Joy in the Midst of It All: Choir-led Worship
Joy is the harbinger of our true nature and a sign of right relationship. It is more than a sense of happiness. It is better understood as getting into the flow. Joy/flow can be experienced even in the midst of ambiguity and suffering, of struggle and hardship. In this season of Presence, we invite you into a full hour of getting into the flow, joy in the midst of it all.
At this Sunday’s special music-filled worship service, the First Universalist Choir and Orchestra will be leading worship, performing “A Symphony of Carols” by Randol Alan Bass. Arranged to resemble a four-movement choral symphony, this 1997 work is an arrangement of six holiday carols.
Please join us for services at 9:30 or 11:15 a.m.!
Listen to the Call to Worship and Homily:
Order of Service: Dec. 11 Order of Service
Offering Recipient: Minnesota Host Home Network (give here)
December worship theme: Presence
Sufi teacher and scholar, Kabir Helminski, writes “Presence signifies the quality of consciously being here. It is the activation of a higher level of awareness that allows all our other human functions – such as thought, feeling, and action – to be known, developed and harmonized.” Presence is named as awakening, mindfulness, dhyana, or remembrance in other religious traditions. Some might be surprised to discover that repentance, derived from the Greek, metanoia, means to enter the big mind/presence. Common to all the great spiritual traditions is a spiritual philosophy of presence. In this season of advent, of waiting and listening, we will explore and experience Presence, the intersecting places of sense and spirit.
