Robin Wall Kimmerer says that our deepest longing is to belong to each other and to belong to the larger community of life. She says that this longing is expressed in the idea of tending a garden, which is itself an expression of belonging on many different scales. There is a persistence in this belonging—one that speaks to us of our lives here, together at church, and of the audacity to plant seeds that will nourish the generations that come after us, knowing that we have been fed by work of the generations that came before. This too is tending a garden, and is itself an expression of belonging and extending belonging. As we continue with this month’s theme of persistence, we’ll journey with stories of planting and harvesting, wondering about which part of this collective garden we tend, and what seeds we’re planting for our future. Join us for worship this Sunday, March 12.

ORDER OF SERVICE: available as a google doc and on this page (screen reader & mobile friendly version) by Friday.

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

Join us this Sunday, March 5, as we begin our March worship theme, Persistence, with a focus on advocacy. Congregants leading some of our legislative advocacy ministries will share their stories along with guest speaker Rev. Terri Burnor, Senior Movement Builder with Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light. We’ll also share a special blessing with and for our trans* beloveds and families who have been under recent attack by legislative measures.

ORDER OF SERVICE: available as a google doc and on this page (screen reader & mobile friendly version) by Friday.

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

This Sunday, February 26, we close our February worship series on “Commitment” with a focus on what our bodies have to teach us. We will commit to practicing embodying our original Belovedness and also sit with the inevitable vulnerability of bodies– our own and each others’. As a part of these practices, we will also honor the anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death and the founding of the Movement for Black Lives. Please join us for worship this Sunday. 

ORDER OF SERVICE: available as a google doc and on this page (screen reader & mobile friendly version) by Friday.

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

You may or may not know that there have been multiple flavors of Universalism, some with caveats or some that were questionable. We can learn a lot about our own flavors of Universalism through the stories from our spiritual ancestors. As First U decides who we become next, it can be helpful to reflect on who we have been. Join us this Sunday for a taste test of vintage Universalisms.

ORDER OF SERVICE: available as a google doc and on this page (screen reader & mobile friendly version) by Friday.

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

A Place to Start – in person, immediately after both services

Facilitated by one of our members, A Place to Start is a brief, casual orientation to Unitarian Universalism and First Universalist Church. During this 40-minute class, participants will learn about the foundations of our faith tradition and opportunities to get involved. If you attend, please fill out the Visitor Connect form so we can follow up with you. Thank you!

We host A Place to Start every first and third Sundays of the month, immediately after both worship services. 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!

Multiple choice question:

Who said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”?

1. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
2. Theodore Parker
3. None of the above

Join us this Sunday morning to learn the answer, not just for this question but more so for what these ministers and theologians had to say to Unitarians and Universalists in the past, and what their words say to us today. In particular, how do their words point us toward two essential movements in our spiritual and religious lives and what do they call us to today?

ORDER OF SERVICE: available as a google doc and on this page (screen reader & mobile friendly version) by Friday.

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

Accompaniment: Sanctuary & Resistance in the Struggle for Immigration Justice

The Sanctuary and Resistance Team at First Universalist Church works to accompany immigrants in the struggle within an immigration system which criminalizes migration, incarcerates immigrants in detention, and separates families. Since November 2016, we carry out this work as an emergent strategy team, and in conjunction with many community partners, by providing sanctuary space in the church, observing at immigration court, distributing financial resources, and resisting to change the system by advocating for policy changes, namely to make Minnesota a Sanctuary State.

On Sunday, Feb. 5, we will explore and reflect upon how our UU faith and this congregation give us the courage, strength, and hope to accompany immigrant partners in the struggle for justice in our immigration system.

ORDER OF SERVICE: available as a google doc and on this page (screen reader & mobile friendly version) by Friday.

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

A Place to Start – in person immediately after both services (option to join via zoom after the second service on the first Sunday of the month)

Facilitated by one of our members, A Place to Start is a brief, casual orientation to Unitarian Universalism and First Universalist Church. During this 40-minute class, participants will learn about the foundations of our faith tradition and opportunities to get involved. If you attend, please fill out the Visitor Connect form so we can follow up with you. Thank you!

We host A Place to Start every first and third Sundays of the month, immediately after both worship services. 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!

Join us this Sunday, January 29th as we continue exploring our January worship theme, Revolution.

ORDER OF SERVICE: available as a google doc and on this page (screen reader & mobile friendly version) by Friday.

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

This Sunday, January 22, is the first in a monthly series of Justice Sundays, where teams of Faithful Action groups in the congregation lead the service, sharing about why their UU faith calls them to take action on particular justice issues. Join us for Justice Sunday worship in person or online.

ORDER OF SERVICE: available as a google doc and on this page (screen reader & mobile friendly version) by Friday.

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

Time and time again, in stories and scriptures and songs, ancestors have left lessons for building beloved community. Though they come in all languages and expressions, the wisdom persists: to resist materialism and hold on to what truly matters; to unshackle from habits of needless prejudice; to put down the weapons we store in our hands and hearts and study war no more. How much comfort can we take that we aren’t nearly the first generation to struggle to live into these communal ways? And what’s our part in the progress?

Join us this Sunday, Jan. 15 as we continue exploring our January worship theme, Revolution.

ORDER OF SERVICE: available as a google doc and on this page (screen reader & mobile friendly version) by Friday.

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

A Place to Start – in person, immediately after both services 
Facilitated by one of our members, A Place to Start is a brief, casual orientation to Unitarian Universalism and First Universalist Church. During this 40-minute class, participants will learn about the foundations of our faith tradition and opportunities to get involved. If you attend, or can’t make it but would like a staff member to reach out, please fill out the Visitor Connect form so we can follow up with you. Thank you!

We host A Place to Start every first and third Sundays of the month, immediately after both worship services. 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!

Join us on Sunday, Jan. 8 for Remembrance Sunday, a yearly service in which we name and honor those we’ve lost in the congregation and the wider community. Through story, song, and ritual, this service invites us to name and make room for the loss, grief, and sadness in ourselves, within this community, and beyond in the wider world. This service includes an invitation to name with a neighbor, in-person or at home, any losses you’d like to hold in community, as well a candle lighting ritual in which we name and honor the deaths in our congregation this last year. Join us on Sunday to be and become the community of love and know that together, love can make every grief and suffering bearable for us all.

ORDER OF SERVICE: available as a google doc and on this page (screen reader & mobile friendly version) by Friday.

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