2024
Speaker:   John Bear Mitchell
Length:   32:12

Mitchell begins with a song. His message begins at 2:58. John Bear Mitchell is a citizen of the Penobscot Nation from Indian Island in Maine. He presently serves as the University of Maine System Office Native American Waiver and Educational Program Coordinator, University of Maine’s Wabanaki Center Outreach and Student Development Coordinator, as well as, a Lecturer of Wabanaki Studies and Multicultural Studies at the University of Maine in Orono. He has served on numerous museum and educational boards throughout the state with missions based on Maine’s Wabanaki people.

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How to Listen: To Whom and When

Date:   October 13, 2024
Speaker:   Rev. Amy McCormick
Length:   14:55

Let’s assume that deep listening is actually an important life skill, an excellent spiritual practice, and a tool for creating more compassion and justice in the world. How do we do it? When do we do it? For whom and to whom do we offer it? Perhaps the poets have the answers we seek. Perhaps we might discover a hidden superpower within. Maybe just maybe learning how to listen will change everything.