Category: Worship
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On Grief – New Year’s Eve 2020
Written for Westside UU and Tennessee Valley UU’s joint New Year’s Eve vespers service, December 31, 2020. “GriefIs not an energyThat can be clearedWith sageOr good intentions. It demandsTo be felt fully,Because after all –It only growsIn the voidWhere loveOnce flourished,And love’s woundsRun soul-deep.” Love’s wounds run soul-deep. I wrote this a few weeks ago […]
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Fred Rogers and the Year That Had No Beat
“Fred Rogers and the Year That Had No Beat”Helen RiversPresented for Westside UU Church & UU Church of TallahasseeDecember 27, 2020 Chalice Lighting – “There is a Love” by Rev. Dr. Rebecca ParkerThere is a love holding us.There is a love holding all that we love.There is a love holding all.We rest in this love. […]
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Shiloh the Sea Pancake – A Time for All Ages
Hi friends! My name is Helen. The kiddos here at UUCT call me Mx. Helen, and my pronouns are they/them/theirs. Learning someone’s pronouns and how they identify is so important, it’s just like learning their name! Just ask my friend Shiloh. Shiloh is a Sea Pancake. What’s that? You think Shiloh looks like a Stingray? […]
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A Prayer for Election Week
Goddess, Spirit, God,Love of many names,of no names,and of names too intimate to speak –grant us comfort,for we are all living with fear. Yes, all of us –those who whimper,those who hyperventilate,those who disengage,those whose anger and vitriolbetray the terrorlurking beneath our confidence. May we all rest. May we surrenderto the beauty of our dreams,to […]
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When We Get To It: In Defense of Our Youth
This was written for a UU Polity immersion class I took during General Assembly this summer. I’m unsure of if I’ll deliver the actual sermon anywhere else, but I do intend to try the modified bridging ceremony at the church I serve. Instructor Feedback: “This was a beautiful reflection essay. This is the essay that […]
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Rebecca’s Garden
Rebecca’s Garden Written by Helen Rose For the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tallahassee’s Flower Communion Sunday, March 8, 2020 From the first day they met, Rebecca and Rachel were inseparable. As children, they were the best of friends, and as they got older, they fell in love. They were married in the mountains in the […]
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Affirmations to Our Inner Children
On Sunday, February 16, 2020, I asked the congregation of UUCT to write down a message they wish they had heard when they were younger. These affirmations to our inner children were written on small wooden hearts, which were then assembled into a chain that will be placed in our new Religious Exploration classroom, so […]
HP Rivers 