CALL TO WORSHIP We gather today On world water monitoring day To awaken our minds, hearts, and spirits To our connection to the waters Which are a part of us and without which We could not survive.  We gather in this time of fires and drought, Of floods and storms,…

CALL TO WORSHIP We are rooted in relationship. You and me and we Are woven together And weaving still. We are intertwined With those who have gone before, Those who are here, And those who will come after. We have freely chosen to be bound To compassion, To courage, To…

Good morning, everyone! My name is Eli Poore, I use they/them pronouns, and it is my pleasure and blessing to be with you all as your intern minister this year. It’s also equally lovely to get to celebrate worship in community with you today on my 3rd day in worship,…

Call to Worship Our call to worship this morning comes from Frederick Buechner, writer and theologian who died this past week at the age of 96: “Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the…

It is so good to be with you all today. I can’t tell you how fond I’ve become of seeing your faces here on Sunday morning, and feeling the warmth of those of you joining from afar. As Reverend Tom mentioned at the beginning of our service, this is my…

Today, we continue on our exploration of our Unitarian Universalist principles, focusing on number six: “We covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all” The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all. There’s a lot in there,…

A shift is taking place—we widen our circles and center those who have waited too long on the margins. We recognize both our individual worth and also the value of community in our congregations and beyond. How does a democratic process support these shifts and where does it fall short?…

This sermon began with a guided visualization, titled “Jars of Truth”: What is Truth? For some, Truth is solid and immovable, like a boulder: a sturdy, unchanging thing that we can rest upon. For some, that Truth is like clay: a pliable substance that we can mold ourselves, to fit…

In this faith community, we affirm that spiritual growth is a communal process. Join us, as members of this community will share their experiences of our denomination’s General Assembly, that great gathering for our collective growth.

Some people just seem to rub us raw, maybe for an obvious reason or no discernible cause. What's the best way to handle those to whom we have instinctive resistance? Do we grit our teeth and try to survive or is engagement advisable? Our second UU principle of justice, equity,…

I want to begin my sermon by telling you a little bit about what it was like for me to grow up Unitarian Universalist. For much of my childhood, I didn’t feel that different from my peers. In the South, where I’m from, families go to church, and mine didn’t…

As we celebrate the exceptional ministry of the Rev. Bill Sinkford and send him forth in love, we remember the joys and sorrows of letting go and the things that remain true and guide us through transitions in our lives and communities. Rev. Dr. Frederick-Gray is president of the Unitarian…

Rev. Gretchen Haley The last few years have not been easy, including in our local congregations. Whole swaths of members have simply stopped coming; COVID is confusing, and polarizing; many ministers have joined the great resignation; and Pew studies and friends alike have pronounced the end of the local church.…

“Wherever there is a meeting that summons us to our better selves,  Wherever our lostness is found,  Our fragments are reunited,  Our wounds begin healing,  Our spines stiffen  And our muscles grow strong for the task…  There is ministry.”  We do not know who wrote those words but I have…

What a blessing it was to have some of our graduating seniors up front this morning. What a blessing it was to be in this space, in person, and have members of the congregation bless them and send them forth into their next chapter. Like so many things not very…

The Music Ministry offers thanks and good wishes to Rev. Bill Sinkford in this final Music and Worship service of his tenure through singing God's Trombones - a work of music that underscores text from James Weldon Johnson's 1927 book, God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, and companions that text…

We are moving across a threshold together and ushering in the beginning of a new shared ministry. What are the possibilities before us as we embark on this journey? May it be a partnership that is grounded in covenant and guided by love.

Our communities were already in need of healing even before the pandemic arrived. May the challenges we have experienced, re-awaken us to the call to be courageous, creative, and compassionate builders of the beloved community. Rev. Alison Miller is First Unitarian Portland's Senior Minister Candidate. 

As a UU history nerd, I have always wanted to preach about Mother’s Day. Did you know, it’s one of those pieces of American history that came out of our religious heritage? And further, it has a more radical history than the Hallmark version of this day might suggest. For…

Threshold is our spiritual theme for this new month of May. Threshold. We cross over thresholds all the time. Those of us here in person did to get into this building this morning. If we came in through the Main Street doors we stepped up and over. If we came…

Hold on. Change is comin.’  Change is comin. Yes. We got that message…even the most resistant of us. Even those of us who want change the least. Those whose age or stage or condition will make change…well, for some of us change is going to make life more complicated…and less…

Happy Easter. Did you love the story of the Birds’ Gift that Cassandra shared? I loved that it is from the Ukraine. If you can’t find a message about hope rising up in resistance to the violence of empire in the Ukrainian story this year… …well.   I loved the way…

This is an annual tradition at First Unitarian—a service led by our high school youth in YRUU (Young Religious Unitarian Universalists). It’s a wonderful opportunity to experience what our church nurtures in young people. The service will include their musical gifts and insightful homilies.

Later this month around Passover Seder tables, the story of the liberation of the Hebrew people will once again be told. It is a familiar story—and one that deserves retelling. For it reminds us that freedom and liberation are almost never easy. First there’s Moses, chosen to lead. He doesn’t…

When our Eliot Chapel was being designed and built almost 100 years ago, one of the scripture passages that was chosen to be inscribed on the building, there on the corner of SW 12th and Salmon, was from the Book of Micah in the Hebrew scripture, “What doth the Lord…

To begin againIsn’t to go backwards,But to decide to go.Our story is…a spiral …Shifting inward and outward…We disembark both beside…and beyondWho we were…It is a return … and a departure.  It is almost exactly 2 years to the day since we closed this church for in-person worship.   March 8, 2020,…