Prelude: There is More Love Somewhere, Hymn #95, Stuart Bard and Lynn Orlando

 

Chalice Lighting words from Rev. Sharon Wylie. 

Let this be the place where we consider what we’ve never considered;
and where we imagine for ourselves, something new and unthinkable.
May our time together bring dreams of new ways of being in the world.

 

Hymn #123:  Spirit of Life, Diana Pavao and OBUUC Choir

Gesture of Friendship

 

 

Time for All Ages:  What Is Given From the Heart by Particia McKissack and April Harrison

 

Children’s Blessing:

 

Centering Words 

We center ourselves now in a moment of reflection.
We are surrounded by the spirit of life and love,
And we make this time that we might listen to the fears, and the truths, inside ourselves,
And that we might lift our concerns into the love and support of this community.
This morning we hope for health and healing of ourselves,
Knowing that our lives are precious,
And we are each vulnerable to the hurts of the world in different ways.
May we each find inner confidence through the support of this community,
That we may live into being our best selves.
We send our hopes, also, to those closest to us;
To our friends, and family,
To people we love who are struggling, facing unknown prognosis,
people who are grieving,
May they always know we care.
As we join our prayers within this gathering, let us also extend our hopes and dreams to the communities that support us,
And the places around the world that join us in seeking peace and justice.
Now, let us sit In a time of silence together.  

 

Time of Stillness and Reflection:

Reading: by Angela O-gun-ta’-la, a designer of future-facing organizations
… I don’t think you need to have the unbridled optimism in order to believe that you can change things…
It’s kind of like a spectrum…
You can either think that the world is getting better or that the future will be much better than it is now,
Or you can think that the world is getting worse. But that continuum isn’t as important to me, actually, as this idea of: do you think you have agency in this world that is either getting better or worse?
The future is a continuous, iterative process. It changes every single day. And your ideas about it changes, also, as you test and as you play with that idea of the future.
So for me, that’s the most important thing. Of course there’s a present, but there’s this transition period before we reach this future that we can envision.
When we choose to be curious about the alternatives and when we take them seriously, we’ll start to think in new ways; we’ll solve problems in new ways. And we’ll just start to see possibilities that we couldn’t see before.
When it comes to our futures, we have hope; we have fear. But sometimes we forget that we also have influence. And that means we can choose the futures we want to work towards. Nothing is written in stone, so reconsider your vision of the future. Take a chance, and be surprised.

 

Reflection Anything Can Be by Rev. Morgan McLean
 

Offering
The Olympia Brown Unitarian Universalist Church is a community of generosity and abundance. Especially now, in this challenging and anxious time, your generosity is what keeps this community as vital as it is.

Each month we share the generosity of our collection with a local partner This month, our supported local group is the Racine Interfaith Council or RIC

 

Offertory Anthem: Woyaya, Lea Morris and the UU in Silver Spring, MD Choir

 

Benediction: UU Minister Lynn Ungar’s poem “Pandemic”

Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

 Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

 

Postlude: We Are Building a New Way, UU Society of Grafton and Upton, Massachusetts