Gathering for Sunday services in person and online at 10:30 am. Campus Vision Construction Continues - learn more
Today we are celebrating Earth Day a little late (April was packed) and reconsidering one species that we often regard as having no useful role in our ecosystem. What it contributes to the global community seems to be far outweighed by what it takes. Of the six great extinctions in the history of life on … Continue reading An Act of Restoration
Life in Silicon Valley is phenomenally stressful. There are as many different ways to try to cope with its pressures as there are personalities, and understanding how our personality intersects with the stress can help us to be less vulnerable to the complete exhaustion known as burnout. One cultural resource for this understanding: the movie … Continue reading We Don’t Talk About Burnout
Is the UUCPA group Dismantling White Supremacy, which first convened in late 2019, an education program, a justice project, a support-oriented small group, a spiritual growth group . . . ? Yes! Today, by speaking about what they’ve learned, what they’re doing, and the kinds of support and inspiration they find in the process, several … Continue reading Dismantling, Rebuilding, Repairing
“Tolerance” has become a bit of a dirty word as those pushed to the margins rightly press for more than simply being tolerated. For example, LGBTQIA folks don’t want their religious community just to tolerate them, but to celebrate them. Intermarried couples don’t want to be merely tolerated in their family, but cherished and supported … Continue reading The Virtue of Tolerance
On Easter, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. All of us reflect on what rebirth might mean in this one wild and precious life. Are the cycles of nature really a good parallel for human rebirth and resurrection? And bunnies and chocolate eggs are supposed to fit into it somewhere, but how? All will be … Continue reading Easter, All Together
The Rev. Jane Dwinell’s husband, Sky Yardley, was diagnosed with “probable early stage Alzheimer’s” in 2016. Together, they contemplated the meaning of memory, what it is and how it is important. She will share her thoughts and those of her late husband that come from their recently published book Alzheimer’s Canyon: One Couple’s Reflections on … Continue reading What Is Memory?
The messages we get about sexuality have a huge impact on our well-being–not just in the bedroom but in our whole lives, which is also the name of the sexuality education program at UUCPA. Today: why sex is an appropriate–in fact, essential–topic for religious education, how it’s taught, and why it matters. We’ll also hear … Continue reading Sex, Education, “Sex Education,” and Sex Education
You’re the new kid in town . . . Your friend moved away and now you don’t have anyone to play with . . . You go to an activity you like, hoping to meet new friends, but everyone there seems to know everyone else . . . You’re lonely and you wonder if there’s … Continue reading Making Friends No Matter When
In the series Why Do We Do That in the Sunday Service?, we come to the sermon. We inherited our service format from the Protestant Christian tradition from which Unitarian Universalism is descended. It has been affectionately or pejoratively nicknamed “the sermon sandwich.” The sermon, in this image, is the raison d’etre of the service: … Continue reading Swimming Against the Current
Seventy-five years ago, our spiritual family members envisioned the future and built it a home here on Charleston Road. Now it is our turn. We have shared our vision: that we are a people tending a beautiful, healthy Earth; a loving community of free thinkers and justice-makers; a guest house for those needing rest and … Continue reading This House