New Beginnings: A Celebration of the Spring Equinox

with Lyndon Harris

10:30 AM

For this special service, we welcome guest speaker Michele Skeele, a Home Funeral Guide with the Center for End of Life Transitions in Asheville, NC, and certified by the University of Vermont College of Medicine as an End of Life Doula. She was certified as a Therapeutic Music Practitioner in 2004 and served on the board of the WNC chapter of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a national advocacy organization, for ten years. Currently, Michele is on staff at Carolina Memorial Sanctuary, NorthCarolina‘s first and only conservation burial ground. Michele is passionate about transforming our conversations around death, and her address will focus on end of life choices.

The Dalai Lama once said, “This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” But kindness often gets short shrift in the dog-eat-dog-winner-takes- all-world we live in. Kindness is often seen as weak. How many movies can you think of where kindness wins the day; compared to the number of movies where desires for revenge are satisfied, and the hero rides triumphantly off into the sunset, having won the day? But kindness is getting a facelift. Research has shown that a simple act of kindness directed toward another person improves the functioning of the immune system and stimulates the production of serotonin in both the recipient of the kindness and the person extending the kindness. In fact, this is the goal of most anti-depressant medications: to boost serotonin. And Wayne Dyer has pointed out that even witnessing an act of kindness can boost one’s serotonin! If kindness is so good for us, why isn’t there more of it? Let’s work on that!

Join the conversation at 10:30 on February 7

Just go to https://zoom.us/j/92905252751

Where do we go from here?

by Lyndon Harris

In 1967 The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took a hiatus from active civil rights work in order to finish what would become his final book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Today, as we gaze into the fires of chaos unleashed by the January 6^th attack on our nation’s Capital Building, perhaps there could be no more fitting or consequential question for us to ask. Where do we go from here? Our present polarized political climate, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Civil War, threatens to explode our hopes for civil society. 

Be a part of the conversation this Sunday, January 17 at 10:30 as we take up this question, “Where do we go from here?” and explore hopeful, constructive thoughts in response in order to move forward and beyond the great divide of this present moment, dreaming of a future of Beloved Community.

Sunday, January 3, 2021 – Lyndon Harris

In January, the political clock will re-set and we will see an ambitious rollout of the vaccine that promises to restore our bonds of community. It’s time to celebrate new beginnings. But with some degree of trepidation, we may remember Faulkner’s memorable line: “The past isn’t dead. It’s not even past.” So, how do we as spiritual people honor the struggles of the past, even as we expect and work for better times in the future? Perhaps the Roman god, Janus, from which we get the name of the month of January, might offer aid in discernment. Janus had two heads: one looking back towards the past, and the other facing forward toward the future. The figure of Janus inspires us to reflect upon our past, as we declare our intentions for our future.

The holiday season is often eclipsed by the desire and drive to find just the perfect gift, at the perfect price, for our imperfect but loveable family and friends. This year the holidays appear against the backdrop of extreme political polarization and an ever-present worry of the dangers of a pandemic. What are the kernels of truth, the sparks of inspiration we might draw from these timeless holiday traditions for our present time? What are the gifts we might give to others – and to ourselves – that will help us navigate our journey ahead? Join us as we celebrate this time of light and illumination even as it flickers courageously against the dark.

…and a Spirituality of Longing,  with Lyndon Harris

When we gather on December 6th, it will be for many in the faith world the second Sunday of Advent. But for Unitarian Universalists, Advent is not a time of preparation for either the birth, or the second coming, of Jesus. It is a season of yearning, a yearning for the birth of a new humanity. We long for the emergence of a new world order spoken of by the Hebrew prophets, but also intuited by our humanistic spirituality: a spirituality that honors the dignity of every human being, seeks a path of justice for all, and embodies a sacred path open to all quests for the truth. Join us on December 6th to experience Advent from a Unitarian Universalist perspective.