Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County

What's New

This page lists pages we added, deleted or changed in the last six months. If you are one of our regular visitors, this will tell you what's new*.

May 12, 2013: Added minister's sermon Mama's Day:
Rev. Joe speaks tells us to love our real mothers, not the image of the perfect mother. He urges us to celebrate the work and generosity of our mothers by helping to heal the world with love.
(Delivered May 12, 2013).

May 6, 2013: Added minister's sermon Unemployment and Spirituality:
You still have worth and dignity even if you don't have a job. Cherish yourself. Rev. Joe has been fired and lived through it. He gives you some tips for coping.
(Delivered May 5, 2013)

May 4, 2013: Added two guest sermons about freedom;

Freedom, by Marcia Gilbert:
Freedom is many words, many ideas, many struggles. And it is worth fighting for. But it ISN'T just another word.
(Delivered April 28, 2013)

Freedom Is Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose:
S. Grace. A lady who describes herself as "Unitarian Universalist with Taoist leanings, Buddhist practices, Pagan holidays, feminist humanist vegan gluten free earth muffin LGBT supporting liberal sassypants ideals." talks about her fear of losing her freedom if she gained a community.
(Delivered April 14, 2013)

April 29, 2013: Updated Sunday Services. Put new portraits in the heading. Updated heading explanation. Rotated the portraits on the children's page.

April 21, 2013: added minister's sermon Wonder Woman:
Wonder Woman tells little girls and boys that they have gifts, that they are important, that they can make a difference in the world; even if they don't fly and can't deflect bullets with their bracelets.
(Delivered April 21, 2013)

April 1, 2013: added minister's sermon How Much Do You Love?:
Was Jesus gay? Who was the beloved disciple? What will the courts decide about marriage equality? Have you been in a situation where you have loved too long, too deeply, too completely? So much that you cannot face a truth about the one you love? Powerful questions.
(Delivered March 31, 2013)

April 1, 2013: Updated Sunday Services. Put new portraits in the heading. Updated heading explanation. Rotated the portraits on the children's page.

March 26, 2013: Added guest sermon We Are the Redeemers:
Helen Million. All of us are responsible for our own redemption and together we have a communal responsibility for our culture.
(Delivered March 10, 2013)

February 25, 2013: Updated Sunday Services. Put new portraits in the heading. Updated heading explanation. Rotated the portraits on the children's page.

February 12, 2013: Added guest sermon Meditation on Evil:
As she grew older and wiser, Mary Lee realized that Evil comes in all shades of grey, and always has a human face: "But the older I get the more ambiguity seeps into the edges of these concepts, like the grey in my hair and the arthritis in my knees. ... Years of life collect in layers like fallen leaves, creating complexity and deepening the mystery that as a young person I once thought I would understand."
(Delivered February 11, 2013)

February 5, 2013: Added Minister's sermon Theology of Evil:
Rev. Joe tells us how a mass of poor decisions, none of them specifically evil, can coalesce into a body of evil. He mentions Thomas Hobbes, Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin, and a straight elderly lady who stood on the side of love at an LGBT square dance club in Chicago.
(Delivered February 3, 2013)

January 31, 2013: Added guest sermon What the Buddha Says about Authority:
Lori Wong, Leader of the Insight Meditation Center, shared a few of the Buddha's teachings about authority, how we know what is true, what is the basis for giving someone authority, and how we can be our own authority.
(Delivered January 27, 2013)

January 25, 2013: Updated Sunday Services. Put new portraits in the heading. Updated heading explanation. Rotated the portraits on the children's page.

January 23, 2013: Added minister's sermon What Makes A Minister? :
Rev. Joe decribes the long journey a person takes to become a Unitarian Universalist minister, with examples from his own quest.
(Delivered January 20, 2013)

January 9, 2013: Added four minister's sermons
Defining Our Terms:
We are not the church where you can believe anything you want; we are the church were you believe that which you must, even if those beliefs can sometimes be profoundly inconvenient.
(Delivered January 6, 2013)
Images of God:
What does God look like? Where do Unitarian Universalists look for God?
(Delivered December 9, 2012)
Give Me that Olde Time Religion:
Rev Joe has the urge to share our liberal faith's good news of both our own capabilities and our responsibility to make Earth a little bit more like the Heaven we imagine, just like the circuit riding ministers of the 19th century.
(Delivered December 2, 2012)
Faitheism:
Rev Joe discusses the works of Chris Stedmen and Allain de Botton, both religious atheists. That is not a contradiction in terms.
(Delivered August 19, 2012)

December 20, 2012: Updated Sunday Services. Put new portraits in the heading. Updated heading explanation. Rotated the portraits on the children's page.

* [Ed. Note 1: You are welcome to read the old pages again, of course. I read the complete Sherlock Holmes every couple of years, and I've listened to Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, which always reminds me of kingfishers darting along a river, hundreds of times. In both cases I know how the work ends, but I still enjoy it.]

[Ed. Note 2: This page has two other purposes. It lets me keep track of what I've done for my quarterly report to the board, and the steady, regular "updated Services, ..." entries every month show the casual visitor how - dare I write it? Faithful this web master is to his task.]