Watch and Engage

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Join Rev. Laura and Worship Associates Sherry Merriam, Nancy Potter, Dallas Rising, and Gary Hoover, as we share reflections on the four parts of lamentation: lament, petition, confess, and intentions. We will also offer a ritual guiding each other through these four parts of lamentation. It will be a beautiful way to reset for the New Year.

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As the darkness peaks, we tell stories to hold each other tight – solstice, Advent, Hanukkah. This morning we’ll hold the story of Advent and of the coming birth of revolution we can all hold and participate in this time of year and always. An ensemble of members will lead us in songs of the season and we will also learn some concrete skills about bearing legal and spiritual witness to the current crisis of federal presence in our cities right now.

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As we welcome new members and dedicate ourselves to children and their families we build the Beloved Community that we practice together, and we remember the truth that author Octavia Butler offers: “All that you touch. You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change.” Join us for this joyful celebration and the recommitment to our shared values that is always available to all of us.

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We start where it hurts: the altar beside the work computer, every god and ancestor crowding the edge of the desk. From that honest ground, we take up bayanihan—hands trading the weight so the house keeps traveling. The first question leads the rest: Where are your people. Belonging sets the pace for repair, justice, and gratitude as daily muscle. Prayer begins with I don’t know what to do and finishes when something shifts—breath, call, step, repair. When strength thins, the circle carries the practice by proxy until it returns. We hold one another like precious cargo, eyes on the weather, the umbrella swinging open in time. Come breathe with us, be carried, and carry—one house moving, many shoulders steady.

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The streets hold a marathon; our sanctuary trains for endurance. We begin October with a daring claim: love builds inside impossible conditions. Faith becomes evidence of what we hope and a practice that carries us when sight fails. We’ll tell honest stories of accompaniment—how families crafted agency where none seemed available—and name the daily patterns that raise a house: covenant, imagination, and a people who choose again and again to live their values. We open October’s theme, The Impossible House, and ask what real belonging asks of a people: consent that frees, covenants that steady, music that grounds, grief told in the clear air of love.

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We’re having our Water Communion ritual in Sunday worship. We invite you to bring a small bit of water to the sanctuary with you. Some bring a bottle, others a few drops, some bring water they gathered from a special summer memory, others from the kitchen tap. It doesn’t matter how much or where from–all water is beautiful.

If you can’t collect your own water to bring (or if you forget yours on the counter at home), not to worry. We’ll have pitchers waiting here. We want you to be a part of this important time in our community, where wisdom and joy rush to greet us and show us the way to deeper love. See you there!

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