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Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
June 28, 2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
What do Care Bears, Pride, spirituality, and UU theology have in common? According to Rev. Carrie, a lot. Join her to see how she makes that argument.
Welcome
Chalice Lighting
This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.
Call to Worship
ONE LOVE
By the Rev. Dr. Hope JohnsonWe are one
A diverse group
Of proudly kindred spirits
Here not by coincidence–
But because we choose to journey-togetherWe are active and proactive
We care deeply
We live our love, as best we canWe ARE one
Working, Eating, Laughing
Playing, Singing, Storytelling,
Sharing and Rejoicing
Getting to know each other,
Taking risks
Opening up
Questioning, Seeking. Searching…
Trying to understand
Struggling…
Making Mistakes
Paying Attention…
Asking Questions
Listening
Living our Answers
Learning to love our neighbors
Learning to love ourselvesApologizing and forgiving with humility
Being forgiven through GraceCreating the Beloved Community — Together
We are ONE
Affirming Our Mission
Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.
Anthem
“Breaking Boundaries” (Pauline Oliveros) – Brent Baldwin, guitar
Reading
WE WHO ARE ALIVE
by Rev. Dr. Anna Blaedel, a queer, non-binary chaplain, writer and public theologian. They are also the co-founder of Enfleshed, a resource for spiritual nourishment for collective liberation.Life is a gorgeous experiment.
Or, at least, life is an experiment.
Wild and precious and over too soon, Mary Oliver reminds us. Experiments are messy, indeterminate, unpredictable by their very nature. Wrought with failure, too.
And so is life.
Aren’t we lucky, then, that some of us – queers, I mean – are practiced in transforming failure into an art form.
We – we, who are alive –
we who are messy and exhausted
we who are overwhelmed, wrung out, terrified – as everything and everyone we love comes under assault –
we are part of this gorgeous experiment of life.
And here I want to insist on the gorgeousness
because we are gorgeous.
We are heartbroken, and heartbreak healing.
We are hardened, and hardness cracking open, softening.
We are invitations into life lived otherwise.
We are magic, being kindled.
We are dreams, unwilling to be contained.
We are entire prayers, whispered, sung, wailed, received, answered.
We are holy, whole, and wholly deserving of love.
We are hallelujah, amen.
We are divinity, enfleshed.
We are possibilities, emerging.
We are making life livable – everywhere we are making love, making art, making poetry, making song, making shelter, making home – with and for each other.
We are making each other possible.
With and for each other, we become possible.
With and for each other, life becomes possible.
Centering
Music for Meditation: “Prelude for Meditation” (John Cage) – Brent Baldwin, prepared piano
Sermon
THE CARE BEAR STARE
Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
Before finding Unitarian Universalism I was socially engaged. I was often at the capitol or blocking walking for a candidate or doing justice work in my community. And that was really great, I felt in alignment with my values.
But when I found this religion that work took on greater significance because I started to view it through the lens of spirituality and theology.
My spirituality and theology were things I thought I lost when I walked away from the church I grew up in.
But finding Unitarian Universalism gave them back to me in a healthy way.
Because I could explore my spirituality without the fear that was instilled in me by the high control christian sect of my youth.
Because it was a religion that said “we don’t know what happens after this life but we see the pain and violence that so many are facing and our justice compels us to act. Compels us, as Rev. Joanna Fountain Crawford says to “Love the Hell out of the World.”
Because we are all connected.
Connecting to people and a faith who held that as a foundation allowed me to grow in beautiful ways. And it allowed me to have a deep knowing in my bones that I wasn’t alone.
In short, finding Unitarian Universalism made me feel alive in a way that I haven’t ever felt alive.
And that is because the foundation of the faith is life.
Let me give you an example,
It’s late March 2023, the Texas Legislature is in full force passing mostly awful bills out of committee. On this day the equality coalition – thats Equality Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Trans Education Network of Texas, Texas Impact, and my favorite the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry-
All of those wonderful groups came together and called on the community to respond to the House public health committee hearing House Bill 1686 a bill that would ban life affirming life-saving gender affirming care for youth.
My fellow seminarians set up an all day prayer vigil and in the middle of the day the coalition was going to rally. We were stationed in the outdoor rotunda. This is a beautiful spot in the extension of the capital. The bottom is two levels underground and the top is the capital lawn.
People started to come in for the rally but of course the legislature never keeps to it schedule so everything was delayed. My friend Bis was responsible for organizing the space at that time – She said, I need you to go hold silent prayer or find someone to do it now!
I said yes, and I walked out to the middle of the rotunda and sat on that hot hot floor. I closed my eyes, “what the heck did I just agree too?”…okay, what do I want to do. I got quiet and then I knew, I wanted to pray that those in the committee would have compassion and wisdom and that their hearts and their ears would be open. Once set I looked up and saw my friends/seminarians/faith leaders smiling at me with expectant smiles. I told them what I was going to pray for and asked them to join me in silent prayers.
What happened in those moments were transcendent. It’s been over 3 years and I still don’t understand what happened in that time but I felt deeply held. Deeply loved.
It was beautiful
And then I opened my eyes to find myself in a very different situation. Two guys from info wars – Alex Jones’s violent, conspiracy spreading now-defunct “media outlet” broken into this sacred space with a camera hoping to antagonize us, hoping to get footage they could bend to their twisted narrative. About trans people and their allies.
They broke in trying to get us going so they could capture it all.
Talk about whiplash
As I’m trying to understand what’s going on and Rev. Joanna Fountain Crawford, and Rev. Jami Yandle come up to me and somehow we decide to sing this little light of mine. And all of the sudden there is a wall of us – ministers, seminarians, community members singing this little light of mine y’all it will never ever sound the same.
And then Rev. Erin Walter comes from somewhere and she is leading us in This Joy. At this point there are three rows of people and it felt like they were all singing.
I have no idea when the info wars guys left but at some point they realized they weren’t cute and they weren’t going to get what they want.
It was a powerful experience And afterwards I realized that it was something I had wanted to do my whole life…
Y’all I had just participated in a Care Bear Stare.
For those of you who know what I’m talking about….I’m right, right?
For those of you who weren’t children glued to a TV in 1980s America… the care bears were cartoon bears, all different colors – like pink, purple, yellow… and they had their personalities on their bellies! Like grumpy or Funshine or tender hearted. They were all different but they were a community and when something bad was happening they came together in a big line – like we did – and they shine their unique personalities at the problem
and it fixes it!
We did a Care Bear Stare at the Texas State Capital.
I felt alive!
Feeling the warmth of that transcendent experience,
Being in community working together
Using love as a tool to fight against hate
I felt alive
And I think more than anything that is what we are being invited into. Rev. Stephen Lingwood a Unitarian minister in England wrote a book in which he is answering the question – What does our religion have to offer people or the world?
Since we don’t offer salvation. Heck we don’t even offer a solid idea on our final destination, only to say that we believe we all will end up there.
We don’t claim to have the capital T truth.. And we have a lot more questions than answers
So what could Unitarian Universalism possibly have that would attract others? Why would people need this?
His answer is that our theology/ our values has created a place where people can experience… “a real encounter between humans where people come alive and encounter the divine”
That our churches, That this church can be a place of real encounters with one another.
I’ve seen many tender moments between people. Not trying to mask. Not trying to be all grossly and inappropriately optimistic but just being with one another, often through the really hard times.
And yes sometimes our attempts to have real encounters with one another leads to conflict but honestly that can be so good for us.
Conflict – healthly healthy conflict – where everyone is taking accountability means we are engaging with each other in real ways. And when we put in the work often both parties leave those encounters having grown.
If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to sign up for our Healthy Relations Committee’s Health Conflict Skills class this Fall. In fact, even if you do believe me, you should sign up.
Here we are encouraged to be with one another, authentically – be with one another in the silent prayer but also when scary things are happening.
Our theology is the backbone of this. When we see the divine spark in everyone, when we recognize our interconnectedness, and when we believe in the power of many paths through pluralism we can have those real encounters with one another.
And certainly, that’s what I was having that day. A real encounter with my friends and absolute strangers…. Joining together in our fear, hope, frustration, faith and working together to hold our sacred space.
A care bear stare after all is just pluralism at its best.
Our theology. Our values also invites us to enjoy wonder and freedom
Every Sunday we say that we are dedicated to free and responsible search for truth, meaning, and beauty.
When I sat down to do that silent prayer, I sat down with my whole self. Someone who was hot, not sure what was happening, and feeling the intense weight of the moment.
But I also sat down believing, as the kids here say, “What we know about god is a piece of the truth.”
Because I believe in that free and responsible search and know that in the vastness that is all things, I don’t know much. And with that uncertainty, with that freedom, I was able to close my eyes and let my heart speak.
And then something happened.
I don’t know what it was…. and honestly I don’t care
Was it a capital G god? Maybe.
Was it source?
Was it spirit?
Was it Love?
Was it something that was created by all those that prayed that day –
Was it the Unitarians, Universalists, the christians of all flavors, the
Nahauti traditional dancers who came and left their prayers hanging in that air” Did they make the possible?…
I don’t know.
but I do know what I felt was beautiful and made me feel love powerfully
In our tradition we don’t have to know. We don’t have to have the answers.
Questions are good. The mystery is beautiful and we are invited to bask in it
We can touch the divine in a million different ways without having to name or label them.
Finally, our faith is about life. Our faith is about honoring and working to protect life. It is about coming alive.
What could be more antithetical to the death cult that is being so disparity forced on us than a faith that is about life?
Our long tradition of seeing the divine spark in one another is deeply connected to our long tradition of seeing the pain and harm being caused and feeling the call to do our part to address that pain and harm.
Like the religious ancestors that have worked for a better world That fought for people who are being marginalized That created paths for us So they we could answer a deep pull of solidarity
Our social justice work comes from our faith and theology Because our faith and theology is the pursuit of life!
Of coming alive by leaning into one another and our interconnectedness.
By resting in the mystery.
Are we perfect at that? – no!
But we try
And we have strong foundation in our faith
And that is needed right now. We live in a culture of death and destruction
We can see it in environmental protections being rolled back even as the climate crisis harms more and more people.
We see it in the litany of legislation, executive orders and rulings that target anyone that doesn’t confine to a particular set of characteristics. Especially the cruel dehumanization of trans people and immigrants.
We see it in the way that over and over again guns are prioritized over the sacredness of human life
And we see it as we learned that the children of Gaza are being deliberately targeted and shot by Israeli soldiers
We can see in in the way that the UN has finally started calling what is happening in Palestine a genocide….. and still there is so much silence. Too much silence
We live in culture of death
And because of that we need to harness our life giving theology to breath live into ourself
Into our community
And into the lives of all of those that are being targeted
Ours is a religion of rainbow pluralism And Authentic connections
Ours is a religion where we can come alive.
Extinguishing the Chalice
We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.
Benediction
As we leave this sacred time of being together, breathe life where you can. Be blessed. Be a blessing. And please know you are always loved.
Go in peace.
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