This Sunday is a special opportunity for community celebration and connection for First Universalist. We’ll begin our morning at church at 10 a.m. for a brief worship service and glitter blessing affirmation–all are welcome! Then, around 10:30, those who choose to will head out to the Twin Cities Pride Parade, where we will watch the parade. The parade starts at 11 a.m. at 3rd & Hennepin and proceeds down Hennepin to Spruce.

Schedule and Things to Note:
10 a.m. Service and Glitter Blessing inside the sanctuary (note that, in order to offer a more accessible space for this special service, we have decided to start inside instead of under the tent). Begin the day with a brief, 30-minute service, including a glitter blessing to spark our spirits.
10:30 – ? Parade – We’ll then carry our energized spirits to the Pride Parade and Festival. You can join a group biking to the parade, or taking the #6 bus together. We will have free bus passes printed out for those who need one. We are not marching in the parade. This invitation is to attend the parade together. We will arrive together, stay as long as you like, and then head back to the church on our own schedules.
Join us virtually – Not up to joining in the parade in person but want to go with us in spirit? Join the livestream here.
Self Care – Remember to bring a water bottle and any sun protection you may need (sunscreen, hat, etc.). You’ll be able to grab a snack and fill up your water bottle at church before we head out to the parade, or bring a snack or two of your own from home.
Coffee Hour – There won’t be a full coffee/social hour after the worship service this week. An abbreviated and casual Place to Start visitor class will still take place after service at the front of the sanctuary.

A Place to Start
This Sunday’s “A Place to Start” will be abbreviated and more casual than usual due to the special Pride service and Parade.
Are you new or new-ish to First Universalist and wondering where to begin? Here’s “A Place to Start!” Whether you’re simply curious or are considering making this your spiritual home, in this casual class, you’ll learn some of the basics of Unitarian Universalism, as well as how to get connected to what you’re seeking here at church. Meet at the front of the sanctuary immediately after the service on a first or third Sunday. No RSVP necessary. Facilitated by First U members.

If you can’t make it, or prefer to connect with a staff person one on one, please fill out the Visitor Connect form so we can follow up with you. Thank you!

NOTE: No in-person worship at the First U campus this Sunday–plan on joining us at Riverview Theater instead! RSVP here to let us know you’re coming. 

We’ll join with folks from White Bear UU, UU Church of Minnetonka, and MN Valley UU to participate in Unitarian Universalist General Assembly service–part of our denomination’s gathering of Unitarian Universalists from around the country and world. We’ll gather at 9:30 a.m. for some refreshments and start the stream at 10:00, and expect to be leaving the theater around 11:35.

There will be a post-service bring-your-own picnic at Minnehaha Falls, just north of Sea Salt (between main parking lot and Sea Salt).

Worship from home: If you want to watch the worship video from home, find it at this link. Note that it will not be available to view at the link until noon (we have special permission to stream it earlier in a live setting as a congregational group).

A fascinating detail about our interconnected web: did you know that “dad jokes” are a universal mark of human cultures around the world? What role does the groaner play in life that so cements its place in the ways we learn to live?

Father’s Day gives us a chance to reflect on the wisdom that often comes wrapped in humor from those who fill the roles of mentors, guides, or fathers. As we explore the lighter side of life, we’re reminded of the broader roles these figures play. Their playful approach teaches us resilience and reveals the human spirit in everyday moments. It shows us how, sometimes, the deepest wisdom is shared in moments of lift and levity, that joy is the vehicle for the strength we need to make change for good!

I’ll leave you with a query for your reflection. How does the Earth Day service happen so beautifully year after year? Well, we planet, of course.

I’ll see myself out…

See you Sunday. Peace,

Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout

Join us for worship this Sunday at 10 a.m. ONLY 

The recording is available for on-demand streaming on our YouTube channel immediately after the service ends.

Offering: Give via our online giving portal, or CashApp. Make sure to designate that it’s for the “Offering Plate” fund.

Masks are welcome but not required in the sanctuary. Read our COVID policies for gathering. Find information about childcare and Sunday morning options for children and youth here.

A Place to Start

in person, immediately after worship

Facilitated by one of our members, A Place to Start is a brief, casual orientation to Unitarian Universalism and First Universalist Church. During this 45-minute class, participants will learn about the foundations of our faith tradition and opportunities to get involved. The facilitator will be holding a green “Here is A Place to Start” sign at the front of the sanctuary after the worship services. We look forward to welcoming you! 

Please note the church does not provide childcare during A Place to Start due to full Sunday morning RE and volunteer schedules. Kids are welcome in A Place to Start after they’re picked up from RE. Options for kids during A Place to Start are the same as in worship: coloring sheets and pipecleaners, and moving to a more kid-friendly space within the sanctuary. You’re also welcome to ask another trusted adult to watch your child(ren) during this time if you prefer. 

We host A Place to Start next on June 30. If you can’t make it, or prefer to connect with a staff person one on one, please fill out the Visitor Connect form so we can follow up with you. Thank you!

This Sunday, we explore how ordinary people can create extraordinary change. Retelling the stories of Norbert Čapek and Waitstill and Martha Sharp, as well as the village of Le Chambon, we’ll reflect on the profound impact of simple acts of courage and compassion. By examining historical and modern examples of collective action and resilience, we’ll see how our community can support and inspire each other in the face of challenges. Join us to deepen our commitment to justice and compassion, to realize the extraordinary potential within each of us.

Join us for worship this Sunday at 10 a.m. ONLY, in person and livestreamed.

Offering:

Give via our online giving portal, or CashApp. Make sure to designate that it’s for the “Offering Plate” fund.

Masks are welcome but not required in the sanctuary. Read our COVID policies for gathering. Find information about childcare and Sunday morning options for children and youth here.

This Sunday, June 2, at 10 a.m. ONLY, is our annual Flower Communion. 

Lunch under the tent at 11:15 a.m.

Bring a flower from home if you can!

This Sunday’s worship invitation from Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout includes a story adapted from the telling of Teresa Schwartz and David Schwartz.

He left Bohemia under government threat, accepting a call to serve a Baptist church in New York City as minister…until one day in 1919. That day, he wrote in his diary: “I cannot be a Baptist anymore, even in compromise. The fire of new desires, new worlds, is burning inside me.”

The Rev. Norbert Čapek and his companion, the Rev. Maja Čapek, joined a Unitarian church in New Jersey together in 1921—for the same reason a whole lot of you did: their children liked the religious education program!

After the first World War’s end, Norbert and Maja returned home to Norbert’s birthplace—the newly independent Czechoslovakia. There, they founded the Prague Liberal Religious Fellowship, a Unitarian congregation grown to 3,200 members in just two decades.

This church—like ours—had people who believed different things. Still, Norbert felt a calling to create a ritual they could all share, eventually turning to the beauty of the countryside and its blooms of countless shapes and kinds.

In 1923, Norbert introduced a simple flower ceremony to his people. He asked his congregants to bring a flower to church—from their gardens, the field, or the roadside. He invited each person to place their flower in a vase. There was the church community, no less unique for being united. Following the service, each person could take a flower from the vase—a different one than they had brought.

For his brazen message of inherent worth, dignity, and beauty in difference, the Gestapo arrested Norbert in 1942. Even in starvation and torture, he held a flower ceremony with his fellow prisoners, finding whatever flowers they could among the weeds of the camp. They testified to a beauty larger than themselves, and a love that would outlive them.

The Nazis killed Norbert Čapek. But his spirit, courage, and commitment live on, today. Those qualities have passed, now, to us, to make them real.

His wife Mája brought the flower ceremony to the Unitarian Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1940, beginning the yearly celebration in Unitarian Universalist churches across the nation we continue this Sunday.

And now, we are getting together again, with our whole selves open to the work and potential of community. We bring our time and treasure and thought and wisdom to this shared faith journey. We take solace and strength in each others’ company and the growing connections between us.

Gathered together, an organization of colors and cultures, perspectives and contexts, ages and affections, our common purpose connects us. And together, we all live to be part of a difference that shakes the status quo. Even the differences between—those innumerable, immeasurable, ineffable strands our lives join to weave—even they offer us the opportunity to practice good relationships, to open our hearts and minds, to reject the illusion of separateness, to be stronger by our bonds.

It is the essence of these truths, the reminders that we can each be whole and we can all be one that come with us as we spend a week in the world. They influence where we go, what we do, and how we care. And then, we return to renew and refresh our own lives and each others’—on and on, again and again, building and rebuilding a living example in our common journey, showing what love can do when you bring your whole self, when I bring mine, and—amid a weedy thicket of brokenness and division all about us—there is a we.

The opportunity has come again, as it has for a century (to say the least), for the flowers to remind us of the audacious beauty of collective action; to remind us to love differences that define and distinguish us; to keep our faith in the call of love in common.

Bring a flower from your garden. If you don’t have access to a flower, worry not—we’ll have one for you when you get here. The flowers will teach; you and I can be the difference.

Join us for worship this Sunday, June 2 at 10 a.m. ONLY 

The recording is available for on-demand streaming on our YouTube channel immediately after the service ends.

Offering:

Give via our online giving portal, or CashApp. Make sure to designate that it’s for the “Offering Plate” fund.

Masks are welcome but not required in the sanctuary. Read our COVID policies for gathering. Find information about childcare and Sunday morning options for children and youth here.

What rituals and practices help us remember and bring care to the grief and loss we know as individuals and communities? How might we move it through our bodies, and what roles do beauty and singing and laughter have to play? How might we hold multiple stories and experiences within and among ourselves all at once? Join us on Sunday for shared song and story and searching as we explore the origins of Memorial Day and strengthen ourselves for the journey ahead.

Offering:
Give via our online giving portal, or CashApp. Make sure to designate that it’s for the “Offering Plate” fund.

Masks are welcome but not required in the sanctuary. Read our COVID policies for gathering. Find information about childcare and Sunday morning options for children and youth here.

Religious Education Info for Summer

From May 19 through Sept. 8, Religious Education is worship. There are no classes or formal curriculum. Kids and youth of all ages are invited to worship in the Sanctuary with their families.

In the summer months, childcare is also available for children ages 6 months to Kindergarten in rooms 102 and 104 during Sunday worship from 9:45-11:15 a.m.

We will also set up the Cummins Room on Sunday mornings with the worship livestream, along with art supplies and quiet toys for families with older children who need a little more wiggle space. The Cummins Room will not be staffed, and all children must be accompanied by one of their adults at all times.

Religious Education classes and curriculum resume Sept. 15. Watch for registration to open in late May. In the meantime, we are looking for more volunteers to minister with our kids and youth in the Fall. Volunteers with all sorts of sills are needed at many ages and programming formats! All volunteers will be provided with thorough training and ongoing support, and no previous experience with Religious Education is needed. If you are open to further conversation about volunteering, please reach out to Allison – she will be delighted to connect.

Please reach out to Allison Connelly-Vetter, Interim Director of Children, Youth, & Family Ministries, with questions or for more information at allison@firstuniv.org.

Our Annual Bridging Ritual

Share in a celebration of life’s meaningful moments this Sunday at First Universalist. As we proudly honor our high school graduates moving forward into new adventures, we also widen our embrace to acknowledge all the transitions our community members are navigating. We welcome back the soul-stirring music of Ellis Delaney, to grace our gathering with stories sung to life. Big or small, each change marks a meaningful point in our journey. We offer a space for everyone to share their experiences, reflect on personal growth, and cross a symbolic bridge in supportive community. Join us to celebrate these transitions together, reinforcing the ties that bind us one with another, loving the stories that make each one of us whole.

Note: Our summer worship schedule begins this Sunday! From May 19 – September 8, we will have one service only at 10 a.m.

Offering:

Give via our online giving portal, or CashApp. Make sure to designate that it’s for the “Offering Plate” fund.

Masks are welcome but not required in the sanctuary. Read our COVID policies for gathering. Find information about childcare and Sunday morning options for children and youth here.

A Place to Start

In person, immediately after worship, no RSVP necessary

Facilitated by one of our members, A Place to Start is a brief, casual orientation to Unitarian Universalism and First Universalist Church. During this 45-minute class, participants will learn about the foundations of our faith tradition and opportunities to get involved. The facilitator will be holding a green “Here is A Place to Start” sign at the front of the sanctuary after the worship services. We look forward to welcoming you!

Please note the church does not provide childcare during A Place to Start due to full Sunday morning RE and volunteer schedules. Kids are welcome in A Place to Start after they’re picked up from RE. Options for kids during A Place to Start are the same as in worship: coloring sheets and pipecleaners, and moving to a more kid-friendly space within the sanctuary. You’re also welcome to ask another trusted adult to watch your child(ren) during this time if you prefer.

We host A Place to Start next on June 16 and 30. If you can’t make it, or prefer to connect with a staff person one on one, please fill out the Visitor Connect form so we can follow up with you. Thank you!

Join us this Sunday for “Navigating Transitions: From Loyalty to Legacy,” a gentle exploration of the threads that connect one generation to the next. As we honor the voices of our Coming of Age youth and pause to lift up those who love and guide us as mothers of all kinds, we’ll weave together the timeless stories of loyalty and the quiet, steadfast acts that shape our stories. Come, be part of crafting a future rich with wisdom and guided by the cherished values passed down through the ages.

Offering:

Give via our online giving portal, or CashApp. Make sure to designate that it’s for the “Offering Plate” fund.

Masks are welcome but not required in the sanctuary. Read our COVID policies for gathering. Find information about childcare and Sunday morning options for children and youth here.

This Sunday, First Universalist joyfully celebrates New Member Sunday, a testament to our community’s growth and resilience. Membership and Connections Coordinator Liz Farmer, lay leader Nancy Potter, and Reverend Jen will guide us through a reflective conversation on the essence of openness. They invite us to examine how vulnerability, grace, and kindness are more than spiritual practices—they are vital for deepening our communal bonds. This service challenges us to dismantle the barriers that often lead to isolation, making every interaction a profound connection. As we celebrate this enriching occasion, reflect on your journey: What is your next step toward deeper engagement in our community? Join us for a transformative experience.

Join us for worship this Sunday, May 5, at 9 and 11 a.m. as we explore our monthly theme, “Worshiping, Singing, & Playing Together.”
In person at 9 a.m.
In person and livestreamed at 11 a.m.

Watch the livestream on Zoom or YouTube Live. You can find the digital Order of Service here. 

Zoom webinar ID: 861 805 984

The recording is available for on-demand streaming on our YouTube channel immediately after the service ends.

Offering: Give via our online giving portal, or CashApp. Make sure to designate that it’s for the “Offering Plate” fund.

Masks are welcome but not required in the sanctuary. Read our COVID policies for gathering. Find information about childcare and Sunday morning options for children and youth here.

A Place to Start – in person, immediately after worship

Facilitated by one of our members, A Place to Start is a brief, casual orientation to Unitarian Universalism and First Universalist Church. During this 45-minute class, participants will learn about the foundations of our faith tradition and opportunities to get involved. The facilitator will be holding a green “Here is A Place to Start” sign at the front of the sanctuary after the worship services. We look forward to welcoming you! 

Please note the church does not provide childcare during A Place to Start due to full Sunday morning RE and volunteer schedules. Kids are welcome in A Place to Start after they’re picked up from RE. Options for kids during A Place to Start are the same as in worship: coloring sheets and pipecleaners, and moving to a more kid-friendly space within the sanctuary. You’re also welcome to ask another trusted adult to watch your child(ren) during this time if you prefer. 

We host A Place to Start next on May 19 & June 2. If you can’t make it, or prefer to connect with a staff person one on one, please fill out the Visitor Connect form so we can follow up with you. Thank you!

This Sunday, we kick off a four-week Season of Gratitude, and immerse ourselves in the rich languages of love and gratitude. We warmly invite everyone to join us as we explore how these sincere expressions deepen our bonds and strengthen the fabric of our community. It’s an ideal moment to celebrate the diverse ways we can express our appreciation for each other’s efforts within our beloved community.

Throughout this special season, our services and events will celebrate the ones whose time, energy, and heartful service help our beloved community to thrive, starting with our incomparable many volunteers. Their steadfast commitment forms the bedrock of our community’s growth and vitality. By taking time to notice each other and love each other up with thanksgiving, we do more than recognize these vital contributions; we water the seeds of appreciation, we nurture them into full bloom across our community. Join us this Sunday and in the following weeks as this journey of gratitude opens for warmer days and warmer hearts.

Offering: Give via our online giving portal, or CashApp. Make sure to designate that it’s for the “Offering Plate” fund.

Masks are welcome but not required in the sanctuary. Read our COVID policies for gathering. Find information about childcare and Sunday morning options for children and youth here.