Rev. Dr. David Breeden, in a piece entitled “Compassion Needs Weather,” writes, “Compassion loves rough soil, the stones, weeds, the cracks between our best intentions.” This Sunday, we explore the place of intention and how, sometimes, intention can get in the way of healing, compassion, and progress toward peace. Join us for this important exploration!

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

Rev. Aaron Payson is in his 27th year as Minister of this congregation. He holds a BA in Psychology from Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA, and a Master of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School, New Haven, CT. Rev. Payson is active in many community and denominational organizations and is an adjunct instructor in the Sociology Department at Worcester State University.

In his song “Holy Now,” UU Musician Peter Mayer sings, “It used to be a world half there, Heaven’s second-rate hand me down, Now I’m walking with a reverent air, ‘Cause ev’rything is holy now.” We pause this morning to consider what it might mean to give up the sacred/profane binary that has been the mark of many religions and ponder how our presence in it might shift if we lived as though we were part of a holy whole. Join us for this special service with guest musician Peter Mayer.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen. "Holy Now" written and performed by Peter Mayer

Eileen Workman writes:

You are not weak for trembling in the face of cruelty.

You are not naïve for hoping when the sky darkens.

You are not failing because you cannot fix it all.

You are part of something ancient and emergent:

a slow, deep evolution of consciousness

that transcends the need for violent revolution.

You are part of the sacred turning.

This Sunday, we consider how this “sacred turning” is revolutionary. In the face of all the emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual turmoil that seems to be free-floating through our universe at the moment, what might we learn from the poet who reminds us:

You are not here to silence the oppressor,

but to make oppression obsolete

through the gentle, radical embodiment of wholeness.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

Join us this Sunday as we explore the complexities of history and memory and the ongoing impact that the creation of our origin story as a nation has on all of us. As we honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we strive to face the legacy of our founding with humility and courage.

During this service, we also honored Domestic Violence Month with an exhibit on the chancel from the YWCA of Central MA entitled "Empty Places at the Table" that featured a table set with place settings that included the names and short biographies of women whose lives have been taken in our region by acts of domestic violence.

We honor the Jewish High Holiday of Yom Kippur this week as we explore the essential nature of Tikkun "repair" in Hebrew. What might we learn about the current state of the world and our place in it by honoring this ancient Jewish time of turning inward and outward toward others, and the Master of the Universe, to discover how we might be in this moment of trial and tribulation in our world.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

This week we continue exploring the parables of Jesus, asking if the message is about despising wealth or the obligations we have toward each other.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

The reflection this Sunday takes up one of the most difficult and misunderstood parables of Jesus, which asks us to consider if the story is about despising wealth, or choosing compassion.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

We return this Sunday to a favorite story, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. Only we discover that the newest edition of the book contains an additional 4th section, which addresses the evolution of the flock in the afterlife of Jonathan. What does this addition to the original story tell us about ourselves, religion, and the world in which we live?

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.