Join Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout on September 15 at 7 p.m. for a midweek worship experience for adults and older youth. This service is a brief time (20-30 minutes) of connection, centering, and reflection to help us find and keep our balance.

Launch the Wednesday Worship Zoom here – 7 p.m.

Webinar ID: 117-312-320.
To dial in: 312-626-6799 and enter the webinar ID.

Care Companions Space ~ 7:30 p.m.
We know that worship can take us into deep and surprising places. If you find yourself needing to talk with someone about what is stirring for you after worship, please speak with one of our care companions in a confidential zoom room after the service. This is how we care for one another.

This multigenerational service of song, story, and strength as we remember that no matter what is going on around us or within us, when we are in it together – what we need is here. Backpacks will be blessed for those who carry them, and all of us will come away with the joy of community and a grounding in our deepest commitments.

Worship leaders: Rev. Jen Crow, Lauren Wyeth, Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, Rev. Karen Hutt

Order of Service

Link to Give to the Offering

Join us this Sunday, September 12 for two identical services- one at 9 a.m. and one at 11 a.m.–  at Lyndale Gardens Amphitheater (Behind Lakewinds Co-Op at 6400 Lyndale Ave South). We encourage you to arrive by 8:45 or 10:45 a.m.

Offering Recipient: Hurricane Ida Relief; split between various organizations recommended by BLUU (Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism)

What to bring: We encourage you to bring water and sunglasses, a hat and/or sunscreen as needed for your comfort, a backpack if you are wearing one this fall, and to wear a mask. The amphitheatre benches are concrete; please bring a cushion or folding chair if you have difficulty sitting on a hard surface.

Directions & Access: Lyndale Gardens Amphitheatre is located off Lyndale Avenue just south of Highway 62, adjacent to Lakewinds Co-op. Please note that the pin on Google Maps is slightly off, and Apple Maps does not include the turn into the parking lot. You can use this pin to navigate to the amphitheatre instead. The amphitheatre is just to the north and west of Lakewinds Co-op. We encourage walking, biking, or riding transit if you are able; the amphitheatre is accessible via MetroTransit Route 4.

Parking: There is street parking available, as well as a gravel parking lot that can be accessed from Lyndale Avenue by turning West onto 64th Street, just north of the co-op. Please do not park in the co-op parking lot. If you are able, please find street parking in the nearby neighborhood in order to leave the closest parking spaces for those who most need them.

Accessibility: The amphitheatre is wheelchair accessible. There is a ramp down to the front row of benches and room for wheelchairs. The most direct route to the accessible path from the parking area requires navigating a short distance over gravel. For directions to a fully accessible drop off location, ask the ushers at the parking lot entrance for assistance.

Join Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, our new Director of Worship Arts Ministries, September 8 at 7 p.m. for his first time leading our Wednesday Worship service. Our Wednesday Worship service is a 30-minute midweek worship experience for adults and older youth. It offers us a brief time of connection, centering, and reflection to help us find and keep our balance. Come, gather with other like-minded seekers to ponder, meditate, and simply be together as a supportive, adaptive, and co-creative community.

Launch the Wednesday Worship Zoom here – 7 p.m.

Webinar ID: 117-312-320.
To listen by phone (audio only), dial 1-312-626-6799 and enter the webinar ID.

Care Companions Space ~ 7:30 p.m.
We know that worship can take us into deep and surprising places. If you find yourself needing to talk with someone about what is stirring for you after worship, please speak with one of our care companions in a confidential zoom room after the service. This is how we care for one another.

On Sunday, Sept. 5, First Universalist will not host a worship service as most church staff will be away from email and meetings 8/30–9/6 in order to open up space for renewed creativity and energy as we prepare to enter this new church year.

In lieu of First Universalist worship, we invite you to join the virtual worship service of the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, with Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt preaching.

• Join the worship service here at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 5 — the worship livestream video will appear on this webpage by the time the service begins.

Sunday, Sept. 5 worship description from Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt: As a UU theologian, I am always asking myself what it means to labor for our faith. From our liberation Christian roots, we inherit the idea that faith comes through good works, an idea that we have expanded and refined over time. In these days we come together in the work for justice, and we lend our efforts to the work of the church. Yet it takes more to be shaped in community to become our best selves. What is the everyday work of faithfulness that allows us to grow ourselves from seed?

About the Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt: The Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt serves as Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Drew University Theological School. She holds a PhD in religious ethics and African American Studies from Yale University. Her academic work focuses on environmental ethics of liberation in a womanist and Latina feminist frame. She served for four years as the Director of Racial and Ethnic Concerns of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and briefly as its Interim Co-President. Betancourt’s ministry centers on work that is empowering and counter-oppressive.

Where love and connection reside, there is the location of god. Join Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, Julica Hermann de la Fuente, Rev. Arif Mamdani, Franco Holder, the First Universalist Choir (directed by Dr. Randy Buikema), and other worship leaders for worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday, August 29 as we gather and reflect, held together by story, prayer, poem, and song.

Follow along with the Order of Service

Offering: TBA
(give here) or text firstuniv to 73256. You’ll receive a link to a secure form where you can enter your information. Select the “Offering Plate” fund from the dropdown menu.

Care Companions ~ 11 a.m.
We know that worship can take us into deep and surprising places. If you find yourself needing to talk with someone about what is stirring for you after worship, please speak with one of our care companions in a confidential zoom room after the service. This is how we care for one another.

What is Religion? Some of us have theology, others a philosophy and some a worldview, but when does all of that turn into a religion? UUs talk about being a movement, an association, a faith community, but what makes us religious? Can we be ethical and not religious? Let us ask these questions together, Wednesday, Aug. 25 at 7 p.m.

Launch the Wednesday Worship Zoom here – 7 p.m.

Webinar ID: 117-312-320.
To listen by phone (audio only), dial 1-312-626-6799 and enter the webinar ID.

Care Companions Space ~ 7:30 p.m.
We know that worship can take us into deep and surprising places. If you find yourself needing to talk with someone about what is stirring for you after worship, please speak with one of our care companions in a confidential zoom room after the service. This is how we care for one another.

Going slow to go fast. Heeding the lessons from geese. These last several weeks, our services have invited us to reflect on how it is that we do this thing called religious community. This Sunday, August 22 at 10 a.m., we’ll continue this exploration as we lift up a concrete approach to the challenges that can arise when human beings try to do things together.

Follow along with the Order of Service

Offering: UU Service Committee
(give here) or text firstuniv to 73256. You’ll receive a link to a secure form where you can enter your information. Select the “Offering Plate” fund from the dropdown menu.

Care Companions ~ 11 a.m.
We know that worship can take us into deep and surprising places. If you find yourself needing to talk with someone about what is stirring for you after worship, please speak with one of our care companions in a confidential zoom room after the service. This is how we care for one another.

Sunday Fellowship ~ 11:15 a.m.
BIPOC and All Identities fellowship spaces will funnel through this link.

Launch the Wednesday Worship Zoom here – 7 p.m.

Webinar ID: 117-312-320.
To listen by phone (audio only), dial 1-312-626-6799 and enter the webinar ID.

Care Companions Space ~ 7:30 p.m.
We know that worship can take us into deep and surprising places. If you find yourself needing to talk with someone about what is stirring for you after worship, please speak with one of our care companions in a confidential zoom room after the service. This is how we care for one another.

Order of Service

Offering Plate or text firstuniv to 73256.

Please join us for worship this Sunday August 15 at 10 a.m. at the Lake Harriet Bandshell! Worship leaders Aimee K. Bryant, Franco Holder, Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, Rev. Arif Mamdani, Julica Hermann de la Fuente, Rev. Jen Crow, Lauren Wyeth, and Rev. Karen Hutt will lead and inspire us through music, story, and message, and challenge us to consider what we might learn from — among other things — Canadian geese.

Please note: this service will NOT be live-streamed due to lack of internet connectivity at the bandshell. The service will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel early next week.

Join Rev. Arif Mamdani on Wednesday, August 11 at 7 p.m. for a midweek worship experience for adults and older youth. This service is a brief time (20-30 minutes) of connection, centering, and reflection to help us find and keep our balance.

Launch the Wednesday Worship Zoom here – 7 p.m.

Webinar ID: 117-312-320.
To listen by phone (audio only), dial 1-312-626-6799 and enter the webinar ID.

Care Companions Space ~ 7:30 p.m.
We know that worship can take us into deep and surprising places. If you find yourself needing to talk with someone about what is stirring for you after worship, please speak with one of our care companions in a confidential zoom room after the service. This is how we care for one another.