Podcast: Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto Sermons and Reflections

Did Jesus and the Universalists Get It Right?

For a long time, Unitarians and Universalists stuck with Christianity, trying to improve its bad theology by reforming it from within.  Then many of them just gave up the effort and stopped calling themselves Christians.  Now here we are in 2024, putting “Love at … read more.

It Doesn’t Have To Be So Hard

Experiences vary, but there’s no question that on the whole, it’s hard to be a man. Despite having the highest income and wealth of any gender, and more of their healthcare needs covered by their insurance, men’s life expectancy is considerably lower than the national … read more.

Now Let Us Sing, Sing, Sing, Sing!

When you arrive at today’s service, think about a song in either Singing the Living Tradition (the gray hymnal) or Singing the Journey (the teal hymnal) that you’d love us all to sing, and add it to the flip chart or Zoom chat. We’ll sing … read more.

Interdependent for Life

Unitarian Universalism was forged in crisis. Is it up to the crises we face now?

To answer this question, today’s service calls upon the California state lichen, Louis Armstrong, a living thing that was already 7000 years old when the oldest redwoods were little sprouts, and … read more.

A Relative to Truth

The novelist Barbara Kingsolver says, “Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.” On this weekend nominally dedicated to remembrance, we reflect: what do we choose to remember? What do we choose to forget? And how can we use memorial … read more.

Celebrating Our Learning Community

UUCPA is a community of learners. We seek always to discover more–to understand the world and ourselves more deeply–to learn from each other, from books, from the accumulated knowledge of centuries of thinkers and scientists and activists–to become wiser. Almost all of the children, and … read more.

Look Closely: Flower Sunday

Bring a flower, or a bunch! In this tradition, practiced by Unitarian Universalists for 101 years, we celebrate the beautiful variety among us and gratefully receive a flower that someone else has brought. We will look closely at the flowers as a mindfulness practice we … read more.

Why We Love/Hate Cancel Culture

Transcript of the sermon

Video preview: Diatoms are going to help save our souls

One way or another, whenever the “cancel culture” conversation arises, it seems as if we’re being asked to see other people in black and white. Resisting this tendency … read more.

You Don’t Have To Do It Alone – Reflections from Youth Climate Activism

Most of us individually do the little things like recycling, composting, reducing car usage, and eating less meat to address climate change. But the very large sources of greenhouse gasses come from businesses. Convincing businesses to switch to pricier climate alternatives can be challenging. Orhan … read more.

Abundant Life

We like to turn away from a scarcity mentality toward one of abundance–at least, we Unitarian Universalist ministers do. But does that set us up for further exploitation of the Earth, whose resources are not limitlessly abundant? Robert Neff was the winning bidder on “You … read more.