Services begin at 10:30 am unless otherwise noted.
May 13
Let’s Talk About Sex
Marie Alford-Harkey, M.Div. with
Worship Associate Bill Dalsimer
Musician: Claude Soffel
Marie Alford-Harkey is the Director of Education and Training for the Religious Institute, a multifaith nonprofit organization co-founded by Unitarian minister Debra Haffner, working to promote sexual justice, education, and healing in faith communities and society. Marie will introduce us to the work of the Religious Institute, and to some surprising truths about sexuality and religion. She holds a Master’s in Divinity from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has begun the process of ordination as an Episcopal priest in the diocese of Connecticut. She is a provincial coordinator for Integrity USA, and a board member of Integrity/Connecticut, an organization promoting full inclusion of LGBT people in Episcopal faith communities.
May 20
A ’Strange and Peculiar’ Religion: What Every UU Should
Understand About Mormonism
Marilyn Mehr with Worship Associate
Jeanne Wisner
Musician: Abby Fleming
With a devout Mormon as a prospective candidate for the U.S. Presidency, UU’s are bound to wonder what it would be like to have a Mormon in the White House. What are the beliefs that might shape critical decisions on domestic and foreign policy? While it is impossible to predict how any candidate will react as President, we can look beneath the surface of this little-known religion, seek its wisdom, and understand its influence.
Marilyn Mehr is a long-time member of the UUCSF, and served as its co-president before relocating to New York City. She grew up in a Mormon family, and is author of the novel, Holding the World Together, about her family’s religious experience in the American West.
May 27
Integrity and The Seven Realms
Bill Burford with the Rev. Alison Cornish
Musician: Megan Chaskey
What are we doing when we are not thinking? How do we view our lives outside of thought and imagination? Bill Burford introduces a means to understand our lives in terms of seven distinct realms of interaction with one another, only one of which has to do with imagination and thought. In this new approach to portraying characters onstage, drawn from both intuitive and scientific traditions, we find a fresh way of considering character in our lives. How much of the confusion and injustice in our world comes from mistaking one kind of perception, intelligence and action from another?
Bill Burford is an independent theatre producer, director, writer, designer and educator. He recently formed Bloodstone Theatrical, serves as its artistic director and through it conducts research and workshops in story-based performance. Bill teaches playwriting, independent producing and performance lab for Southampton Arts’ new MFA Program in Theatre & Film at the Southampton and Manhattan campuses of Stony Brook University.
June 3
Discovering Our Place
The Rev. Alison Cornish
Wendell Berry writes, “If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are.” With our modern ease of mobility, and technologies that “collapse” both time and space, what is the meaning of a specific place, particularly that which we call home, in our lives today? And how do we go about discovering that meaning?
Upcoming Events Unless noted, events are free, open to all, and held at the meetinghouse.
Sunday, May 13, noon
Qi Gong: a time of growth and renewal. Find your flexibility and adaptability with these simple movements and massages from ancient Chinese tradition. Free, and all are welcome.
Thursday, May 17, 6:30 pm
Film: “Pink Smoke Over the Vatican”. Screening of Jules Hart’s documentary film about the controversial movement of women seeking to be ordained as priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Discussion to follow, facilitated by Eda Lorello. This program is co-sponsored with Canio’s Cultural Cafe; donations will be appreciated.
Sunday, June 3, noon
UUCSF Annual Meeting. Members of UUCSF will approve a budget, elect a Board member, elect committee chairs, and possibly approve changes to the bylaws. Details will be sent to members by mail. All are welcome to attend the meeting, to be held after our Sunday service. Only members will vote.
Saturday, June 9, 6 pm
Campout for All Ages. Dinner, campfire , and sleep in tents pitched on the meetinghouse grass. See Sue Penny for more information.
